6th Jul 2005, 23:40
My son just bought a used 97 Saturn SL1 about 7 months ago. His check engine light also had a habit of coming on for no reason, the mechanic that he took it to thought that the O2 sensor was the cause of the problem. He replaced it and about a week later the light started coming on and going off for absolutely no reason again. Now all of a sudden the oil in his car has started disapearing into thin air. His car has now started to have a problem with overheating and we found brown oily sludge in the coolant overflow reservoir. I suspect that he also has either a blown head gasket or a cracked block now. I took the hoses lose and flushed out the coolant system, refilled it and also refilled the oil. I have also written to Saturn, we'll see how that turns out. I am totally dissatisfied with this car, wish he had never purchased it and will never own another one.
29th Nov 2004, 23:17
I have a Saturn Ion 2002. It was less than a year old when I had to take it in and have a cylinder head replaced. 6 months later it is back in the shop to have the engine block replaced. According to the shop at Saturn, this was probably the problem to begin with. I was told that the engine block was too porous so the problems are continuing. I questioned just simply replacing the engine block and addressed being concerned that the problems would continue past my warranty period (which is up at 36000 miles; I am at 26000). I am so frustrated. I did not have these problems with my first saturn and I am fairly certain that I will not ever own one again.