definitely do not change to Syn!

They boy changed my '99 SL to syn at its 80k (first oil change after we bought it), and now I'm suddenly burning oil, it wasn't before the oil change. Its not alot, but still I'd advise not to.

Im not sure what else tho, I'm still learning about mine. I Love it! Its fun to drive, and its got a kick to it, unlike my Cavalier and Versa.

 

That can happen as the synth tends to get into places and past things (small gaps) that dino oil does not. Often results in a few leaky seals too.

However, I did find that once oil burning was in full force for my SC2 with about 140K on it, it actually burned less synth then dyno -- about half as much.

 

Hmm.. Mines opposite, it burned half the syn over 3k miles. And I switch back to conventional, but I'm using 10w-40, and It may be because its thicker, but it hasn't even burned a quart yet, and I'm already 1500 into the oil. *shrugs*

But yes, I think the syn got into it and loosened a seal or something. My honda motor switched fine at 152k, I guess GM's motor can't hold up to it as well.

 

Not comparing apples to apples

10W-40 in a Saturn S car engine? Eeek. Too thick-- you'll want to get that out of there.

 

Thanks again everyone.

I've had the car about 3 weeks now. It was running great in the beginning, then after about two weeks it would give me trouble starting. I hadn't replaced the ECTS yet so I did some searches and found that this is a symptom.

Got one for 10 bucks and popped it in yesterday. No more starting problems and the dash temp gauge (which had been just under the first white line when fully warm before this) was now over the first line when warm.

Car is running great, thanks for the heads-up on this.

BTW- I don't know if anyone else has run into this, but I got a new tensioner and the roller was much larger than the previous one. Consequently the stock length belt didn't work. We couldn't figure out what size belt to use with it, so I returned the tensioner and just replaced the roller with a new one. The replacement roller is the same size as stock but the p/n that both places had (Autozone and Advance Auto) for the tensioner had a much larger roller. I thought that was weird.

 

i did not intend to own a saturn but a female friend wanted to get rid of it because of small problems but i have fixed all of the problems exept for the dlc connector. total cost so farincluding buying the car.$375.00 even the air conditioning works!

 

IF the tensioner roller is the wrong size, it's the wrong part
(if it don't fit, do not remit)

 

I don't get why both auto parts places came up with the same replacement P/N though. I thought the first one was wrong but when I went to the second place and came up with the identical cross-reference I didn't get it. The rest of the tensioner was right too, just not the roller.

Anyway, I just got the new roller (old one was badly dished, although the bearing felt smooth). And all is good.

 

Humpf -- Musta been either a bad day at the tensioner factory, or a bad day at the technical spec office

 

Found that 3/4's of the parts coming from AdvanceCheckerZone do not fit the S-Car as advertised. NAPA or Dealer.