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01 Saturn clanging, smoking


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ksudanil
New User

Oct 18, 2008, 12:26 AM

Post #1 of 5 (1306 views)
01 Saturn clanging, smoking Sign In

I was driving home from work today. I work about 45 min. away from home. About 30 min. into the drive, my car started making a loud clanging, rattling noise from the front of the car. I drove another minute and the car started violently shaking and making louder noises and decelerating. It sounded as if something fell of my car. I pulled over to the side of the road and the front of the car was smoking and smelled sort of like rubber. Now the car won't even start and makes a loud clanging when I try. The car's oil light came on a few days ago and when checked it had little to no oil. The car is an 01 Saturn SL2 automatic 4 cylinder with about 50,000 miles.


Tom Greenleaf
Ultimate Carjunky / Moderator
Tom Greenleaf profile image

Oct 18, 2008, 3:53 AM

Post #2 of 5 (1300 views)
Re: 01 Saturn clanging, smoking Sign In

Now just to amuse me tell me why you had an oil light, found no or low oil and continued to drive this car?

Blown engine, "game over" for that one,

T



ksudanil
New User

Oct 18, 2008, 4:10 PM

Post #3 of 5 (1291 views)
Re: 01 Saturn clanging, smoking Sign In

The oil light only came on three days ago, and I work so I was going to do something about it on the weekend. I didn't check the oil until the car broke down. I just got an oil change three months ago.


Tom Greenleaf
Ultimate Carjunky / Moderator
Tom Greenleaf profile image

Oct 18, 2008, 4:55 PM

Post #4 of 5 (1288 views)
Re: 01 Saturn clanging, smoking Sign In

I'm sorry for your misfortune - really. Oil should be checked near everytime you get gas as a car gets older especially. The warning is a last ditch that the problem was days before and when oil is the issue you shouldn't run the car a second longer as you probably don't have many seconds left anyway if run dry.

A brand new engine would self destruct in no time without oil - it's not a game. I'd be surprised is a NEW engine would go one whole mile without oil - that serious!

You said you just changed the oil three months ago - THAT'S TIME TO CHANGE IT AGAIN ALREADY! How long did you think you could go without checking oil for yourself? I know some cars just never use any between routine changes but you never know when they might begin to so you must make it a habit to check it manually and take note when it's down even a little and find out why. Some consumption will be considered normal with age and miles.

Hey - I'm an old f*rt and back when oil was checked as a courtesy at about all gas stations back when. A lost luxury and car makers tried harder to make cars consume less oil and even added a warning to "check" oil level instead of just the death notice red light of no oil pressure! There can be problems even if oil is full with pump failures too. In this case it ran out by the sound of it - an expensive lesson in car ownership 101!

Even the warning system can fail so all folks should check fluids themselves on a schedule or have them checked. I hate to see just relying on the car to tell you and in this case it did and you seemed to ignore it and hence this happened.

From here I suggest getting it professionally assessed and a price to repair/replace engine is what I expect you'll find and decide what to do from there. If what I think which is engine ran out of oil and continued till noise, smoke and it quit this engine can't be fixed. Get prices on whole replacent units like "short block" or a whole inspected used engine if that's suggested it can be a good way out but it's expensive no matter how you slice it,

T



Jeff Norfolk
Enthusiast
Jeff Norfolk profile image

Oct 18, 2008, 5:56 PM

Post #5 of 5 (1285 views)
Re: 01 Saturn clanging, smoking Sign In

Just a note to add to what Tom said. If you do have a new engine installed, keep up with the oil changes and checks. Saturn cars have great engines IMO but self destruct more quickly than some when the oil is lower than just normal consumption levels. You have probably thrown a rod, I have seen it many times on these cars with low oil conditions. Sorry
Jeff






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