New Owner - Ruh Roh - Oil Idiot Light On
 

Hello, old timer here but first time with a Saturn (have owned Olds and Pontiac when I was a younger man). Just bought a 2009 Saturn Aura XR for my youngest daughter. 3.6L VVT V6 with just over 100k miles. Dark blue, gray leather interior, decently appointed. Just bought it Monday. Private sale. Have the CarFax, General maintenance (done at dealerships through 2017 with regular oil changes) but nothing for timing chain replacement. She test drove it, ran fine, no issues. She came to get it (I left it at my work cuz no tags), swapped it out for the tags on her old car, then she drove us around for a few minutes to fill it up and get some lunch. No issues. She said on her drive back to her place (about 10 miles away) the oil light would intermittently come on. Last night she went to work and the oil light didn't go off. I checked the oil and the cap before purchase (oil level on the dipstick looked fine and the cap didn't smell burnt but the dipstick was in very tightly).

I don't hear any rattling or any overheating to make me think its the timing chain, but I don't know. I told her to put a quart of oil in it before she drives it again, then tomorrow take it to a Jiffy Lube or wherever to get an oil and filter change. Her regular mechanic can't get to it for 2 weeks.

any other experiences or suggestions til I have a professional check it over? Thanks.

Idiot oil light will go on if the oil pressure is too low, meaning the oil is not being distributed throughout the engine at a high enough pressure to properly lubricate everything.

How long was the test drive?

It also may be that the oil pressure sending unit has gone bad.
The only way to check this is with a pressure gauge and or a known good sender for the aura. I suppose it could be a wiring problem too.

I ask how long the test drive was because it may have been a pre-existing condition that did not show up in the test drive. I always do both city and highway driving on a test drive to uncover any issues. No it's not possible to catch everything, but if you point blank asked the previous owner if they had told you about all known issues, and they lied by omitting this particular issue, then that's a whole nother animal.

Anything that pops up within 5 mi of driving it away is horribly suspicious to me. Then again it may just be a coincidence. To be safe, I would park it for 2 weeks and give it to your mechanic and not take it to jiffy lube because you want to get a sample of what comes out of the engine oil pan plug hole. If they played games with the oil to keep the light from coming on, that should be evident in the consistency of the oil that comes out.

Generally, in life, I trust pretty much no one or anything at face value. This has its virtues but also it's pitfalls. I can't lay here on my couch and say who did or didn't do what. I can only lay out hypotheses about why the light is coming on and why it may have come on so soon after you drove the car away. But if they did play any games with the oil, it will be impossible to prove if you completely drain that oil from the car

How you pursue the issue is up to you. If you decide to get the oil changed, most definitely make them give you a sample of what comes out during the oil change and probably get the filter in a bag to see if there is evidence of clogging.

Thanks, Derf. Great advice here. Unfortunately she needs to drive the car for work so can't let it sit for 2 weeks til the master mechanic gets a look at it. Will definitely tell her to get the oil filter and a sample of the oil.

The test drive was about 3 miles by my seat of the pants; same with when we took it for gas and then lunch (about 3 miles). I did not see any oil stains under where I parked it overnight at my work. My guess is its not leaking oil, rather burning or blowing by the pistons but thats for the master mechanic to diagnose. My plan is to visit the (local) garage where they said they had it serviced (and produced a few repair invoices). I'll ask the garage folks if they can reprint the service history done by them. This couple (sellers) only had the car for about 7500 miles (since like 92k miles and change). If one of the service statements has an oil change, leads me to think the engine may have been starved before they owned it.

I will post more when I know more. Thanks again.

Okay, back with the promised update.

Had the car checked out by local master mechanic. Items found/corrected:
1. Performed oil pressure test, replaced oil pressure sensor.
2. Pressure tested cooling system, no leaks found, topped off overflow tank.
3. Checked tranny fluid, topped off. Fluid looked clean and not burnt.
4. Oil and filter change, saved me an oil sample which I will send out to get checked.
5. Underhood brake lines corroded
6. Transmission cooling lines corroded
7. Power steering cooling lines corroded
8. Checked the 3 easy accessible spark plugs. Looked worn (as in this has never had a tune up).
9. Ctrl arm bushings cracking
10. Engine code P0442

Car will go back in a month to fix items 5-7. At next oil change I will have him do the 100k service. Ctrl arm bushings, will get to it. Emissions, a PITA with cars at this mileage/age. Inspection not subject to emissions in this state with a 15 y.o. vehicle. Hopefully its not the cat, but he can do a smoke test to determine where the evap leak is (maybe just get a new gas cap first).

I will keep posting as we do more things to the car. Solid vehicle, no frame rust/rot, just neglected for the last 40-50k miles (my impression, not mechanic's statement). Prior owner did replace the steering rack at about 94k miles and had all 4 brakes serviced at 99k miles.

Thanks

The new gas cap might clear that code, but you need to make sure that you clean the filler neck before you try the cap. I've had success clearing that code by cleaning the filler neck and lubricating the O-ring on the gas cap after cleaning it too. Good luck with it. With all of those lines being corroded, it sounds like that might have been a salt belt vehicle. I'd have the mechanic take a good look at all of the chassis too, it it were mine. Rust is a killer. And since the mechanic said it appears to be neglected, then I'm going to bet that the timing components have never been changed either.

Thanks, Rube. Getting an OEM gas cap is small potatoes; already scoped them out. This is a NH car, and he did check out the frame/chassis, that's why the mechanic concluded that it's a solid vehicle.
I can comfortably guarantee that the timing chain has not been changed.

Shouldn't need to change the timing chain. If it breaks it breaks.

If there are signs elsewhere that oil changes were not performed in a timely manner or at all, then up becomes more dicey. If you can hear it rattling, most definitely do it, but otherwise it's likely okay.

Rust belt cars are interesting when it comes to Saturns.

I have / had two s-series coupes that both lived and drove in identical rust belt states on identical days but different routes. The 97 SC2 frame was rusted to hell. The 95 SC2 I still have because the frame is remarkably not rusted to hell. Maybe they changed something between generations of that vehicle, but it basically makes no sense. Both had equal-ish highway versus city etc etc etc. I suppose that would make the biggest difference. Driving on roads that are plowed versus ones that are not. I could go on with this indefinitely but I have things to do.