# 1999 Saturn SL1 question...



## pymybob (Oct 4, 2017)

Looking at a used 1999 Saturn SL1 for my kid. 140,000 miles for $1300. Great price, pics look good too. Wondering if anyone has experience with this car and can point out any problems with this vehicle model type that I should look for? Any input would be great. Much thanks!


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## .Mike (Oct 4, 2017)

I've never owned one, but my neighbor across the street has had one for the past 4-5 years. I think it might be a 97 of 98 model that his son gave him.

Anyway, it's an okay car, but being mostly plastic, it is really showing its age. Broken trim pieces, plastic body pieces hanging from under the car, etc. His has some starting issue that mechanics apparently cannot figure out. Cranks and sputters for 10 minutes before starting with a big puff of white smoke. 

My neighbor is 80, and I try to help him out when he needs it. A couple of weeks back, I did a brake job for him on the front of his Saturn. New pads, new rotors, proper cleaning, lubing, and assembly. 90 minutes start to finish, including a trip to the parts store for rotors. Piece of cake. Only surprise was that the caliper bolt was not a common size, so I had to use an adjustable wrench. It think it was 18mm, and I of course only had 17mm and 19mm. 

My neighbor and his son struggled to get the plastic wheel covers back on. They have these fake lugnuts on the outside that are meant to sit on the real lugnuts. It looked like the fake lugnuts had to be lined up with the real ones, and they broke a couple in the process of getting the covers back on. For a young driver, you may want to have them do a practice tire change. That way, they know what to expect when changing their tire after dark in the fog on the side of an expressway, because calling you for help would reveal that they took the car out of town, against your wishes. (true story)


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## wis bang (Oct 5, 2017)

.Mike said:


> Only surprise was that the caliper bolt was not a common size, so I had to use an adjustable wrench. It think it was 18mm, and I of course only had 17mm and 19mm.



Yup 18MM, GM used it on my S-10, Jimmy and Impalla...also the bell housing on the S-10 too...and most 'sets' of sockets and wrenches don't include 18MM


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## onthewater102 (Oct 5, 2017)

Price is a little on the high side actually - it'd better be in really good condition. I've had a number of them, usually the twin cam motors, but I had one with the single cam. I typically buy them with 80-100k miles for <$2,000 put another 80-100k miles on them commuting with minimal repairs, most of which I can do myself and the parts costs are very cheap. I have very good luck with tires wearing evenly and having very long lives, them not needing alignments or wearing out suspension components owing to how light they are. Gas mileage is EXCELLENT. In the hills of NWCT I get 35 MPG on the twin cam motor with the 5 speed (max elevation variation of ~900 feet over sea level from home to work.) I'm gentle on clutches, in over 300k miles driven on their 5 speeds with vehicles starting @ 80k-100k I've never had a clutch go bad on me. I can't speak to automatics, I hate the things and see nothing but problems with them in higher mileage cars (all makes models not specifically Saturn.)

I'd say it's a great first car - in the compact segment they were well rated for safety in their day, better so than a Toyota Corolla, so don't listen to the naysayers on the plastic body panels - by modern standards they lack all the airbags etc. I was hit in the side at an angle from an oncoming truck in the snow, granted it was a relatively low speed collision at a shallow angle of impact (each doing about 20mph) but the car survived miraculously well. It's cheap to buy, cheap to maintain and cheap to run...the holy trinity of 1st car requirements to any kid trying to be responsible for themselves.



Check the brake lines - GM put these idiotic wire windings around the lines to protect them or some other damn fool reason but all they do is give road salt something to adhere to and rot out the lines - also check the metal portion of the flex lines going to the caliper as they tend to go bad. All cheap fixes if you can do work yourself, expensive if you have to pay someone. Common issues on anything from GM/Chevy etc. no matter the brand/model.

It's an american car, rust anywhere should be a concern. Common frame rot points are where the sway bar bushings attach to the engine cradle subframe and along the running boards particularly in the rear seating compartment. Poke around under the plastic trim in the rear door sills - rot usually starts there. Check the exhaust too - again, american, tends to rot with relatively low mileage. Heat shields sometimes rust free and rattle but can usually be secured with either hose clamps, wire or sheet metal screws.

Apart from that they have a common issue with the ignition coils arcing, but there again parts are very cheap and the ignition coil takes all of 5 minutes to swap out. The other common problem I've had are the lower control arms that have the ball joints integrated into them but again, they're very cheap (<$50) and very easy to swap yourself so it's not a big deal.

Oil changes are a nuisance at first until you get used to the idiotic location of the filter, make yourself a drip tray from an old 1qt oil can so it doesn't drain all over the CV joint boot, and access it through the passenger side wheel well. Actually - a lot is accessed through there, the belt tensioner and alternator too. Brakes are easy to change if you've got the odd-ball metric sizes like 18mm and 13mm, certainly easy to get your hands on if you don't.

That thought 'bout the collision reminds me - they have the most idiotic traction control system in them that applies the brakes to adjust the wheel speed but no limited slip differentials. So if you live in a wintery area, as I do, you need to turn that off before trying to climb snowy hills or you will damn near set your brakes on fire.

If you get it keep in mind it's not worth much - if you're unfortunate to have a major issue you're best walking away from it. I've sold everyone I owned for roughly 50% of what I paid for them initially thanks to such a low purchase price you aren't losing a bunch of money on depreciation.


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## lovedr79 (Oct 5, 2017)

price is high. i have known 2 people that had these. one was a 99 and the other i think was on 01. they never had issues with theirs except the basic maintenance items. i wouldnt personally buy one though.


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## lovedr79 (Oct 5, 2017)

wis bang said:


> .Mike said:
> 
> 
> > Only surprise was that the caliper bolt was not a common size, so I had to use an adjustable wrench. It think it was 18mm, and I of course only had 17mm and 19mm.
> ...



VW likes the 18mm and the other rare one the 13mm. i had to go out and buy a short and deep as well as box wrenches when i did the timing belt on a 03 VW TDI station wagon.


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## pymybob (Oct 5, 2017)

I wish I could find a decent vehicle for less than that where I live in Northeast Ohio. The days of a decent $1500 car are over sadly...


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## onthewater102 (Oct 5, 2017)

Both the SL1 (single cam) and SL2 (dual cam) use timing chains - so no timing belt to worry about there.


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## Crazyboat (Oct 5, 2017)

Friend of mine has one in Texas, she commutes 3 hours each way once a week for school, reports very good reliability, AC works during Tx heat, and heat works in the cold, engine works all the time she reports. Best of luck!


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