Latest Saturn horror story

a horror story about saturn
I tow my saturn behind my r.v. the dealer never told me I had to
balance and rotate my tires. every 6000 miles.
the transmission was destroyed they told me it was my fault. I sued
them in small claims court and a few days before the court date they
refunded me the $3500.00 I paid to have it reparied.the dealer in
roseville
ca. was absolutely no help, customer service told me too bad. so I had
to sue them.it was amazing how fast they settled when they were served
with small claims court papers. I did it all on the internet from my
home in auburn ca. . the total cost was $27.00. (certified return
receipt.filing papers etc) I have 37000 miles on it and am on my
third set of tires. so my advice after trying to deal with these
people do not fight them take them to court,. until they change
management, think twice before buying a saturn. I will not go into all
the details but you can email me at

kenneth oelrich





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My tires were very good after 50k ... I rotated them at 20k and 40k ... no
problems ... Great car!!!! Roy, 98 SL2

In article >,
(misterfact) wrote:

> I tow my saturn behind my r.v. the dealer never told me I had to
> balance and rotate my tires. every 6000 miles.
> the transmission was destroyed they told me it was my fault.

Huh?

Standard text in ANY car owner's manual - do not tow the car on all 4
wheels. In fact, it's bad for any car out there, and murderous to any
*automatic* transmission car.

Because the transmission doesn't get lubrication when the motor's not
running - the engine spins the tranny's oil pump.

The simple fact is, and RV heads absolutely hate hearing this, but the
only safe way to tow a car is either with a dolly that keeps the drive
wheels off the ground, or with the halfshafts out. Spinning the
transmission via the drivesshaft for hours on end at high speed, without
the engine running to keep the pump going, will destory ANY automatic
out there, and is bad for most manuals too.

No car company covers dammage from intentional use. I'm failing to see
how this is a 'horror story'....

We regularly tow our "chase vehicle" behind our large trucks, and we ALWAYS
idle the engine while it is being towed...even if it is for hours at a time.
No problems on a cheapo Mazda pickup.

As far as your tire problems...what does THAT have to do with the price of
tea in China? It sounds like you either got some bad advice or NO advice on
the proper way to tow your saturn behind your RV. Based on what I see
around the country, Saturns are a pretty popular car to tow behind Land
Yachts.

R.


"Philip Nasadowski" > wrote in message
...
> In article >,
> (misterfact) wrote:
>
> > I tow my saturn behind my r.v. the dealer never told me I had to
> > balance and rotate my tires. every 6000 miles.
> > the transmission was destroyed they told me it was my fault.
>
> Huh?
>
> Standard text in ANY car owner's manual - do not tow the car on all 4
> wheels. In fact, it's bad for any car out there, and murderous to any
> *automatic* transmission car.
>
> Because the transmission doesn't get lubrication when the motor's not
> running - the engine spins the tranny's oil pump.
>
> The simple fact is, and RV heads absolutely hate hearing this, but the
> only safe way to tow a car is either with a dolly that keeps the drive
> wheels off the ground, or with the halfshafts out. Spinning the
> transmission via the drivesshaft for hours on end at high speed, without
> the engine running to keep the pump going, will destory ANY automatic
> out there, and is bad for most manuals too.
>
> No car company covers dammage from intentional use. I'm failing to see
> how this is a 'horror story'....

In article >,
"WTP07" > wrote:

> We regularly tow our "chase vehicle" behind our large trucks, and we ALWAYS
> idle the engine while it is being towed...even if it is for hours at a time.
> No problems on a cheapo Mazda pickup.

Yes. This keeps the transmission lubricated. I'm guessing automatic
here? An automatic can be destroyed towing it with the motor off. With
the motor on, it pretty much thinks it's in neutral all day - the front
pump is pushing lube through the system.

Then again, after thinking about it, do the gears turn at all in a
manual in neutral with the engine off? If not, that's bad for them too
- since it's the spinning gears that splash the lube around.

In any case, proper towing is the key - and running the engine does the
trick here. No manufacturer I know of would do a tranny replaccement in
or out of warrenty for someone who improperly towed a car (and the
manual says what the proper methods are!)

http://www.saturn.com/saturn/contact...av=4210&page=3
http://www.motorhomemagazine.com/din...nghytowing.pdf

Philip Nasadowski wrote:
>
> In article >,
> "WTP07" > wrote:
>
> > We regularly tow our "chase vehicle" behind our large trucks, and we ALWAYS
> > idle the engine while it is being towed...even if it is for hours at a time.
> > No problems on a cheapo Mazda pickup.
>
> Yes. This keeps the transmission lubricated. I'm guessing automatic
> here? An automatic can be destroyed towing it with the motor off. With
> the motor on, it pretty much thinks it's in neutral all day - the front
> pump is pushing lube through the system.
>
> Then again, after thinking about it, do the gears turn at all in a
> manual in neutral with the engine off? If not, that's bad for them too
> - since it's the spinning gears that splash the lube around.
>
> In any case, proper towing is the key - and running the engine does the
> trick here. No manufacturer I know of would do a tranny replaccement in
> or out of warrenty for someone who improperly towed a car (and the
> manual says what the proper methods are!)

Good idea to keep the engine of the towed car running. It is not so much
lubrication as the sustained hydraulic pressure that keeps the auto trany
from getting damaged. With the engine off, the clutch packs all drag and
will wear out. With engine on, the pump is circulating fluid for cooling and
will hold the clutches in the correct sequence.


"WTP07" > wrote in message
...
> We regularly tow our "chase vehicle" behind our large trucks, and we
> ALWAYS
> idle the engine while it is being towed...even if it is for hours at a
> time.
> No problems on a cheapo Mazda pickup.
>
>

Please read what the saturn in fargo has to say.

http://www.fargoweb.com/saturn/tow.html


Paul


(misterfact) wrote in message . com>...
> a horror story about saturn
> I tow my saturn behind my r.v. the dealer never told me I had to
> balance and rotate my tires. every 6000 miles.
> the transmission was destroyed they told me it was my fault. I sued
> them in small claims court and a few days before the court date they
> refunded me the $3500.00 I paid to have it reparied.the dealer in
> roseville
> ca. was absolutely no help, customer service told me too bad. so I had
> to sue them.it was amazing how fast they settled when they were served
> with small claims court papers. I did it all on the internet from my
> home in auburn ca. . the total cost was $27.00. (certified return
> receipt.filing papers etc) I have 37000 miles on it and am on my
> third set of tires. so my advice after trying to deal with these
> people do not fight them take them to court,. until they change
> management, think twice before buying a saturn. I will not go into all
> the details but you can email me at
>
> kenneth oelrich
>
>
>
>
>
> DeleteReplyForwardSpam Move...
> Previous | Next | Back to Messages Save Message Text

"Philip Nasadowski" > wrote in message
...
> In article >,
> (misterfact) wrote:
>
> > I tow my saturn behind my r.v. the dealer never told me I had to
> > balance and rotate my tires. every 6000 miles.
> > the transmission was destroyed they told me it was my fault.
>
> Huh?
>
> Standard text in ANY car owner's manual - do not tow the car on all 4
> wheels. In fact, it's bad for any car out there, and murderous to any
> *automatic* transmission car.
>
> Because the transmission doesn't get lubrication when the motor's not
> running - the engine spins the tranny's oil pump.
>

Actually the Saturn S-Series cars were designed to be pulled without having
to put it on a trailer of any type. