I'd like to thank the people who stopped me from giving up on my Saturn. My 98 SL2 had been acting badly, the automatic xmission behaving erratically, especially in slow-n-go/stop-n-go traffic. I took it to a transmission shop, and he ran through the codes on the OBD and said---what did I know from the codes----that I was looking at a $4000 job on a car I paid $5500 nine months ago. (He told me to lose the car instead of repair it, obviously.) A few people here told me that it could as simple as an electrical problem---bad battery (bad alternator?). Since the battery is a third the price of an alternator, I pulled the battery whose date was marked "Nov 2001", opened it up to look inside, and there was salt caked between the plates of 3 of the 6 cells! It was apparent when I jump-started the car, ran it for 20 miles (no red light indicating alternator malfunction), and the battery was still dead...that's when I pulled the battery. Must have been some cheap battery the previous owner put into it. Now have a Kirkland (Costco says Everready is the same) 36/100 warranted battery in it. Also corrected the transmission overfill (done in a panic) where I pulled out 2.5 gallons of fluid (previous owner had shop to a pre-sale inclusion of transmission "conditioner")! It now has new (Fram) filter with what took about 5.5 qts of (Chevron Supreme) Dexron III/Mercon. I hope that's acceptable. Did not buy the recommended-for-high-mileage transmission fluid at twice the price. It seems to be running even better than when I bought it several months ago. I never would have thought a near-dead battery and a transmission fluid overfill could cause so much anxiety. Note: I don't work for any of the brand names mentioned. I know that some people have a problem with certain brands, and their opinions are read.
Keep a good eye on your alternator. The Saturns tend to consume them, and you've stressed it with a shot battery. Plus, the weather is hot. These three could very well mean that a new alternator is in your future. On the positive side, your alternator is the post mid-97 version, which appears to be more robust than the earlier one.
If a transmission shop gave me an estimate of $4000 to do anything I would walk out immediately and try to warn anyone who would listen to never go there.
I guess I've been lucky, my 98 SL2 has 120K miles on it and is on original battery and alternator (battery still has that nice green dot). Maybe living in the Seattle area has something to do with it, though it does get up into the mid to upper 80 and sometimes low 90's for a couple months out of the year when we're lucky and it's been in some pretty good stop and go freeway traffic for at least one season of that (55 miles one way on the freeway with about 1/4-1/3 of that stop and go in the afternoon). Charles
I wouldn't trust that green dot! Had my battery die in my 2000 LW1. The battery green dot was a bright green. Could not even turn over the engine.
