New Project, New Forum
#1
12-14-2019, 04:13 PM
New Project, New Forum
Today, I brought my 2003 Saturn Ion home.
There's a bit of history to this particular Ion. It's a four-door sedan, base model, with a five speed manual. My brother bought it, used, back in 2005 or so. Got it cheap, as someone had hit a post/pole with it, and the front bumper was bent. He drove it until 2012, and during that time the only thing it ever needed was a wheel bearing. He went to buy a new truck, and between the two of us, we determined that if he traded in my crappy old 1995 F150 instead of that Saturn, he would get more in trade in. So he traded in the old truck, and gave me the Saturn, which at the time was the nicest and newest vehicle my wife and I had ever owned. We drove it for about a year, when our fortunes changed quite a bit, and I was able to buy her a better car - and I could stop driving my 18mpg truck and drive the now ~180,000 mile Saturn. Instead, there was a communications ****-up somewhere, and wife gave the car to my mother in law.
My mother in law should not be in possession of any mechanical device more complex than a door hinge, much less a car. She barely drove it. But the vagrant unemployed people that lived with her DID drive it - and reduced a rock-solid running car to non-operating condition in about 7,000 miles. It sat in her driveway for about five years.
Now I have it back. She never bothered to change the title over, which is terrifying. The drug-addled bastions of humanity somewhere along the line broke the headlight mount, and the radiator fan. There is a radiator fan from something else, and it's hanging from the air conditioner lines by shoestrings. The car doesn't start, of course, as it's not getting fuel. The gas gauge shows 1/4 full, but I don't hear any fuel sloshing in the tank, and worse, I don't hear the fuel pump running. I put a new fuel pump relay in it, and still no fuel getting to the engine. I imagine any fuel in the tank is going to be bad by now.
It looks like I'll have to drop the tank to replace the fuel pump, and that will give me a chance to get the old fuel out. I'll probably go ahead and replace the spark plugs, change the oil, and put new tires on it. After that? I'm not sure.
There's a bit of history to this particular Ion. It's a four-door sedan, base model, with a five speed manual. My brother bought it, used, back in 2005 or so. Got it cheap, as someone had hit a post/pole with it, and the front bumper was bent. He drove it until 2012, and during that time the only thing it ever needed was a wheel bearing. He went to buy a new truck, and between the two of us, we determined that if he traded in my crappy old 1995 F150 instead of that Saturn, he would get more in trade in. So he traded in the old truck, and gave me the Saturn, which at the time was the nicest and newest vehicle my wife and I had ever owned. We drove it for about a year, when our fortunes changed quite a bit, and I was able to buy her a better car - and I could stop driving my 18mpg truck and drive the now ~180,000 mile Saturn. Instead, there was a communications ****-up somewhere, and wife gave the car to my mother in law.
My mother in law should not be in possession of any mechanical device more complex than a door hinge, much less a car. She barely drove it. But the vagrant unemployed people that lived with her DID drive it - and reduced a rock-solid running car to non-operating condition in about 7,000 miles. It sat in her driveway for about five years.
Now I have it back. She never bothered to change the title over, which is terrifying. The drug-addled bastions of humanity somewhere along the line broke the headlight mount, and the radiator fan. There is a radiator fan from something else, and it's hanging from the air conditioner lines by shoestrings. The car doesn't start, of course, as it's not getting fuel. The gas gauge shows 1/4 full, but I don't hear any fuel sloshing in the tank, and worse, I don't hear the fuel pump running. I put a new fuel pump relay in it, and still no fuel getting to the engine. I imagine any fuel in the tank is going to be bad by now.
It looks like I'll have to drop the tank to replace the fuel pump, and that will give me a chance to get the old fuel out. I'll probably go ahead and replace the spark plugs, change the oil, and put new tires on it. After that? I'm not sure.
#3
12-15-2019, 06:30 AM
Welcome to the forum. It sounds to me like you should just sell the thing for scrap. You'll likely put more money into trying to get it running than it's worth. Just my honest opinion.
