2001 Saturn L300 Service Engine Soon Light

[Panzer Leader]

Charlie, friend's son bought 01 Saturn L300 with less than 50K miles. Car is immaculate. Has had car less than 2 weeks. SERVICE ENGINE SOON LIGHT came on. He checked fluids all OK. Car starts and runs fine. I am thinking 02 sensor, other sensor or he did not tighten the gas cap. Is that a possibility?) Question, How do you reset the light? Any ideas? Car was towed behing an RV. Also, can he go to a Saturn Dealer and get maintenance records? Would be good to know if the TSBs were done. Damn LSU don't teach those kids much.

[GRRRR8]

I would go to Autozone or Oreillys and get the code and let me know what it is. Saturn should have any service history that was done at Saturn.

[Panzer Leader]

Thanks Charlie will get him to do that. I'll get back to you.

[JerzeyGT]

Is it a 4 or v6

[Panzer Leader]

Its the V6. Nice car, super clean. It was towed behind an RV. This kid knows nothing about cars. Trying to help the young lad. It proves difficult at times because he is 21 and of course knows everything about nothing. As the Penquin would say RTFM. That I am sure he has not done. Actually trying to keep his father from doing his son bodily harm as fathers are opt to do in these situations.

[JerzeyGT]

See what code they pull at auto zone... The thermostat is almost automatic on a 3L V6 around 50k.... If code po128 comes up... thats what the prob is..

[ronierogers]

hi there guys so sorry for reviving this thread but to be honest you guys just made me back a little bit in aiming to buy a saturn l300 from my friend lol. is this service engine light problem common on all l300 models? also what are the things that i need to check carefully if i will be getting a second hand car? i am not really knowledgeable on these things so it will be better for me to join this forum so i can get tons of information and decide if i will be getting my friend l300. interior is really tempting so neat and clean because of it i forgot to look on the engine part.lol thanks in advance for the tips! where do you guys get saturn parts (http://www.carpartswholesale.com/cpw/saturn-car-parts.html)? i saw this site but never tried buying from them. anybody has experience getting parts from them?

[FloydBubble]

lol dont buy an L300. thermostat problems are very common and are an expensive fix. water pumps like to leak on the timing belt and make them jump time. pressure control solenoids fail in the valve body. and body control module like to take a dump. all are expensive fixes and not worth it. stay away from 3.0L L-series and VUEs. and im sorry for reviving this old thread too but i wanted to play superman and save this guy from a mistake.

[SaturnGirl]

lol dont buy an L300. thermostat problems are very common and are an expensive fix. water pumps like to leak on the timing belt and make them jump time. pressure control solenoids fail in the valve body. and body control module like to take a dump. all are expensive fixes and not worth it. stay away from 3.0L L-series and VUEs. and im sorry for reviving this old thread too but i wanted to play superman and save this guy from a mistake.

Do NOT listen to Floyd. His generalizations are without merit. Thermostat problems are NOT very common. I've replaced mine only once in 8 years, and thermostats are cheap, not expensive. My water pump has never failed. I have a 2001 Saturn L300 which I bought USED with 70k miles in 2006. It now has 180k (!) miles and is still going strong. Between the purchase price and repairs over eight years, I've spent half of what a new car would have cost me with car payments. Sure, there have been some repairs. I had to do the oil cooler, radiator and A/C - the first time in 2013, after the car was 12 years old and at 165k miles!

I had to replace the computer a few months ago when an idiot mobile mechanic from Craigslist fried the computer... but I was the idiot for hiring this incompetent.

In the last two years, I've driven cross-country multiple times. First trip was 8k miles in 12 days. Next trip was 10k miles in two months. The last trip was 14k miles in 30 days. This car is a gem. It's the best car I've ever had (other than my 1985 Chrysler Laser which was my fave).

These cars go for 200k miles if you stay on top of maintenance. Now that Saturn is gone, go to Chevrolet dealers for all dealer-only issues. They drive like European sports cars (Opal steering). And that oil cooler I mentioned is only in this particular Saturn (similar to the Cadillac Catera).

The L300 is the TOP of the line, luxury sedan. Mine has sunroof, leather seats, front heated seats, cruise control, cassette and CD player, power mirrors, power windows and locks, valet lock for trunk, alarm system, and much more. It cost me only $8600 cash back in 2006, and my total repairs in eight years have been $12k... that includes tires, brakes, A/C ($2000), new computer ($800), oil cooler system ($1500). So just this year it was about $5000, before that maybe $1000 per year. I have no car payment.

