SL-1 2000 Automatic Transmission Problems...

I bought (had!) a new SATURN SL-1 2000 on April 1,2000 with automatic transmission having

only 52,000 km (34,000 miles). Since the 1st day I garaged it, and serviced regulary at

SATURN authorized dealer at Montreal (DECARIE SATURN). On January 21,2005 it was - 35C (deep

cold!) outside and as I was driving at the highway suddenly I heard a big bang under my car

and I was literaly lifted form my seat. The car lost electricity, pieces of metal were all

over the highway, even pieces of metal hit a truck behind me who start horning like a crazy!

Transmission oil was spilled all over the highway, and braking fluid leaked so I hardly could

even brake in order to stop the car, but I managed. Transmission broke and the estimated

damage is about 2,000 CAD$.

My insurance company hired an "independant expert" who found out (all together with SATURN

mechancis, they di not call me to attend) that ME (the driver) was in fault as and that the

damaged occured "due to excessive spinning of my tires in the snow". BTW there was no snow on

the highway, and I was not spinning at all.

But before the "expert" report was done, I was called by DECARIE SATURN (authorized trusted

garage according to my BELAIR insurance company) by Mr. VITO who is in charge for claims. He

offered I cite "A DEAL THAT WILL MAKE ME HAPPY". When I asked what was all about he told me

to come to the garage "TO DISCUSS". I guess he had a plan how to "fix" my car to look like it

was an accident/collision so that I can be rembursed by insurance co??

On the other side even if I had SATURN extended warranty it would not help as "there was no

collision, only driver's fault", so they wouldn't pay anyway.

However, I have intention on sueing GM and SATURN for hidden defects on their automatic

transmission, so I need your help guys if you have any similar problems or any info that I

may consult. I'd appreciate a lot!

MILOS MILISAVLJEVIC, Montreal, Canada
Tel.:(514) 932-1816
freedom@aei.ca

what happened is your differencial pin failed. a differencial allows your tires to spin at different speeds, primarily for cornering, also to allow different tire sizes. the most of the components are held together by the pin. a large amount of stress is placed on the pin during excessive wheel spin, like driving on ice or with a spare tire. basicly any car with a open differential may fail in this manor. some models more then others, the 91-02 S-Series is one of the models prone to failing. for some reason i want to say the ford probe is other one(which by the way all 91-02 S-Series, both manual and auto, use the same differencial).

I guess he had a plan how to "fix" my car to look like it was an accident/collision so that I can be rembursed by insurance co??


sounds like fraud to me....

also, to the best of my knowage if you had extended warranty, it should have covered it. i don't know of any warrenty that covers collisions.

this topic has been covered several times of Saturnfans.com, you may want to research that site. some of us have even welded the differencial pin in place.

Sierrap615's reply sounds very reasonable,

if your insurance company has already got word of your claim (or even if they hadn't), DO NOT try to make this look like a collision, you can be charged with insurance fraud and get in ALOT more trouble than that car is worth!

If there diagnosis was due to excessive spinning, then yeah the differential pin was to blame BUT...

In my opinion it may have been due to the -35`C weather... Especially Highway Driving, was it pretty soon after you took off that you jumped on the highway?

You have to give your car time to warm up in that kind of weather,
in fact a suggestion for future driving would be to buy a block warmer, which is in essence an electronic heating pad that goes on your block and will heat it before you start your car, thus reducing the stress of high viscocity cold oil and other fluids, and shrunken metal of the block which can actually cause seizing at such extreme tempertures... Man I'm glad I live in Texas and dont have to deal with those kinda temps, but the 107`F heat can be a killer too...

the reason the differential pin fails is from repeated wheel spin with force. it is a weakness i have only seen in the saturn. but if you don`t spin your wheels or let up as soon as possible, then these transmissions last the life of the car. i saw one young man who tore up three transmissions and still couldn`t admit that he was the cause of this failure. if you want to spin your tires don`t drive a saturn. it will sooner or later tear up the differential pin. that makes it difficult in snow country but those are the rules of owning a saturn. i have seen these trannies go 300,000 miles with no maintenance at all. i know this is not the happiest post but it is truthful. hopefully it will help somebody to not tear up their transmission.