Jeff Blankenship wrote:
> Anyway, the service manager agrees that this is a very unusual failure and
> he says he will submit a claim to Saturn as soon as I provide documentation
> for the oil changes that weren't done by Saturn, to show that routine
> maintenance was performed. I am hopeful that Saturn will reimburse the
> cost of repairs or at least a substantial portion of it.
This is the sort of Saturn service I'm used to, I'm glad to hear you're
getting it.
> I am, however, still a bit insulted at the service manager's insistence
> that oil changes be done every three months regardless of mileage.
I don't necessarily agree with it either, I used to let my wife's car go
about 6 months (2k miles) between oil changes. BUT... the if the
owner's manual says it needs to be changed every 3 months or 3k
whichever comes first, then that's what the service manager is going to
tell you, and that's pretty much what they're going to want to see
before they offer a warranty repair.
> That
> is just excessive pollution. He also said Saturn doesn't recommend using
> synthetic oil. When I pressed him for a reason, he said people run it
> 10,000 miles before changing it, and then have oil-related problems.
> Well, I might not go that far, but I can name people who do, and have
> 200,000 miles on their cars.
I doubt that you'll find many (if any) dealer service managers for any
make of car that will recommend that you go beyond the manufacturer's
specified oil change intervals whether you use synthetic or not. Face
it, he's right. There are stupid people out there who think that
everything the synthetic oil makers (or their friends) say is fact.
Someone says they can put Mobil 1 in their car and run it 15k between
oil changes, they'll do it. The Saturn tech says "sure, it's okay to
run synthetic", they'll take it to mean that they can run that oil for
15k just like they've been told.
Saturns are finicky about oil. The guy is just doing his job trying to
keep as many of those problems from coming back and biting him in the
butt as possible.
--
Loren Williams | Homepage - http://www2.southwind.net/~lsw
'94 Saturn SC2 | Wichita Region SCCA - http://www2.southwind.net/~scca
|