Need advise

For all you Saturn experts. I am wanting some good free advise. which seems to be hard to come by these days. I just purchased a 96 SL with 160,000 miles. It has the 1.9 twin cam engine, 5 speed manual. It seems to be in very good cond. Runs pretty strong. I may need tierods or CV joints eventually, but not now. My question is does this thing have a timing belt or chain? I cannot find any maintenance interval in the owners manual for replacing the timing belt. Just wanted to see if anyone out there has any experience with this vehicle. Also what kind of mileage can I expect?

Your veh has chain. Haynes covers how to do book # 87010 my son has 97 same eng but auto trans he gets over 30 mpg city

http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/sbs.htm
if it doesn't come up for your specific vehicle, just pull it up yourself & it will give you an idea what to expect, but driving conditions and style makes all the difference. I am (sometimes) getting 28mpg on my "big white boat" 93 Lincoln w 4.6 V8 and guilty of getting less then stellar with my 1.9 - 5sp Escort when I drive (well used to :rolleyes:) like a teenager.

For all you Saturn experts. I am wanting some good free advise. which seems to be hard to come by these days. I just purchased a 96 SL with 160,000 miles. It has the 1.9 twin cam engine, 5 speed manual. It seems to be in very good cond. Runs pretty strong. I may need tierods or CV joints eventually, but not now. My question is does this thing have a timing belt or chain? I cannot find any maintenance interval in the owners manual for replacing the timing belt. Just wanted to see if anyone out there has any experience with this vehicle. Also what kind of mileage can I expect?

Chain. If your oil is kept up and changed regularly the chain will last well over 500K. If you dont...then you may need to replace it at 100K or less.

Your also have a serpentine belt which runs the power steering, water pump, etc. This should be inspected each oil change and changed if needed.

Thanks for all the info. I greatly appreciate it. I was told the oil was changed every 3000. Hopefully that's true. I don't hear any chain noise. The underhood and owners manual say to use 5w-20. I usually go with 10-30. But I'll listen to the manufacturer and use what they want. I guess. Thanks again.

Thanks for all the info. I greatly appreciate it. I was told the oil was changed every 3000. Hopefully that's true. I don't hear any chain noise. The underhood and owners manual say to use 5w-20. I usually go with 10-30. But I'll listen to the manufacturer and use what they want. I guess. Thanks again.

Which oil to use is always matter of opinion. I use 10-w30

THe type of driving you do will affect how long between needed oil changes too. The best type of driving is long distances. A 50 mile commute will allow the oil to stay clean - and changing it each 5000-6000 miles would be fine. Short trips around town result in oil getting contaminated with water borne impurites - so change it each 3000 miles. We change the filter every other oil change.
I always install new idler and tensioner pulleys when I replace a serpentine belt, if the motor has over 100,000 miles on it.
Satur ns have a reputation for using oil between changes. So check the oil frequently. We had a 92 with 128k miles that got maybe 300 miles to a quart of oil. I pulled the motor and put in new piston rings. Now it goes past 4000 miles (when we change it) without using even a quart.