The Saturn Is Done

Sarah's car needed an oil change, so I had her schedule the appointment. There were a couple other concerns that she had that I asked our car guy to look over. Boy, when I got the call, I was a little shocked. First, the good news. The oil got changed without incident. Now the bad news.

First, the Check Engine light was on. Sarah said it came on when she floored it on the highway, trying to get around a car on the interstate. I figured something just needed to be reset. Nope! Turns out there are (2) errors to come up when they run the diagnostic. First is a lean fuel condition. Most likely the mass air flow sensor that needs replacing. Cost of $300. I bought one online and replace it myself a little over a year ago for about $40 or $50, but that is something I figured that I could do. The next error was a misfire code. He didn’t feel it when he test drove it, but that is what the error said. The problem most likely is the ignition coil, and since her car has two, it of course would be the one in the harder to get at location. Cost for having that replaced, $400.

Sarah said she was also feeling a shake when driving on the highway, so I asked him to look at the tires. I figured the air pressure was low in one tire, or something along those lines. Wrong. Turns out that there is a problem with the right front strut. It moved about ¾”, which is what he things is causing the vibration at high speeds. He told me that he could also feel it move when turning slowly and hitting a bump. In order to replace the strut, the mount will also need to be replaced. Total cost for strut and mount replacement, $700. So while we’re at it, there was a bounce/squeak coming from the rear of the car that I knew from a previous service trip due to a rear sway bar bushing that was worn out. So as long as we would be in there doing all the other work, he said he would go in and have that bushing replaced as well. Cost of that is $500-$600. Also, the tires were 75% worn in the rear, and 80% worn in the front. I’m not quite sure how that happened, because there are only about 20,000 miles on those tires (probably less). I do know that they are only about three years old. They would make it thru the summer, but they would definitely need to be replaced before winter. Cost of a new set of tires… $500-$600. Finally, as long as all the other work is being done… the air conditioner compressor has needed to be replaced for three years. So toss in $970 for a new one of those and redoing all the belts to get the A/C working again. All totaled… on the low end we are looking at $3300 if we did it all. Time to look for a replacement for Goldie and put her out to pasture.