Consumer Complaints
| Fail date | miles | occurences | Purchase date |
|---|---|---|---|
| ENGINE AND ENGINE COOLING | |||
| 03/13/2001 | 1 | 01/04/1997 | |
| Head gasket, water pump, oil pan gasket, serpentine drive belt, and coolant light on, service engine light was also on, work completed by dealer. *jb | |||
| ENGINE AND ENGINE COOLING - ENGINE | |||
| 04/21/2005 | 68000 | 1 | 09/01/1997 |
| Head gasket blew at 68,00 miles in my 1997 saturn sl1. saturn customer service told me it was not due to any negligence on my part, and they were unable to explain the reason for this defect.*ak | |||
| 10/01/2004 | 1 | 11/01/1996 | |
| Defective engine cylinder head assembly, engine runs hot & oil mixed with coolant in engine. *bf the consumer was not informed of the defects when purchasing the vehicle. no recall for consumer problems with vehicle. *tc | |||
| 08/13/2004 | 84600 | 2 | 11/26/1996 |
| Defect details: design flaw in the engine cylinder head assembly causes cracks in the cylinder head. allows motor oil to leak into the cooling system/radiator mixing with engine coolant in the engine coolant recovery reservoir. makes the car run hot, result in overheating with potential to result in crashes. solution: to replace cylinder head assembly gm/saturn response: complaint filed with gm on september 10, 2004 via written letter. gm response to that letter was a courtesy call to thank us for our feedback and how it will be put in a database for their engineers to utilize in future design. what a joke. no help or resolution offered. no recall or any other notice was sent verbally or in writing to us. refused to stand behind their defective product. had prior knowledge of defect and failed to disclose to us. amounts to fraudulent business and unfair trade practices. gm/saturn knew about this flaw in 1997 saturn sl-1 when they sold the car to us, but never disclosed it and never offered to fix it. refer to bulletin number 96t65 and bulletin date: november 1996 on http://www.edmunds.com. in the last 12 months, our car had to be brought to a mechanic twice due to close to overheating. the car is 7 1/2 years old and has less than 85,000 miles on it with oil changes on time & all recommended maint. on time. since gm/saturn dealership in reno, nevada did not offer to fix the defect, we got it fixed by another mechanic. cost = $1827.25. we believe this is fraudulent business practice on part of gm/saturn to knowingly sell their defective car to consumers without disclosing this at the time of sale and never offering to fix the defect eventhough it may cause accidents and put safety of the occupants at risk. we are seeking for reimbursement of the cost of repairing this known defective product from gm. a copy of that request will be mailed to you separately. we hope your agency has the authority and passion to do something about it. *nm | |||
| 05/08/2003 | 1 | ||
| The vehicle stalled without warning. *jb | |||
| 03/01/2002 | 1 | ||
| Engine cylinder head had a crack, and this was causing oil to leak into radiator fluid. consumer felt engine could burn up. *ak *yh | |||
| 01/16/2002 | 1 | 02/01/1997 | |
| We got car from saturn of warwick leased then bought outright . the service issue we are about to tell was done at the saturn of seekonk loc. it is actually closer to our house. on jan, 16, 2002 we had to bring the saturn in for service because we started that day loosing anti freeze quickly then the car began to run hot but did not over heat, meanwhile the regular heat control didnt work 3 days prior to this incident and we had it sheduled for service that coming sat. we drop it off, car running hot but never overheated the tech only put that in his report . keep in mind we had no symptoms described by dealer letting us know that we were having problems like run sluggish, not starting at all etc. we had just driven 900 miles up and back over the thanksgiving holiday absolutely no problems. the tech contacts david my husband the next day to tell him the problem . the tech states we have a cracked head and even though its out of manf. warranty saturn would fix it under warranty suddenly i get a call at my work the service tech says found more damage underneath engine that it had been burn oil and transmission fluid together which no evidence of this existed, didnt seem right stating we really need a new engine which runsabout $3200.00 and they say they wont replace it instead rebuild it if we make a donation of $600. to saturn. we know this wasn't right from the start they could'nt tell us what caused this to happen instead blamed it on poor maint. and claimed to be doing us a favor by only charging 600.00 to rebuild engine which we know was the cost of the new head dealer covering up. this is why they made it look like they were doing a favor the car was maint. and engine heads just dont crack at 70,000 miles. plant person in tenn. just agreed with deaier. pls check edmunds.com saturn repair compl. plsck we arent only snow job rec. pls. can you help us? we want out of the car still owe $4000. who would buy with this issue can you help solve.*ak | |||
| 06/15/2001 | 1 | 02/01/1997 | |
| Head gasket leaking - replaced (cost about $1200). *ak | |||
| 01/05/1999 | |||
| When driving at any given time and speed vehicle will cut off without prior warning. also, when air conditioner wason high and upon depressing accelerator pedal, there was a very slow take off. vehicle died out. consumer has contacted dealer, dealer stated due a large amount of pressure put on air conditioner compressor problem has occur. please provide any further details.*ak | |||
| ENGINE AND ENGINE COOLING - ENGINE - GASOLINE | |||
| 11/09/1999 | |||
| Engine is burning oil. vehicle is burning more oil than required. also consumer doesn't know where oil is going ,vehicle is not leaking nor smoking. contacted dealer, and dealer did test on engine and found nothing wrong.*ak | |||
| ENGINE AND ENGINE COOLING - ENGINE - GASOLINE - BELTS AND ASSOCIATED PULLEYS | |||
| 12/30/1999 | 1 | 03/01/1997 | |
| The serpentine belt became loose and the automatic belt tensioner fell apart causing alternator, water pump and power steering inoperable. yh | |||
| 01/05/2000 | 0 | ||
| Serpentine belt tensioner kept tension on the belt felled. later, alternater came on, and then consumer lost power steering. if consumer was to lose it on the highway at 70 mph, there could be a serious accident. mechanic says belt was very poorly designed. *ak | |||
| ENGINE AND ENGINE COOLING - EXHAUST SYSTEM | |||
| 06/03/2000 | 1 | 07/01/1998 | |
| Exhaust system rusted out in 3 years--had to replace. car was never driven in winter, was washed each week, was parked off-street. clearly, inferior parts were installed by saturn. | |||