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i have a 94 sl1 and the original motor in it had 215,000 miles on it and there was nothing wrong with the timeing chain when i changed the motor. i agree that you should not worry to much about it unless it is slaping or making any other noises.
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I believe the oil pump backing plate was redesigned in 1998 or 1999. So anything older than that is prone to poor lubrication of the timing components. You may be ok with regular oil changes if you bought the car new. But if its a used car with over 100,000 miles, I wouldnt trust it.

Once you hear ticking or knocking it may be too late. By the time it gets to that point the upper, left and right guides are pretty worn and the tensioner it at the end of it limit.

Its an 02, bought it new and I have changed the oil every 5500 to 11000
miles depending
on whether I use synthetic or regular oil.Edited by: keith

Mine's a 95, bought about 3 weeks ago and know almost no history on it! :) So i think i'll take Low Saturn's advice and replace the chain just as a preventative measure.

5500 to 11000 miles?

Shoot me an email when you need a new engine. I can get them pretty cheap.

Change your oil every 3000 to 5000 miles.

Engine runs just as good now as it did when new, still get 38mpg. Don't
think I'll need an engine anytime soon. I go by the oil life monitor and I
never change oil at 3000 in any car. 5000 would be the absolute earliest,
7500 more often.

Cool, do what you want, its your car and your money. But anyone who has owned a Saturn S-Series for any length of time knows to change the oil religously at 3-5k intervals and to ignore the oil life monitor. 5-7k might be ok on other cars, but not these. I give your engine three to five more years of life depending on how many miles you drive.

I've been working on these cars for 15 years, owned 20 S-Series, rebuilt several engines/transmissions (including a turbocharged S-Series), done several SOHC to DOHC swaps, automatic to manual transmission swaps, and seen what thousands of people have gone through over the years. The #1 killer of these cars is poor maintenence due to not changing the oil at 3-5k intervals.

I mean really? Whats an extra $15 to $20 and fifteen minutes of time every couple months to make sure your engine lasts?
Edited by: Low Saturn

Three to Five more years, that's great. I'm going to retire in three years
and
after that I'll have no more use for the Saturn.

The car was one of those Silver Blue Specials they advertised in 02,
remember "$9995 including air". Turns out it also included shipping so
the whole thing was under $11,000 off the lot. I've kept pretty good
track of expenses with it and so far my TOC (total owner cost) is around
$21,000. That works out to about $.14/mile. Thats not even considering
residual value.

I bought it because I have a 100 mile daily commute and I wanted to
preserve my truck for retirement and of course save gas money. I do
believe that the car will easily go the additional 80,000 miles and three
years that I need it for, even at my current maintenance schedule. With
3000 mile oil change intervals, the engine might well been good for over
300k, maybe even more, but I won't need it that long.

Besides, around here, its the jerks that run into you that send your car to
the junkyard, not old age. I've been lucky in this respect, its only been hit
once and that was a very light hit in the rear, only required a bumper
cover.Edited by: keith

Sounds like you've had a lot of luck with your Saturn! :) You should send your story into Saturn and get on a commercial. With all that highway driving it may not require as many oil changes as those of us that "abuse" ours with all of the in town driving and stop and go traffic. But like I've said, I'm new to the whole world of Saturns but if I can get by with only $.14/mile spent I'll be an extremely happy camper:)

I have had very good luck with my Saturn, I do keep in tough with the
salesman from time to time. I've known a few others that have also had
good luck with them and heard of a few that didn't, but I suspect as with
all cars that turn out to be lemons, its not always the car's fault.

I do take pretty good care of my cars, in spite of the less frequent oil
changes, but I do a lot of highway driving and I do keep an eye on the oil.
When it gets too dark, I change it, but I have found that the new oil life
monitors are pretty good, in fact a little conservative.

Most people think its the miles that take its toll on oil, to some extent,
that is true, but the biggest thing that contaminates and breaks down oil
is the hot shutdown. When you shut down your engine while hot, not
overheated but normal operating temperatures, the residual oil film really
takes a beating from absorbing all the residual engine heat. That is one
of the big things that the oil life monitor is looking at.

Most people shutdown their engines about 28 times a week. After three
months of this, the oil is ready to be changed, regardless of whether that
is 1000 miles or in my case 6000 miles. If you don't use the vehicle for a
daily driver, so you don't do the 28 "drive cycles" a week, then you can go
longer than 3 months. I only drive my truck on weekends, so I only do an
oil change about once a year. It's got 140,000 miles on it and has yet to
burn it's first drop of oil. I do use synthetic in it.