we decided to put things on hold b4 any auto surgery on the car....we put the car which is in great powertrain shape at only 70k! on craigslist to see if we get buyers this week and make a decision.....what do u think we can get for it? leather, fog lights, roof, 98 sl2???


also, lookin at a lease for only 150mo. at honda, with 3k down,...u guyz think would they take the saturn for the downpayment cuz we can afford 150mo. rite now.???

cant find a short bar to go over small 14m wrench rite now, but heard i can access the belt with wheel well off with rachet easy.....but i still find one if i decide to keep car and we get stuck and need to replace belt on the road y shld i take tire off to do it, its so frustratin this car....im p@#$@$d off rite now!!! I SHLD be it has only 70k! GM BANKRUPT RIP! thats y i want to lease JAP CRAP!

BUT thanks w/all ur diagnosis help, i agree w uncle that its a double whammy, alt. is gettin worse and the intermittent prob. was mostly starter.....as least this discussion proved that its always NOT THE CPS OR ECTS cuz i chanced the ects and wasted money and time for didlysquat!! so it pays to totally diagnosis the car and not go for wasteful sensor parts!!!!

anytoher suggestions would b appreciated . SATURN RIP! tks.

 

hey guys....forget the lease...hehehe they want to much for jap crap...GM till i die.

quik ques.....what is that white plastic sensor right next to cps , it has one wire come out of the end of it. the wire is on real tite and has no slack?
is that a transmssion sensor??? what is it do?

well listen to this my boyfriend put in alt. from autozne, he knows this intermittment start problem could be either both alt/starter- double whammy....like our previous diagnosis and post suggest!

we brot the alt. back to test since it was in, the contraption they use showd voltage of 12.7 w load, wipers,a/c, lights, radio.....omg! the rep. said the regulator was bad, we told him we jsut bot it from you guys!!! r u kiddin? two hours of labor for this.......

we went to a basic voltmeter friend who put it on under load, it was shooting 13.7 with load!!!!, then i put the wipers on it and voltmeter kept movin up and down like it couldnt read it, and it came up w 12.9!!!were so confused, he now thinks that theres some electrical problem with the car.

so we drive to anther place wthere he had a print out voltimeter heavey duty tool. the cars pretty hot rite now w all these tests....and starting fine to bad starts.he duz a huge test similar to autozone s machine and he swears by it....he comes up with load alt. test at 13.78 and printed it out, with outload 13!!!......the machine also checked good starter voltage/amp output...go figure!

after the tests....we let the cool down, and guess what it didnt start!! he ran the machine again on it...and couldnt come to a conclusion but put his ear as close to the manifold to listen to silonoid and had me start and restart. his conclusion is the starter is the problem and was emabarrased his exp. test machine couldnt find out! he also advised me to ride w/o daytime running lites, and pulled the drl relay, since we dont need and it could sap juice,even tho. he approved the alt.test....but the previous two tests said no.

he said he trusts autozone parts and they test everythin b4 sellin. i shouldv gotten a bench test done on it b4 i walked out with it!!! is he rite??

i still have the core and return it.
i never seen inconsistent voltimeter tests....is there a fuseable link/electric problem???? all the connectors are clean and tite!

i dont know who to believe guys, do we return the alt. since we have the core and just go with a really good rebuilder???

or just leave the old altnertor in previously and return alt.@atozone and just buy starter since NOW we know its the problem like UNCLEJN suggest and other people.?? i never had bad alt. problems b4, lites never dimmed just got inconsistent voltimeter testin b4, the number did not improve only once in 3 tests!!!, so mayb it was never bad to begin with????

ANY SUGGESTIONS WOULDBE APPRECIATED!!!

nd your help asap!

 

Depending on the management at Autozone, you may not be able to return the alternator you purchased once it has been installed. I used to work for them and their policy was no returns on electrical parts if they'd been installed. I never paid any attention to that because I didn't think it was worth losing a customer over something like a forty dollar part. Just take it back and tell them that is not the problem and that you want to use the refunded money to purchase a starter. That should let them know that you want to do business with them. Put your old alternator back on and get another starter and happy motoring.

 

As to the part, you are probably stuck with store polocy as to how they deal with electrical parts. That is the problem with DIY, if you make the wrong decision it is yours, not some one elses. Think of it this way, you can screw things up cheaper than some one else.
As to the starter.
The problem with an intermittent problem is if the problem is not there and you test for it, you won't find it.
Thus you have to work with probability.
Shade tree diagnostices have variabls, you got caught up in the variables. That happens, but the probability said the starter was bad.
Your decion was to buy and alternator.
You can ask to return it, but you are probably stuck with it.
As to a lease?
You own your Saturn and no matter what happens, fixing it is cheaper than a lease no matter what.
And if you can't afford to fix it or pay for a lease, '
you still own your Saturn, at the end of a lease, you own nothin.

 

thanks guys......the tech. said dont bring back old alternator, since its original, dont know for sure but prob., so he s thinkin is you get a new alternator with a starter and we mite need a new alternator so wy do the labor to remove it........the older starter did demostrate poor testing from 13.2 to 12.9....very inconsistent testin didnt help, but it was low numbers thats y i went with that first, plus no flickerin lites so y take the chance??

i should have just bench tested the alt. b4 leavin the store, they test in front of you!! right??

so now we have to put in the starter and hopefully it works....i still dont know y a starter would be it, b/c we drive it till it gets very hot and start only one time, so its wierd the heat from the engine must fry the motor. cuz if u think about it, u only use the starter once? isnt not like its spinin all the time.....

so wishme luck and well testit and keep it posted, hope this is it, what else can it be?

also DRL, is it ok to remove relay drl, dont want the lites on, its a waste! hope thats not a problem?

thanks!!