I own a 2002 Saturn SL2 sedan with the 1.9L DOHC engine with automatic transmission. Ever since I bought the car back in August it has leaked oil. First thing we had to replace was the gasket around the oil drain plug. It continued to leak down to the ground if it sat overnight. We then replaced the valve cover gasket due to that leaking decently in the back. It is still leaking oil onto the ground when sitting. We then added a clamp to the PCV valve tube because we noticed oil at the end of that tube as well. STILL oil is making its way to the ground. There are drips coming off of the oil pan. I am now assuming it is the oil pan that is leaking. Does anyone know how much work this will be to re-seal the oil pan? We have access to a lift and tools as well. If anyone has any other suggestions as to what could be leaking, or what is known to leak on these cars they would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

 

None of my three Saurns leak oil, so I'm at a loss as to where to search for your problem. Take the car to the local carwash, and have them spray/degrease the underside of the engine, then stick it up on a hoist, and start looking ....

 

Mine has started doing that and it appears that the rear main seal of the engine is letting go. While I don't really like the the thought of it there is little to be done short of major engine diss-assembly and that is not on my schedual of things to do. I will worry about it when the seats come back from the upholsterer and I get it re-painted. In the mean time oil is cheap and I have a pressure washer.

 

Have you tried just tightening the bolts down?(dont go under there and tighten as tight as you can tho).Clean it as good as you can and try and recreate the pproblem,smoke and check it,If its leaking like that it should be apparent soon after the cleaning,

 

Look for the oil pressure sending unit. When one of these cracks, people have been known to spend a lot of money on gaskets and never notice the sending unit. Also check the oil filter gasket before you go too far, someone might have double gasketed it by accident.

 

yup!

As bazaar as it is, I have seen both of those take place and done the oil filter gasket thing myself.

 

On another topic about my car, does anyone know what temperature the cooling fan should turn on?? My temp gauge will go up to halfway or a bit over without the fan kicking on. I have to turn my AC on in order to get my fan to kick on. Does this sound like a problem?

 

Your fan is controlled by the engine management computer. It reads the value of the sensor on the cylinder head of your engine. The one on the end on the drivers side.

That sensor tells the computer what the engine temperature is and the computer uses that to change how it programs fuel going to the engine, it is also used to display on the heat gauge so you can read a needle pointing at something.
AND
based on the reading, when to turn on the fan!
Being able to turn on the fan using the AC so the fan and it's components used to turn on indicate there is nothing wrong with them.
My experience seems to point at the fan probably turns on some where in the upper 2/3 of your meter display.
I am not looking at my Saturn service information as I write I don't have the temperature, and if I did it would have to be mailed out.

But due to the complexity of the modern car there is at time the need to deal with heat and know it's temperature. So I bought from Harbor freight a non contact temperature sensor that seems rather technical yet easy to use and as it has no invasive way to measure temperature you can quickly point at a suspected problem area and get an almost instantaneous heat reading and is perfect for cases like this.
I don't think you are waiting long enough based on whatg I read. Try again and wait longer.

 

getting past the 3/4 tick on my gauge has been normal since 95....no worries, The gauge is not linear anyway