#4
12-15-2019, 12:09 PM
Running an S car engine for 7 k with zero assumed oil changes plus whatever mileage was on the oil before she gave the car away, let's say 3K worst case, makes 10K.
ruling out to use of synthetic oil, that's 10K on Dino oil on a180000 mile engine. Worst case. And I am willing to bet you something meaningless set there is no oil touching the dipstick when you check it or when you first received it back. When you drain the oil, measure how much actually came out subtract it from 4, the number of quarts the engine should have in it, then cringe. And the under hood fan probably failed in the dead of Summer. Since you did not come on, the car overheated with the air conditioning on and that's never good.
Welcome indeed. But I think rube is of the right mindset unless the vehicle means something very special to you
Yes this is all worst case, but a simple lack of oil changes takes its toll on that engine in particular all engines in general. The damage is cumulative. Maybe they put diesel in it
ruling out to use of synthetic oil, that's 10K on Dino oil on a180000 mile engine. Worst case. And I am willing to bet you something meaningless set there is no oil touching the dipstick when you check it or when you first received it back. When you drain the oil, measure how much actually came out subtract it from 4, the number of quarts the engine should have in it, then cringe. And the under hood fan probably failed in the dead of Summer. Since you did not come on, the car overheated with the air conditioning on and that's never good.
Welcome indeed. But I think rube is of the right mindset unless the vehicle means something very special to you
Yes this is all worst case, but a simple lack of oil changes takes its toll on that engine in particular all engines in general. The damage is cumulative. Maybe they put diesel in it
#5
12-22-2019, 02:19 PM
Some of you guys are downers, aren't you.
When the car still ran, I made sure the oil was changed. I didn't change it while it was sitting still, of course. When picking up the car, it had the correct amount of oil in it. I worked on the car yesterday, and once I drained the old gas out of the tank, and put a new fuel pump in, (old pump was definitely dead, 12v wouldn't make it run) added a new fuel filter and a couple gallons of fresh gas, the car started but ran pretty rough. A little investigation showed me that I wasn't firing on 1 and 4, so I got the test light out and checked to see if it was the module or the coils. It was the module. That replaced, the car runs fine and can be driven. An oil change is easy, I'll change the transmission oil while I'm at it.
Your honest opinion was objectively wrong. Car runs fine after about four hours and $200. The plan was to give the car to my son, which would be worth more to me than scrap value.
Running an S car engine for 7 k with zero assumed oil changes plus whatever mileage was on the oil before she gave the car away, let's say 3K worst case, makes 10K.
ruling out to use of synthetic oil, that's 10K on Dino oil on a180000 mile engine. Worst case. And I am willing to bet you something meaningless set there is no oil touching the dipstick when you check it or when you first received it back. When you drain the oil, measure how much actually came out subtract it from 4, the number of quarts the engine should have in it, then cringe. And the under hood fan probably failed in the dead of Summer. Since you did not come on, the car overheated with the air conditioning on and that's never good.
Welcome indeed. But I think rube is of the right mindset unless the vehicle means something very special to you
Yes this is all worst case, but a simple lack of oil changes takes its toll on that engine in particular all engines in general. The damage is cumulative. Maybe they put diesel in it
ruling out to use of synthetic oil, that's 10K on Dino oil on a180000 mile engine. Worst case. And I am willing to bet you something meaningless set there is no oil touching the dipstick when you check it or when you first received it back. When you drain the oil, measure how much actually came out subtract it from 4, the number of quarts the engine should have in it, then cringe. And the under hood fan probably failed in the dead of Summer. Since you did not come on, the car overheated with the air conditioning on and that's never good.
Welcome indeed. But I think rube is of the right mindset unless the vehicle means something very special to you
Yes this is all worst case, but a simple lack of oil changes takes its toll on that engine in particular all engines in general. The damage is cumulative. Maybe they put diesel in it
Your honest opinion was objectively wrong. Car runs fine after about four hours and $200. The plan was to give the car to my son, which would be worth more to me than scrap value.
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