Hello,



I'm looking into purchasing a 1996 Saturn SL1. I've been doing a lot of
research on this vehicle, and amongst other, three very common (and
major) problems for this year model - cracked head gaskets, oil burning
and reduced fuel economy - damper my excitement.



The owner that I'm looking to buy the car from claims that it is highly
reliable and great (cheap, easy) to maintain. He has all the service
records, including the one for the head gasket replacement, which he admitted was a very common issue.



On this forum and on various other websites, there have been many
complaints about oil burning. I've never really looked into purchasing
an American vehicle before, but now that my budget is very tight, the
Saturn SL1's fuel economy and <i nd="2">apparent[/i] reliability have me captivated.



Do you reckon that the 'oil burning' problems that a lot of SL1 drivers
claim to experience is directly related to the head gasket design issue
(and thus just oil leakage), or is this an altogether unrelated, common
problem in S-series engines? Also (since I've had about enough research
for one day ;), what are plausible causes of reduced fuel economy I've been reading so much about?



Thank you very much for your input.</span>

All S cars burn oil...eventually. Has to do mostly with seized oil control rings on the pistons and worn valve guide seals. Keep the oil up and be religious on your oil change intervals and all will be well.

A common cause of increased gas usage on the S cars is due to failure of the Engine Coolant Temp Sensor (ECTS). When it fails (and they all do/did on the earlier S cars) the PCM thinks the coolant temp is -40 and keeps the air/fuel mix way too rich. People go through gas at an accelerated rate and don't know why......

These cars are quite dependable if you tend to the regular maintenance.

Hope this helps.

Derf

Thanks, that helps a lot.

Does ECTS failure set off a check engine light?

It is designed to, but in practice I hardly ever see an SES for ECTS unless the output is unstable (wiring corroded by leaking coolant).

Otherwise, it is just something you "learn" about S cars....


Derf

Nice info about the ECTS derf!![img]smileys/smiley10.gif[/img]

I'm not going to say Saturn S-Cars never burn oil, fact is all cars can and do burn oil for one reason or another. I've had three Saturns with over 200,000 miles and not a drop of oil was needed between changes. I've had two others with over 150,000 miles and no oil burning. My cars were never over heated, always had MOBIL 1 oil, had both air and oil filter changes at 6k or sooner. I bought the cars new so I know how they were cared for.

where can we buy a new ECTS the cheapest??? i think mine has gone bad..my engine runs normal temp alittle over halfway mark on a 96 SL1

Your dealer is the BEST place to buy the ECTS and a new connector for it.