After having an SL2 for a few months I haven't found it to be completely soulless. I think it's actually kinda fun to drive. Maybe that's the difference between the twin cam and single cam engine. Although, I too would prefer a wagon.
After having an SL2 for a few months I haven't found it to be completely soulless. I think it's actually kinda fun to drive. Maybe that's the difference between the twin cam and single cam engine. Although, I too would prefer a wagon.
I'll bet the twin cam in your sedan keeps things interesting.
The El'Cheapo mobile needs a single cam for slightly better gas mileage. Unfortunately combining fuel sipping SOHC with a sedan is just too depressing
The_Jed wrote: I do the Cuban restoration thing with my Crown Vic. I snagged an idler arm, center tie rod and outer tie rods, all still connected as one assembly from an '02 Vic with 60,000 miles on it from the local pick and pull. I also grabbed the watts link and rear shocks and springs from a coil-converted, low mile Town car. I love hitting the 'yard on 1/2 price Wednesdays.
Doing a Cuban restoration is totally GRM! So many gooder parts can be had during a Saturday morning shopping spree.
Interestingly enough, Crown Vics in my local yard tend to picked down to the bone. I could totally get into a Vic if they came as a wagon with a five speed.
Whelp, I don't hate the blue car as much as I did...That is about the nicest thing I can say about it. Other than the love/hate thing the blue car has been outstanding transportation. I don't name my cars or my pets... I'm weird like that. Anyway, The blue car can sometimes be known as Blue Bell. The only reason the blue car got a name is because the Station Wagon sort of got a name.... Uncle Buck. Yep, the wagon earned that name...
So this morning was bright, sunny and warm... time to give Blue Bell and Uncle Buck some camera time.
Let's take a look....
Considering the blue car has not been washed since October, its pretty clean.... but a car wash is in order.
The rear bumper has been treated with Doc Brown's ultimate rust protection. I guarantee this area will never, ever rust. But will it hold up at the car wash????... let's give it a try!
After fighting the hordes of saturday morning car wash crowds, I finialy get slotted in to the machine. Now I payed for the ultimate wash, so the car should be spotless by the time it hits the end of the tunnel.
End of the tunnel....
Look'n spiffy...but how did the Doc Brown rust protection hold up?
E36 M3s still stuck to the side of the car.... I'm half tempted to ask the car wash folks for a refund
Now Uncle Buck ain't getting washed, Nope, I'm afraid there would be nothing left when the car comes out the other side.
Still a garbage scow, however on its most recent trip to the bottomless dumpster, the rear seat and other loose interior items got chucked. Less parts makes a better car.
The cargo bay of a Saturn wagon is what makes a Saturn wagon the ultimate car.
hmmm.... looks like the rust is getting worse... I think I'll give it a poke....
Alrighty, not much holding the car together....and it looks like an animal has made a home............ Meh....
The way I look at it you could be driving a Toyota or Honda soul sucking car for 5 times the cost you have into this one. I'd say you are getting the better end of the bargain there. I do think that a few mods that are very low tech and low buck would liven it up a bit on the soul sucking part.
In reply to brad131a4:
You're absolutely right, in all fairness the blue car was a pretty sweet deal. I have come to realize that if it were a wagon, it would have been well on its way to being a garbage scow. The irony is... if I liked it I would probably destroy it.
Meh, 10K miles on the blue car without a hint of problems. I guess I don't hate it....I guess. Anyway, at this point I have accepted the blue car into to fold.... or in other words... I have settled. I'm not proud of it but it gets the job done.
On the other hand, the wagon (uncle Buck) has hit bottom for the last time. the rust has advanced alarmingly and has eaten away the brake lines. I suppose they could be fixed but its time to let go.
I have been fascinated at the rate Uncle Buck is crumbling into iron oxide. This particular area has doubled in size since the last photo.
............................
Stay tuned!
I reckon it's time for a winter beater update...
The blue Saturn has survived a full year under my ownership. So far the car has been trouble free and CHEAP to own.
Almost 18,000 miles covered.... not to shabby.
Front brakes started making a funny noise yesterday. After a complete inspection, the prognosis was pads and rotors. $99.00 got the car rolling and stopping again.
Pads still had 1/16 of material...
Just for giggles, I replaced the spark plugs. With Saturns, plugs are a yearly maintenance item.
Checking the gap.
A quick look at the EGR valve confirms all is well under the hood.
Every year I'm able to find one of these caterpillars crawling on my garage floor. Judging from this little fella's coat, this winter will be about the same as last year. 
Stay tuned!
Last winter this car was colder than a bucket of penguin E36 M3. With the colder months fast approaching, I reckoned it was time to have a look under the hood.
