what's wrong with saturn ? severe mechanical problems after oil change

well this is a good bye and good luck to the rest of you. I just
thought I'd post what happened to my 02 saturn in case the old boys at
gm want to know why their saturn division (at least) has tanked. I put
very little millage on my saturn this year, less than 9000 k. It's
always been serviced at saturn dealerships by their mechanics.Took it
in for a scheduled oil change back in early spring and a few days
later had a reverse slam problem which I was informed was caused by 2
burned out solenoids- (2 at once, hmmmm) I had all 3 replaced with new
ones at a hefty price. Last week I took my car in for a regular oil
change, new tires, wipers and tune up. We got the car back and drove
about 30 kms home after. The total distance since the previous fill up
was 80 kms, the tank showed half full ( this was later confirmed when
I was able to put 20L in the tank) The next day was nice, I wanted to
take the kids out to the park to feed some squirrels and the service
engine light came on, and the car refused to go in reverse to back out
of my parking spot. And no, the emergency brake was not on. I tried a
few times to see if restarting or shifting made any difference- it
didn't. I had to push the car backwards to be able to drive down to
the saturn dealership to see what the hell was going on. I left the
car running with the service engine light on so they could see what
the problem code was. I got a loaner and was able to pick up the car
at the end of the day. When I got the car, it was running, seemed ok
and the mechanics said the car checked out fine they couldn't find
anything wrong with it. Well, it ran ok- so i took it straight to
another auto maker's dealership and got a trade-in value for a new
car.which I am quite happy with. I should mention that following my
discovery of the faulty repair I got on the phone with the manager at
the saturn dealership and was quite blunt pointing out how much return
service I needed with the minor mileage incurred. How much money I had
paid out in service charges- and the car was never crashed, not ever
driven hard, always fully serviced by the books. I don't know what
happened, but I do know the saturn dealership has had very slow
business since last year at least- and i suspect the techs were trying
to "influence" my car's service requirements. So now they lost-
because I no longer have a saturn to take to them, and I expect I will
buy another 3 or 4 cars yet in the years to come, and my wife perhaps
2 more cars- and not one will ever be a saturn again, and likely never
a gm built car either. So when those techs get their pink slips and
stand waiting in the line, perhaps they will see me drive by in my
shiny new car and recognize they earned that unemployment check.

yes, revenge is sweet and the best revenge is to live well and drive a
new car. and it ain't a saturn.

 

For the record, there are 5 solenoids in the Saturn TAAT automatic
transmission (*I believe this is the one used on your '02 SL), not 3!

Good luck to you with whatever vehicle you purchased. I'd definitely stay
away from the place you received the transmission service.

Bob

 

Just out of curiosity - what do you suggest that the mechanics at the
dealership should have done differently?

 

I understand your frustration...

But dealership mechanics float around more than ducks on a pond. If
your Saturn dealer closes, those guys will end up working where you
bought your new car... ANY DEALERSHIP you go to, you will hear horror
stories... You can't get away from the dealership tactics no matter
what the brand.

James

 

Which is why if I can't do a job myself, I'll go (more often than not) to an
independant mechanic. Most of the independants I know have a fairly stable
crew and do good work.
Call me paranoid but with all the letters I get from Saturn that they want
my car to satisfy used car committments (and get me into new payments)... I
can't help but wonder if some monkey business is going on to make the cars
run temporarilly crappy in order to get the owners to trade them in. There's
a lot you can do with computer run cars to tune (or de-tune) them if you
have the right software and tools
Oppie.