Bought a Saturn

[lovemysan]

The black bumper indicates that its not an sl2. You could get the sl or sl1 with black bumpers. Being an SL usually indicates a basic utilitarian car. An SL1 however, would indicate basic options like air, tape, p/s, better interior trim.

[Fourthbean]

I meant to agree with you lovemysan, though my post didn't read like that. I was saying that I think my friend got a similar deal to what you have.

I'm glad my SL basic option car did come with air No cruise control though (that I can find), which I can deal with. I have gone without up till now.

I have a high idle ('round 1200rpm), after perusing the saturnfans.com forum I am going to try and pick up a coolant sensor from a Saturn dealer on the way home tonight.

[Jim Dunlop]

No, I meant: are we breaking the rules by having two on the same team?

Feel free to pick my brain. My engine has been feeling like it's running rough lately (after enhacing my HAI), but it has Bosch Platinum plugs in it (which my wife bought a few hundred miles ago; Saturns ruin them after a few hundred miles) and an aftermarket upper torque axis mount which is several thousand miles old.

Does anyone else notice more vibrations due to the lack of power per revolution caused by the HAI?

[ezeedee]

thats a nice lookin bel-air you got there. i saw a super clean impala today (67 or 68 i think) it was baby blue, looked like it just rolled off the showroom floor (and then had radial tires put on).

[Fourthbean]

Jim, I don't see anything in the rules about two cars of the same model. So we should be good to go.

ezeedee, that picture is deceiving. It was taken a couple of years ago right after I got the car running, it looks much worse now with no hubcaps, faded paint, not washed in months, seat in back completely exploded, etc. lol

Thanks for the props on it though, I have enjoyed it as a car.

After talking to the guy at the Saturn dealership I am going to do a tune up before anything else (Now why didn't I think of that?).

I am changing to the midnight shift this week, so I will be staying up all night tonight doing schoolwork and working on my car. Hopefully I can have the tune up done and a new starter in by the morning .

[Fourthbean]

Well, I got the starter changed. Wasn't near as much of a hassle as it was made out to be, or maybe I was reading about older Saturns taking 5 hours to change. I had mine out in about 30 minutes not counting the time it took to find the stupid extensions to reach the top bolt.

I also changed the spark plugs for some NGK's per the Saturn dealership suggestion. Idles smoother though the old ones (can't remember the name but weren't NGK) were a bit burnt (white).

[2TonJellyBean]

The wires been replaced?

[Fourthbean]

Not by me, I was thinking about that after I was installing the plugs. I will be going back for an air filter though, this one looks a tad on the dirty side. Though I have never looked at an air filter like this before. One side is quite a bit "browner" than the other.

[2TonJellyBean]

Our spark leads became noticeable on our Saturn when accelerating in top gear at lower RPMs. It would miss and bog.

[lovemysan]

About the spark wires. OEM wires should be "packard" they'll say it on the wires. I've seen these wires go 200k and still work fine. A good friend of mine has a 1993 S10 2.8 with 215k on it running original wires. There very good wires IMO.

All you have to do is be gentle with them and do an ohms check. They should come in around 1000ohms per foot of resistance. A dead wire is considered 5000ohms per ft. I recently tested my wires on my saturn they came in at 1700-2800 ohms for all of them. When I tuned up that s10 4 years ago @185k I tested the new wires and the old packard wires(OEM). The packards had less resistance than the new autozone wires so we returned the autozone wires.

With that being said check the stock wires before you replace them, replace the plugs with the OEM NGK's. NGK BKR4E-11 is the part number. Orielly's can order them for you for around $2 a plug.