The V6 got me 30 mpg on the highway for the cross-country drives, and locally I'm getting 19 mpg. Not bad for a car of this age.

So anyone who tells you that Saturns are junk - has never owned a Saturn.

[TooManyHobbies]

Do NOT listen to Floyd. His generalizations are without merit. Thermostat problems are NOT very common. I've replaced mine only once in 8 years, and thermostats are cheap, not expensive. My water pump has never failed. I have a 2001 Saturn L300 which I bought USED with 70k miles in 2006. It now has 180k (!) miles and is still going strong. Between the purchase price and repairs over eight years, I've spent half of what a new car would have cost me with car payments. Sure, there have been some repairs. I had to do the oil cooler, radiator and A/C - the first time in 2013, after the car was 12 years old and at 165k miles!

I had to replace the computer a few months ago when an idiot mobile mechanic from Craigslist fried the computer... but I was the idiot for hiring this incompetent.

In the last two years, I've driven cross-country multiple times. First trip was 8k miles in 12 days. Next trip was 10k miles in two months. The last trip was 14k miles in 30 days. This car is a gem. It's the best car I've ever had (other than my 1985 Chrysler Laser which was my fave).

These cars go for 200k miles if you stay on top of maintenance. Now that Saturn is gone, go to Chevrolet dealers for all dealer-only issues. They drive like European sports cars (Opal steering). And that oil cooler I mentioned is only in this particular Saturn (similar to the Cadillac Catera).

The L300 is the TOP of the line, luxury sedan. Mine has sunroof, leather seats, front heated seats, cruise control, cassette and CD player, power mirrors, power windows and locks, valet lock for trunk, alarm system, and much more. It cost me only $8600 cash back in 2006, and my total repairs in eight years have been $12k... that includes tires, brakes, A/C ($2000), new computer ($800), oil cooler system ($1500). So just this year it was about $5000, before that maybe $1000 per year. I have no car payment.

The V6 got me 30 mpg on the highway for the cross-country drives, and locally I'm getting 19 mpg. Not bad for a car of this age.

So anyone who tells you that Saturns are junk - has never owned a Saturn.

Thank you for the thread resurrection. I want to be your mechanic. He is getting rich.

[STL_G8GT]

Thank you for the thread resurrection. I want to be your mechanic. He is getting rich.

No sh*t.

20776

[Seattle09GT]

The GM X30XE 54 degree 3.0L V6 is a God awful engine. It has an interference design for starters, and they are notorious for timing belt tensioner bearing failures. They are very expensive to work on.

When I was looking at weatherbeaters I was told by my mechanic to run for my life from any GM vehicle with this engine under the hood.

$12,000 repairs on a $9000 car is called conformational bias - at best.

I have a 3 year old Saturn Relay, widely considered one of the worst used cars you can buy. I've put 50K miles on it, now at 141K. I would sell it before I put more money into it then what I paid for it.

When you have to do $5K repairs in one year - you have a car payment. A big one. $416.67 a month to be exact.

[LDM]

The absurdity of all this amuses me

[STL_G8GT]

The absurdity of all this amuses me

The Saturn engine or the extreme thread necro? :)

[LDM]

The Saturn engine or the extreme thread necro? :)

The fact that someone joined the forum just to make a post in a four year old thread that's been dead for two years about a subject that really has nothing to do with the main focus of this forum. I have no idea how they even came across the thread, unless they were doing Google searches for things bashing Saturn, while on a crusade to defend its honor. Then, trying to prove Saturn's greatness by having spent more on repairs than the value of the vehicle. :)

[IndyGT]

While I think my G8 is real nice car, I wouldn't go around referring it to as a "TOP of the line luxury car". Now if I had a Saturn on the other hand...

[1313]

They drive like European sports cars (Opal steering).

The L300 is the TOP of the line, luxury sedan.

I have an L200 as a daily driver... it is certainly none of those things.

I hate the car so much. It is simply miserable to drive. The AC went out at around 85k mile mark and it costs about as much as the car is worth to fix it. Thank god for the nice sterio I put it to drown out all the creaks and rattles this thing makes.

Makes the G8 feel like a ferrari every time I drive it.