Looks like the new thermostat I put in last fall has failed.
This time I decided to try something different. Instead of replacing just the thermostat, I went ahead and picked up a complete waterneck with pre-installed thermostat. This part was $23.00 with free shipping.
Apparently older Saturns are developing pits on the waterneck and replacement thermostats cannot seal correctly. By replacing the complete unit the seal is guaranteed to be good.... for a while.
The new part looks OK and fit just fine. Time will tell if this was the solution.....
Stay tuned.
Well, wouldn't 'ya know it, just when I'm fixin to get settled down for the winter, the front wheel bearing starts growling. From past experience, this sort of annoyance can be deferred for at least 10K miles, but at the rate I'm putting on miles it seemed like a good idea to get 'er done.
Lets look at some pictures...
Now the bad wheel bearing is actually on the blue car, but I went ahead and pulled the hub from the station wagon. The plan was to have the hub rebuilt and when time allowed, slot it into the blue car... that way the down time would be kept to a minimal.
All nice and shinny, I reckon its a good time to install it. This was $88.00 worth of parts and labor to get the hub up to snuff.
Saturn's are stupid simple to work on... it only took 20 min to strip the hub off the blue car. I had to take a moment and fix a cup of coffee before continuing the job.
New hub slid into place and all the screws were jammed back in place. Good as new!
Stay tuned!
SPRING CLEAN UP!
That's right, spring is here and its time to change the springs on the low buck Saturn.
Try to keep up as I tell my tale...
A box arrived yesterday.....
?????????????????????????
Currently the low buck Saturn handles like a tub of jello. These new struts may help... we'll see. A huge investment of $109.99 gets two loaded struts delivered to my door.... not to shabby.
Actually, these struts look OK. Time will tell if they perform as well as they look.
Fast foward 20 min and the new strut is installed. Saturn's are stupid easy to work on and parts is cheap! The oter side was equally easy to work on.
Saturn's is simple cars and some would argue that a blown out strut with a busted spring will make the car handle like E36 M3. Personally I think the new struts will help, but the handling issue is going to take a few more parts to correct.
For the record, the new struts were installed today with this many miles on the car.
A quick ride around the block indicates the car rides better.
Stay tuned, in the next episode these thingys will be installed....
Are you doing the inner LCA bushing as well? I'm interested in doing a non-poly bushing refresh up front. I hate buying the pre-assembled LCAs though because the bushings that come with them are almost universally crap. Even the Moog replacement bushings are better than what comes in the Moog arms.
This reminds me that I have H&R springs, struts, mounts, wheel spacers, rear hub spacers, 17 x 7.5" wheels & tires sitting waiting to go on my car. Total expenditure is <$200
In reply to ProDarwin:
The Moog thingy's pictured above are the LCA to sway bar bushings. The Moog part is split and is apparently mucho easier to install than an OE type part. I'm also going to install sway bar to sub frame bushings... just waiting on a few things before I jump back into the suspension.
My apologies for suggesting you stare directly into the sun....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDtXedUrSWs
In reply to Agent98:
Let's see if I can properly embed that video....
https://www.youtube.com/embed/HDtXedUrSWs
.... OK, so 12.99 is berkeleying fast for a Saturn... I LoL at the fact that it also burns a E36 M3 load of oil
Doc Brown wrote: In reply to ProDarwin: The Moog thingy's pictured above are the LCA to sway bar bushings. The Moog part is split and is apparently mucho easier to install than an OE type part. I'm also going to install sway bar to sub frame bushings... just waiting on a few things before I jump back into the suspension.
Yeah, those work well I understand. I'm concerned about LCA-Subframe bushings. All the replacements I see for sale seem to include the metal sleeve and I have no idea how one would install them.
In reply to ProDarwin:
right now I have zero clues on how they install, but I'll have that sorted out soon with pictures and more words
Ugh- I hate you Saturn guys. The ONE car I couldn't give a Hoot about, now I'm trolling C/L...
So- the lovely SL1 white/tan cloth 4 door AT AC, a "non-negotiable" price of $12600 back around 1995 ---so I bought a Subaru XT for $6700 instead.
Now ! who's the buyer?! these plasti-turds going for $500 all day on CL, but there's the Model T comment, and the You tube video, and all the ones I trip over at the pick-your-part....
All I want is cheap, fun, fast....might be looking for that used NX kit... I do notice no new videos from the guy since 2015 who had the 12.99 fog machine....go figure.
They only handle a 125shot for so many passes before the pistons give up.
