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Why does Saturn have to be so "special"?

  • Feb. 3rd, 2007 at 9:15 PM
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My Vue stranded me for the very first time today. It could have been worse, of course. I was leaving church when it refused to start, and those of you who came to my wedding know that I can, and often do walk to and from church. Tonight was rather chilly for that, though, and I don't really like walking alone after dark so close to the mall where lots of evil stuff happens. Tonight I did, though. Of course it had to happen on Ary's game night. He came home as soon as I called him, cos he's such a sweetie, and anyway, they were almost done with their game.

Anyway, we drove over to the church, expecting to be able to jumpstart it. Ary tried to start it and decided from the sound that it might be the battery and popped the hood to look for it...and couldn't find it. We eventually figured it was under a cover which was screwed down. Unfortunately we didn't have a screwdriver so we couldn't get into it. Le sigh. This happens every once in a while with this car. Usually it is wonderful, runs well, doesn't burn oil or work the brakes too hard, but every now and then it will turn out to have some eccentricity that makes it hard to deal with.

Reminds me of one of the callers on Car Talk this morning, actually. He was a former "shade tree" mechanic who popped the hood on his 1995 Ford Infinity and found that he didn't recognize anything, there was nothing he could work on. He asked if there were any modern cars that were more accessible and Click and Clack told him, nope, sorry.

Anyway, with any luck we can jump it tomorrow and take it somewhere for a new battery. Do kinda need it after all.
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( 6 comments — Leave a comment )
[info]tiggertailz wrote:
Feb. 4th, 2007 11:40 am (UTC)
I had a Saturn SL2 for several years. It was a great car until something DID go wrong with it. I don't know why they made the battery so darned hard to get to, either. :P Saturns are notoriously bad with alternaters and batteries. No idea why. :P
[info]witchcat07 wrote:
Feb. 4th, 2007 04:18 pm (UTC)
I had a Saturn sedan before the Vue (not sure what they called it, but I think it was the predecessor of the Ion). The one and only time it left me stranded was when the battery died. The only time it needed major work was when I ran it off the road into a (thankfully) recently plowed field and messed up the alignment. So Saturn has really been good to me for the most part, but I do prefer to take my cars to someone who knows how to deal with them. Since the mechanic who sold me both Saturns is in VA, I am now resigned to going to a dealer for major stuff, but the dealer at Rivergate is really good, and they haven't tried to rip me off yet.
[info]tiggertailz wrote:
Feb. 4th, 2007 06:24 pm (UTC)
Yeah, the battery and alternater were all that every gave me trouble on my Saturn. Well, until the motor died... My dad is convinced that it was because I wasn't religious about it's oil. I got it changed every 3-4 months and kept an eye on it as it got older. :P I think it has more to do with the fact that it had such short runs that it wore the engine out.
[info]witchcat07 wrote:
Feb. 5th, 2007 02:09 am (UTC)
I think they recommend every 3000 miles or every three months, whichever comes first, so you should have been okay.

Oh, and I must correct myself: The field I ran into as described above was recently *harvested*, hence the "thankfully". IOW, I wasn't plowing down any corn and leaving a trail. ;~p
[info]sittingduck1313 wrote:
Feb. 4th, 2007 12:56 pm (UTC)
I once had the alternator on a Saturn I drove go bad on me. I managed to get a nice long charge before driving back home eighteen miles relying solely on the battery. Did I mention it was raining and I was in constant fear during the whole trip that a cop would pull me over for driving with my headlights off? Fortunately, that did not happen and I just barely made it back.
[info]witchcat07 wrote:
Feb. 4th, 2007 04:21 pm (UTC)
This would be the green one I guess mayitrestinpeace. And if it wasn't real dark yet I seriously doubt you would get pulled over. As many idiots who refuse to turn on their lights until they absolutely can't see the road in front of them, and they always seem to be driving dark coloured cars.
( 6 comments — Leave a comment )

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