I just picked up a '96 SL for my daughter's first car...there's not much help around me for help with a Saturn, so I have a few questions:

- both from door hinge-stops are broken (seem to be frozen up), so the doors swing closed on their own and won't stay open...are these available somewhere?

- occasionally it goes through a spell of banging hard into reverse...is it a must that I add a new valvebody or is there a chance that a fluid/filter change (on my list anyway) might cure it?

- the thing seems a tad "loud" inside...I realize with the muffler all the way at the rear that there's probably no way to cure the interior noise levels, but anything I could do here or is this just the nature of the beast?

Thanks in advance!

 

Door checks .......... dealer or junk yard

Trans needs valve body, and change the fluid&filter.

Noise ...... not sure whats going on. Door seals, window seals, poorly installed windshield as in it's leaking air.

 

I've see alot of replacement windshield jobs that didn't get done right. Also remember it's an old car with how many miles on it and may need a few other things replaced. Rear mounted muffler does not mean noise in the cabin, but a leak in the exhaust system does.

 

Welcome to the Saturn forum.

x2 what they said.

You will like the car. Pretty easy to work on. Very dependable.

 

+3

and keep up with the oil changes

 

Next time you have the car up on a rack somewhere, run a careful check of the exhaust pipe -- might find a leaker there

 

A new gm motor mount is on it's way, I serviced the oil and trans, but now I'm getting an intermittent 0440 evap code that comes and goes...gonna try a cap and hope thats it.

The thing is wearing the front tires crazy, so I need to address that asap...wearing both horribly on the inside. I didn't see anything obvious when it was on the rack so I dunno whats going on there...

 

Just checked the mileage on my first tank of fuel...only 25mpg...i'm a bit disappointed to say the least, as my loaded crew cab 2500hd 4x4 consistently gets 17+ on the same route(s).

 

You really need to take a good look at your tie rod ends and ball joints. Sounds to me like the outer tie rod ends are shot and the ball joints may not be far behind.

 

So when you do a tune up ............ ONLY use Saturn spark plugs or the base NGK replacement plugs.