A friend of mine gave me a Saturn SL2 a few years ago. She was moving across the country and didn't feel like dragging it with her. For the most part it's been pretty reliable. It had a weird flooding issue that stranded me a couple of times, and I eventually had to replace the exhaust. But, free car, I can't complain too much.
Well, I recently started hearing an odd clunking noise from the rear of the car. I figured it might be the exhaust, maybe a hanger broke loose. When I got under the car to check things out, this is what I found:
It appears that my Saturn is being swallowed by a black hole. I swear I can see stars in there. Unfortunately, since it's the area where the trailing arm connects to the frame, nobody wants to even attempt a repair due to liability reasons.
On the bright side, if I ever find a car I can afford, I'll eventually have a Saturn parts car for sale.
They all do that, usually the other end snaps clean off though, so you actually got lucky.
EDIT: Oh wait, yeah, there should be a lot of steel where that bolts in. Scrapyard time.
I figured as much. It's a shame too, because it still runs like a champ.
You can find plenty of cheap s series cars on CL. The mechanicals are the same across all years, find a good body with a bad motor and reshell.
In reply to AClockworkGarage:
I don't know, unless I can find a decent SC2, I kinda want to get away from Saturn. I'd like to find something that's a little better quality, and a bit more fun to drive.
Of course, in my area the selection is pretty limited, so I'm probably going to have to expand to the Va Beach/Richmond area to find anything.
not that it matters much now, but the weird flooding issue is a $10 coolant temp sensor, 99% of the time.
In reply to belteshazzar:
Actually ended up replacing the temp sensor a couple years ago, and I think it happened one more time. It's been fine since then.
stuntdouble wrote:
Of course, in my area the selection is pretty limited, so I'm probably going to have to expand to the Va Beach/Richmond area to find anything.
Where are you? Where did the car come from? Was it parked in a salt silo every night? Or maybe the ocean? I can't picture any Saturn even remotely close to VA beach or Richmond rusting even remotely close to that bad. Or at all really.
In reply to ProDarwin:
I think it was in Wisconsin for most of its life, and then it spent the rest of its time on the Eastern Shore of Va. We're surrounded on 3 sides by salt water, so vehicles around here have it a bit rough. They use some sort of weird salt/sand mix on the roads in the winter too. I also work right by a creek, and I'm sure it's driven through a couple puddles of salt water over the years. I don't know if all of that together would do it, but I'm sure it didn't help.
The more I've thought about it, the more I realize that I've probably been unfairly harsh on the little S-cars. Hell, it had over 100k when it was given to me, and I know those weren't easy miles.
