Anyone with expertise on a Lw200?
 

Our LW-200 is starting to annoy us.
Seems like there is a terrible shortage of knowledgeable [saturn]
mechanics that know anything about this car and it's manual
transmission.

Since just under 30,000 miles the clutch has acted up/weird on us.
Essentially it first showed up after driving about 90 miles on the
freeway, I went to put down the clutch to downshift and it went to the
floor. I was able to speed shift and pumping the clutch pedal seemed to
maybe make a little difference.

On very cold mornings the clutch acts up in the reverse.... the pedal
travel is only 1-3 inches to fullly disengage, this floating enageg
point of the pedal makes for some comical backing the car out of the
driveway -- unfortunately my spouse doesn't find me laughing at her
stalling the car very amusing.

So this clutch issue has been going on for about 25,000 miles now.
Saturn has looked at it at least three times, never finding anything
wrong. They did a bleed on whatever system the clutch runs off and it
seemed to improve for awhile.

Then about 50,000 the power steering started to groan loudly and
intermittently lose power-assist -- again mostly only in the mornings,
and only noticeable when turning the wheel left (where it would
violently vibrate between assisted and non-assisted turning) while
groaning and creaking. After warming up the power steering behaves.

So, the $75,000 question is does anyone know if the power-assist and
clutch share a hydraulic assembly in the manual transmission LW-200 ?


By the way, the final straw was yesterday the wife called to say the A/C
quit. I had complained many times about the compressor engaging only to
have it dismissed as normal sounds and behavior (the computer would
cycle the a/c compressor shortly after starting the engine, which I
understand could be normal, however it would sometimes do so too early
or not compensate with enough throttle rpm and nearly stall out the
engine).

So we dropped it off yesterday and hope for some mechanic-savant to
actually locate the real issue(s).

>
> Then about 50,000 the power steering started to groan loudly and
> intermittently lose power-assist -- again mostly only in the mornings,
> and only noticeable when turning the wheel left (where it would
> violently vibrate between assisted and non-assisted turning) while
> groaning and creaking. After warming up the power steering behaves.
>
> So, the $75,000 question is does anyone know if the power-assist and
> clutch share a hydraulic assembly in the manual transmission LW-200 ?
>
I have a 2001 L200 and the steering has had many problems. I have power
transmission. First it was a linkage, I think that was clunking, then a
steering gear and then the steering rack. The later two made moaning noise
with a left turns and particularly after hard braking. It was covered by
extended warranty.

"New & Improved - N/F John" > wrote in
:

>>
>> Then about 50,000 the power steering started to groan loudly and
>> intermittently lose power-assist -- again mostly only in the
>> mornings, and only noticeable when turning the wheel left (where it
>> would violently vibrate between assisted and non-assisted turning)
>> while groaning and creaking. After warming up the power steering
>> behaves.
>>
>> So, the $75,000 question is does anyone know if the power-assist and
>> clutch share a hydraulic assembly in the manual transmission LW-200 ?
>>
> I have a 2001 L200 and the steering has had many problems. I have
> power transmission. First it was a linkage, I think that was
> clunking, then a steering gear and then the steering rack. The later
> two made moaning noise with a left turns and particularly after hard
> braking. It was covered by extended warranty.
>

Yup, they replaced the rack. Then when putting it back together it
leaked again -- so a turned into a 2.5 day repair.
Still cannot locate any issue with the clutch.

Our extended warranty has a $50 deductible, is that normal?

> > I have a 2001 L200 and the steering has had many problems. I have
> > power transmission. First it was a linkage, I think that was
> > clunking, then a steering gear and then the steering rack. The later
> > two made moaning noise with a left turns and particularly after hard
> > braking. It was covered by extended warranty.
> >
>
> Yup, they replaced the rack. Then when putting it back together it
> leaked again -- so a turned into a 2.5 day repair.
> Still cannot locate any issue with the clutch.
>
> Our extended warranty has a $50 deductible, is that normal?

Life isn't fair. I got a non-deductible warranty.

"New & Improved - N/F John" > wrote in
:

>> > I have a 2001 L200 and the steering has had many problems. I have
>> > power transmission. First it was a linkage, I think that was
>> > clunking, then a steering gear and then the steering rack. The later
>> > two made moaning noise with a left turns and particularly after hard
>> > braking. It was covered by extended warranty.
>> >
>>
>> Yup, they replaced the rack. Then when putting it back together it
>> leaked again -- so a turned into a 2.5 day repair.
>> Still cannot locate any issue with the clutch.
>>
>> Our extended warranty has a $50 deductible, is that normal?
>
> Life isn't fair. I got a non-deductible warranty.

Yeah, from when I buy extended warranties (which I endorse btw), I am
going to read fine print on deductibles and whether it covers first-day
rentals or not. Got sorta screwed on both my recent purchases that way -
but I have a third vehicle so in th elong run it is okay.