I think there are a few guys in the 12s on stock internals with boost. But for the most part going the boost route means a lot of custom fabrication as there is almost nothing you can buy off the shelf for these cars as well as quickly finding the weak link inside the block.
Now if you want cheap, light, cheap, respectable handling, cheap, low 15s, cheap, and easy to work on... you're in the right spot.
so jealous of those nice and neat junk yards. all of our places are full of total loss crashed cars, with no wheels and tires and about to fall over
After a few days with the new struts, it was clear that the handling problem was not solved. I knew the struts weren't going to be the finial answer so here is the rest of the story......
These fancy red things were twenty something dollars and are the bushings that mount the stabilizer bar to the sub frame. It's somewhat satisfying to finally be putting on an American made part. Just for the record, the Moog LCA bushings are also American made.
Todays task is to install this stuff. The stabilizer bushing replacement is actually one of the harder repairs for a Saturn and is not stupid simple. There are a few YouTube videos on how its done and its real helpful to have a second person around. fortunately my buddy stopped by and provided the necessary assistance.
Even though this LCA is brand berkeleying new, this bushing is going to be replaced with one of the Moog bushings.
The stabilizer bushing sort of comes out after a bit of violence involving a hack saw blade and a screwdriver.
These stabilizer bar to sub frame bushings are straight forward to replace...except if the weld nut busts loose when you apply torque to the bolts
In this case, one of the weld nuts busted loose and the only solution was to man up and get the angle grinder out and hack the motherberkeleying clamp off. Once the berkeleying clamp was out of the way, the bolt head was cut off and the weld nut was extracted. The good news is there is a hole in the frame that allows you to drop in a standard nut and there is just enough room to put a socket on the nut... so reassembly is not really and issue.
Of course the berkeleying clamp is ruined at this point.... Fortunately I was able to poach a good used clamp of the dead wagon. So that brings up another subject... the wagon is dead, yet I haven't really made any effort to dispose of it.. I guess this is what makes me GRM member
This is what the weld nut looks like... Nothing to grab on to... the only solution is to hack it out.
The sleeve supplied in the Moog kit apparently replaces the rusted sleeve on the stabilizer bar. I guess if I gave a berkeley I would make an attempt to remove the rusty sleeve and slip on the new on. Nope, no berkeleys given and the rusty sleeve is fine right where is at.
Done...well sort of. The car is sitting a little high in the front. Could be the 'el cheapo struts are naturally a bit taller or the stabilizer stuff needs to be loosened and re-torqued with weight on the suspension.
The end result is the car handles like it should. No more wacky and unpredictable handling issues! I'm not sure if the solution was the new LCA (bad ball joint) or all the spiffy stabilizer bushings. Don't really care, just as long as the car is drivable... I'm happy
Doc Brown wrote: In reply to ProDarwin: right now I have zero clues on how they install, but I'll have that sorted out soon with pictures and more words
So I take it you didn't have any luck with this part?
In reply to ProDarwin:
Sorry, no luck with the stabilizer bar
The sleeve appears to be rusted on. I did make a slight attempt to remove it but it didn't budge.
I was referring to the LCA-> subframe bushings. Looks like you got new arms though so you don't need to replace those. I would like to be able to replace these without getting new arms.
I've never had to replace the sleeve on the swaybar, but most of the swaybars I've had haven't had any rust. Also never had the weld-nut for the brackets fail. knock on wood
Today's episode is titled 'I love the smell of Dexcool in the morning' or 'Christmas in April'... Let's see whats going on.......
This vial looking substance is Dexcool.... something that the cheapo Saturn has started leaking lately.
Looking at the dashboard we can see the radiator icon thingy illuminated. Also note the alternator is not putting out enough juice at idle.
The dexcool leak is from a bad water pump. A $32.00 replacement pump should fix that in a jiffy. The low output of the alternator may be due to a failing unit. A cheapo Ebay alternator (Made in China) is going to be the solution?... we'll see.
Also note a random radiator hose and oil filter.... I got these from GRM's 2016 Secret Santa. The car is due for an oil change and just for the heck of it the upper radiator hose is going to be replaced.
Old water pump is out! New pump went in without any drama. Normally the water pump is replaced from below, I went the extra mile and moved a bunch of E36 M3 to work on it from the top.
Meanwhile in California, alternators are hazardous to your health.... hmmm
This silly plastic part broke on the cheapo alternator when I started to put it on the car. I used the silly plastic part from the old alternator for a quick fix. Something tells me this cheapo alternator is going to be problems...
perfectly good upper radiator hose was replaced with a perfectly good hose. Thanks secrete Santa! Although not pictured, the secret Santa oil filter was also installed.
You'll need to log in to post.
