73 Mike
I'll drive it someday
My wife has had a Saturn since 1993. I have always found them to be reliable, relatively easy to work on and a great value for money. They always had quirks and the fit and finish was typical for a NOrth American made car, but we loved them. When she needed a new car, we got her a VUE. It's now old enough that I'm starting to have to do some more involved servicing. This morning, I decided to do replace the thermostat and main hoses. The top hose was a no brainer until I tried to get the top clamp off. Did you know there is a special clamp remover? The top hose must have been installed using a wide range clamp installer with two bends in it. I had to cut the hose to get access to the clamp. Only n hour for that one. No problem.
On to the lower hose. Access to the radiator side clamp is very poor. I was finally able to use channel lock pliers to blindly grab the tangs. I did brake a piece of plastic condiut to get that one off but I've done worse. Once that was off, I ran my hand along the hose to fine the clamp at the other end. Now the real trouble begins.
I pull out the Saturn service manual and read the procedure. Initially, I couldn't find the parts that they were asking to remove because my VUE has the optional 6 cylinder L61 motor, not the 4 cylinder L61 motor in the service manual. :banghead: Quality control must have been sleeping when they printed that one up. Anyways, found the right engine. It begins with "remove the battery and battery box." Oops, must have flipped the page to "Full engine rebuild" rather than "Replace Thermostat." Check back to the description. No, it looks like I need to do this. I could feel the hose run in that direction so I guess it must be right. Start reading that procedure. Calls for removing the under hood fuse panel. You must be f'n shitting me. Remove the fuse panel to replace the thermostat? Really??:skeptic:
Start working through that procedure. Two hours later i have that out. One part of the procedure that I particularly like is that they want me to protect the now totally exposed fuse panel from "Any contaminants." Clearly there shouldn't be any contaminants on an engine right near where I'm draining engine coolant. I'll be amazed if this car ever runs again. :suicide:
The only consolation is that this really isn't a Saturn but rather a GM made car. Unfortunately all of the Saturn folks are out on the street and we paid out of our taxes about a million dollars for every job we saved in Detroit.
On to the lower hose. Access to the radiator side clamp is very poor. I was finally able to use channel lock pliers to blindly grab the tangs. I did brake a piece of plastic condiut to get that one off but I've done worse. Once that was off, I ran my hand along the hose to fine the clamp at the other end. Now the real trouble begins.
I pull out the Saturn service manual and read the procedure. Initially, I couldn't find the parts that they were asking to remove because my VUE has the optional 6 cylinder L61 motor, not the 4 cylinder L61 motor in the service manual. :banghead: Quality control must have been sleeping when they printed that one up. Anyways, found the right engine. It begins with "remove the battery and battery box." Oops, must have flipped the page to "Full engine rebuild" rather than "Replace Thermostat." Check back to the description. No, it looks like I need to do this. I could feel the hose run in that direction so I guess it must be right. Start reading that procedure. Calls for removing the under hood fuse panel. You must be f'n shitting me. Remove the fuse panel to replace the thermostat? Really??:skeptic:
Start working through that procedure. Two hours later i have that out. One part of the procedure that I particularly like is that they want me to protect the now totally exposed fuse panel from "Any contaminants." Clearly there shouldn't be any contaminants on an engine right near where I'm draining engine coolant. I'll be amazed if this car ever runs again. :suicide:
The only consolation is that this really isn't a Saturn but rather a GM made car. Unfortunately all of the Saturn folks are out on the street and we paid out of our taxes about a million dollars for every job we saved in Detroit.
Last edited:
