Im about to buy a 1998 saturn sl. Its a standard with 70,000 miles and new tires and they want 2,000.

What I like is the low mileage, manual transmission, mpg potentional, and the reliability it will provide me.

first thing i thought was it probley has some engine problem or it was neglicted due to the fact a woman is selling it. I checked the dipstick and noticed burnt oil marks which supported my hunch. I also seen the same under the oil cap on the baffle.

she started it for me and i thought i heard a slight knock at starting idle. then she was hesitant to let me take it for a test drive and told me she wanted to wait until her husband was around for the test drive.

well she called me and said her husband wouldnt be in town for a week and she would let me test drive it if i let her record my license number.

I drove it around for a few miles and first noticed the clutch was difinitly good. I then heard a slight vibration/rattle noise at high rpm right before it was time to shift. This alarmed me but i noticed it didnt do it every time and once or twice i noticed the shift light came on when it made the noise.

engine bay is clean and other than the rattle type noise i heard at high rpm it checks out to me.
what do you all think?

 

See if she'll let you run it down to the local AutoZone, and get them to look for any stored codes in the computer

 

Thats usually a pretty good combo and can produce up to 42 mpg. I've got one like that with 229k on it ,still running great, including the original clutch. That upper rpm engine rattle may cause some concern......is it a rattle or a knock...could be a converter rattle or a bearing knock.You might want to put it on a lift. By the way where is the" Riveria of America"?

 

The Riveria of America is a named placed on the 86 miles of white sand beaches along the Gulf of Mexico between Bay St Louis Mississippi, and Pascagoula, Mississippi. Y'all come on down and enjoy .....

 

Well, now I know. I'm also trying to figure out what time zone this forum is in.....somewhere in Europe... India maybe?

 

Nevermind, since nobody wants to help me, I found it myself. We are in Azores/Cape Verde time zone..???..duh...is that who is going to build the" New" Saturn, or is that where Saturn is going to die? Is anybody else in that time zone?

 

Hmmm, if you're gonna get bent that no one answered your question in 11 minutes, I'm not sure you're a good candidate for these kinds of forums.....

This forum is accessible from every time zone -- it's on the internet.....(???)...If you look at the bottom of the web page , it says

So in that sense, I guess it makes the TIMES on the posts in the forum represent the Eastern US time zone. Your bio lists your location as the US, so I'm not sure why this would be such a mystery.

indicates that you are on GMT time and nowhere near the US.

So which is it?

 

Shucks - it took me 14 minutes to respond to his question about 'Riveria of America' ... thought I was being pretty responsive --

 

Ocean Archer, you are correct...that was a timely response. I'm not bent, that opening statement was for effect (it effectively showed how stupid I am). I am on EDT, Maryland, in my own little world, assuming everyone should be in my time zone. Of course, being the bonehead that I am, I never read the small print at the bottom of the page.

 

Hoseppi --

No harm, no foul ... NOW, have you taken the car down for a OBD scan, and if so, what was the result ???