Hello Everyone,
Let me start off by saying that I've lurked for several years and thoroughly enjoy this site. I decided to join now to ask for some advice about a pair Saturn SL2s (1998 and 2001) that my parents own.
They bought these cars brand new and have regularly serviced both at the local Saturn dealer. The 1998 SL2 has about 164,000 km while the 2001 SL2 has about 97,000 km. Looking over their service records, there are some items (like frequent crankcase flushes) that I found questionable. Now that I've done a bit of research, I've learned that 1.9L DOHC engine is sometimes prone to timing chain failure due to a poor tensioner design. It also seems to be prone to high oil consumption due to poor ring (or ring groove) design.
Hard carbon deposits in the grooves (especially the oil ring?) seems to be main cause of the high oil consumption and I suspect that the crankcase flushes were to help keep the rings clean. I am curious to know what causes the rings to become sticky.
Would the use of a good quality synthetic oil (like Mobil 1?):
Neither car seems to consume very much oil yet and I am trying to come up with a maintenance plan to save them some money in the long run. I just had a local garage put their standard QS HorsePower synthetic oil in the 2001 SL2 but I'm not sure how good a job this oil will likely do in keeping the rings clean.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Let me start off by saying that I've lurked for several years and thoroughly enjoy this site. I decided to join now to ask for some advice about a pair Saturn SL2s (1998 and 2001) that my parents own.
They bought these cars brand new and have regularly serviced both at the local Saturn dealer. The 1998 SL2 has about 164,000 km while the 2001 SL2 has about 97,000 km. Looking over their service records, there are some items (like frequent crankcase flushes) that I found questionable. Now that I've done a bit of research, I've learned that 1.9L DOHC engine is sometimes prone to timing chain failure due to a poor tensioner design. It also seems to be prone to high oil consumption due to poor ring (or ring groove) design.
Hard carbon deposits in the grooves (especially the oil ring?) seems to be main cause of the high oil consumption and I suspect that the crankcase flushes were to help keep the rings clean. I am curious to know what causes the rings to become sticky.
Would the use of a good quality synthetic oil (like Mobil 1?):
- be more resistant to leaving ring deposits?
- slowly remove any existing ring deposits?
- help to extend the life of the timing chain and tensioner?
- allow a normal service OCI of 10,000 km (rather than severe service 5,000 km OCI)?
Neither car seems to consume very much oil yet and I am trying to come up with a maintenance plan to save them some money in the long run. I just had a local garage put their standard QS HorsePower synthetic oil in the 2001 SL2 but I'm not sure how good a job this oil will likely do in keeping the rings clean.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.