Saturn Woes
On Saturday September 8th Cathy and I were returning to San Diego from a family visit in Colorado. On Interstate 40 about twenty miles east of Holbrook Arizona, while traveling at about 75 miles per hour, our car just died. The engine quit with no warning and we had to pull off the side of the road. We called AAA who dispatched a tow truck, which fortunately took less than an hour to arrive. Unfortunately, the driver managed to lock our keys in the car, with the lights on and most of our stuff still inside. We were towed to a garage (Scotty and Son) in Holbrook, where they said they couldn't work on it until Monday because they were already closed for the day and didn't open on Sundays. The owner listened to me trying to start the engine and suggested it was the timing belt.
We reluctantly got a hotel room and prepared to wait until Monday. The next day was my birthday which I 'celebrated' by moping in the hotel room and watching movies. Trust me, there's nothing else to do in the grand metropolis of Holbrook AZ.
Monday morning Cathy called the garage while I started to look into other possibilities. Turns out that was a good thing because what the mechanics had failed to mention was that none of them work on Saturns anyway, and they would need to find a friend who did work on Saturns and see what his schedule was like. Plus they had no idea how long it might take to get any parts.
So, I called the nearest Uhaul (fortunately right in Holbrook) and said I wanted to rent their smallest truck and a car trailer. Also fortunately, they agreed to come pick me up, since it would have been a longish walk in 90+ degree heat (and very scary locals). Many hundreds of dollars later I drove the truck to the garage and got the car up on the trailer with the help of the mechanics. Cathy and I piled all of our stuff in the truck and hit the road. I tried very hard to get us home that day, but six hundred miles at considerably less than normal freeway speed was just too slow so we ended up getting one of the very last dog-friendly rooms in Yuma AZ. We got up early the next day and made it back to San Diego by 9 am. We dropped the car off directly at the Saturn dealer, unloaded our stuff at home, then dropped the truck off. Plenty of time for us both to go to work (oh, joy!), which was unpleasant in the extreme, but we had already missed one day more than we had planned on. Total cost so far, $1000, and that doesn't include any work at all on the Saturn.
Later that day Saturn called Cathy back. The timing chain had broken and because it had happened while we were moving one or more valves had gotten bent. Their solution: $7000 for a new engine! The only other solution is to put a used/refurbished engine in, but they said none were available. I thought the idea behind using a chain instead of a belt was that they didn't break!
After some searching (thanks Tanc!) it really looks to me like this is a known design flaw in certain Saturn engines. There's an oil valve or nozzle that fails to provide enough lubrication for the timing chain which can cause the chain to break. And if that happens at any time other than engine startup, presto biffo bammo, new engine time. Cathy tried calling Saturn headquarters, but they refused to help us in any way. An acquaintance who's a lemon law lawyer said we probably didn't have much of a case.
As a side note, Cathy had been taking the car into the Saturn dealer for regular maintenance. You would think they might at least of warned us that we should have checked for any timing chain related problems.
(All ratings are out of 10)
2002 Saturn LW200 Station Wagon. Less than 80,000 miles on it.
Comfort: 8
Cargo capacity: 7 (with roof racks)
Fuel efficiency: 5
Reliability: 2 (this was not our first problem)
Overall grade: 4
Saturn of El Cajon:
Courtesy: 9 (they did wish Cathy a good day as she had our car towed home)
Overall grade: 4
Saturn Corporate:
I guess someone will need to die because of this problem before anything is done about it. The National Highway and Traffic Safety board is apparently looking into it.
Tow truck/garage
Courtesy: 9 (they did drop us off at the hotel and spent a lot of time jimmying the car open)
Competence: 2 (they did lock the keys in the car and failed to inform us that none of them actually work on Saturns)
Overall grade: I hope never to use them again. I hope to never 'visit' Holbrook AZ again.
Bottom line: We're out $1000 plus the value of the station wagon (somewhere between $5000 and $7000). I strongly recommend that none of my friends buy any Saturn made after 1998.
We reluctantly got a hotel room and prepared to wait until Monday. The next day was my birthday which I 'celebrated' by moping in the hotel room and watching movies. Trust me, there's nothing else to do in the grand metropolis of Holbrook AZ.
Monday morning Cathy called the garage while I started to look into other possibilities. Turns out that was a good thing because what the mechanics had failed to mention was that none of them work on Saturns anyway, and they would need to find a friend who did work on Saturns and see what his schedule was like. Plus they had no idea how long it might take to get any parts.
So, I called the nearest Uhaul (fortunately right in Holbrook) and said I wanted to rent their smallest truck and a car trailer. Also fortunately, they agreed to come pick me up, since it would have been a longish walk in 90+ degree heat (and very scary locals). Many hundreds of dollars later I drove the truck to the garage and got the car up on the trailer with the help of the mechanics. Cathy and I piled all of our stuff in the truck and hit the road. I tried very hard to get us home that day, but six hundred miles at considerably less than normal freeway speed was just too slow so we ended up getting one of the very last dog-friendly rooms in Yuma AZ. We got up early the next day and made it back to San Diego by 9 am. We dropped the car off directly at the Saturn dealer, unloaded our stuff at home, then dropped the truck off. Plenty of time for us both to go to work (oh, joy!), which was unpleasant in the extreme, but we had already missed one day more than we had planned on. Total cost so far, $1000, and that doesn't include any work at all on the Saturn.
Later that day Saturn called Cathy back. The timing chain had broken and because it had happened while we were moving one or more valves had gotten bent. Their solution: $7000 for a new engine! The only other solution is to put a used/refurbished engine in, but they said none were available. I thought the idea behind using a chain instead of a belt was that they didn't break!
After some searching (thanks Tanc!) it really looks to me like this is a known design flaw in certain Saturn engines. There's an oil valve or nozzle that fails to provide enough lubrication for the timing chain which can cause the chain to break. And if that happens at any time other than engine startup, presto biffo bammo, new engine time. Cathy tried calling Saturn headquarters, but they refused to help us in any way. An acquaintance who's a lemon law lawyer said we probably didn't have much of a case.
As a side note, Cathy had been taking the car into the Saturn dealer for regular maintenance. You would think they might at least of warned us that we should have checked for any timing chain related problems.
(All ratings are out of 10)
2002 Saturn LW200 Station Wagon. Less than 80,000 miles on it.
Comfort: 8
Cargo capacity: 7 (with roof racks)
Fuel efficiency: 5
Reliability: 2 (this was not our first problem)
Overall grade: 4
Saturn of El Cajon:
Courtesy: 9 (they did wish Cathy a good day as she had our car towed home)
Overall grade: 4
Saturn Corporate:
I guess someone will need to die because of this problem before anything is done about it. The National Highway and Traffic Safety board is apparently looking into it.
Tow truck/garage
Courtesy: 9 (they did drop us off at the hotel and spent a lot of time jimmying the car open)
Competence: 2 (they did lock the keys in the car and failed to inform us that none of them actually work on Saturns)
Overall grade: I hope never to use them again. I hope to never 'visit' Holbrook AZ again.
Bottom line: We're out $1000 plus the value of the station wagon (somewhere between $5000 and $7000). I strongly recommend that none of my friends buy any Saturn made after 1998.