General

[John Satclaire]

Originally Posted by WilD

Except in itallian cars, in their case it could mean that you didn't use the 50 weight oil like you should have.

Nothing wrong with 20W50 in your car And the British V12s like 50 weight, too

[PhantomXJ]

If it has the 1.9, they seem to be prone to burning oil quicker than most engines. If the light goes on and off it is most likly low oil level like others have mentioned.

Its probably atleast 2 to 2.5 quarts low if the light is coming on. I believe the light comes on when pressure drops to around 6psi, which is prob when engine damage starts.

[Azzy]

IMagine that.. about 2 quarts low...

Well, its time for an oil change anyhow. Guess I'll be checking it more often.

[Christian Nelson]

Saturns have a problem with carbon buildup on the oil ring set. It gets stuck in the piston groove. 2000 shouldn't have as much of a problem, but Saturns are EXTREMELY sensitive to carbon. You must change your oil on time with these cars.

ONe solution is to seafoam the oil and the gas, and for drastic measures, soak the piston tops with 2 oz of seafoam per piston for a night or two. Then, get what's left out of the cylinders, and put the plugs back in, and so forth. It will kill the mosquitos for a while after that, but it should reduce your oil consumption.

Another solution is a re-ring kit..

Go to saturnfans.com, nice forum on these cars. Saturns have trouble with burning oil.

Seems to be less trouble if you use synthetic (not synthetic blend) since it won't build up carbon deposits..

I am currently piston soaking my 96 Saturn, and if it works, I will do it to my 94 that has 360K miles on it.

Thicker oil will only build up carbon on your rings faster, the problem is a design flaw, the oil return holes on the piston skirts are too small, and the oil takes too long to drain out of the oil ring. Then, it builds up carbon from sitting there. THicker oil will only make this condition worse.

Good news is, Saturns are one of the easiest cars to work on.

If my piston soak doesn't work, I will be pulling the pistons out, getting new rings, and drilling bigger holes in my piston skirts, and using nothing but synthetic. Also, since I put huge miles on it, I am buying a filter relocation setup, so I can change the filter without getting under the car.

[Azzy]

Thanks for the advice. I was going to seafoam the oil right before the change, but I might add it to the pistons to let sit since I am taking the bike more and more. Just add a few ox of seafoam to the spark plug holes, siphon it out after a few days, and roll along?

[gimmy420]

its not time for a rebuild. the level is either low or your oil sending unit is going out. but being that it happens when you come to a stop its probably low on oil. its probably more than a qt low, which if not corrected soon will make it rebuild time. the sending unit is not an expensive item if its needed, you could also install it yourself. dont let a garage tell you itll take hundreds of dollars. and if its that low on oil i would look into fixing the leak.
^my two cents -nick-

[WilD]

Originally Posted by Azzy

IMagine that.. about 2 quarts low...

Well, its time for an oil change anyhow. Guess I'll be checking it more often.

So, have you confirmed that was the problem? If it was, wow I was actually correct for once.

[Christian Nelson]

I wouldn't do the soak unless it is reallyu going through the oil. When you get to the point where you are checking the gas and filling the oil, then I'd do the piston soak. But, yeah, you put 2 oz (around) in each spark plug hole, let it sit a few days, to soak through the rings, and loosen stuff up, then crank the engine with no plugs in it, with towels stuffed in the holes to soak up the seafoam, or syphon it out, then replace the plugs, and fire it up. Do not put the plugs in and crank till you have removed the seafoam, you don't want to hydro lock the cylinders.

Another thing to try is to detach a vacum line while it is running, and slowly intorduce some seafoam to the vaccum line. Directions are on the seafoam website for that.

What I'd do if the burning of oil isn't too bad yet, is switch to synthetic, and run a half can on seafoam in your oil, and in half in a tank of gas.

You may also want to verify that it isn't leaking out. Front seal is pretty easy to get at, if you have an air compressor and impact, no problem at all. Valve cover, piece of cake, oil sender, not as easy, but not as bad as some. Pan gasket (rare) is do-able in car. Only tough one is the rear main seal..

Again, Saturnfans.com (or is it .org?) is an awesome resource.

Satruns are a good car, the thing that kills most of them is the burning oil/running low on oil issue. My 94 has begun burning oil fairly badly, I skipped a couple oil changes, and that's when it happened. I keep her topped off, and she's running at 360K miles right now. When I run a can of seafoam through her, the oil consumption goes down.

I think I will be trying the piston soak on her next, if the one I am doing on the 96 works out.

The 96 has not as much miles, but I had to rebuild the head, it had burned a valve. WHen I had the head off, I saw that the cylinders still had the factory crosshatches in on the walls! No ridge at all. So I figured the oil consumption was on the head, so I put it back together. Well, I gues I was wrong, It still burns oil. So, piston soak is nthe step I have taken, I will let you know if it works.

[Christian Nelson]

Just got my soak done, boy did it smoke for a while, had to keep my foot on the gas to keep it running, then it cleared up, and was noticably peppy-er. We will see if the oil consumption goes down.

Another thing to check for oil consumption that I forgot about is the old PCV valve. Sometimes that stops venting, and your oil gets pushed up into the cylenders by the crankcase pressure buildup.

[Drum]

Kind of indicative of a certain dependence on online "wisdom" when Az starts a thread here before he even checks the oil level in his car.

Az = Titus Jr.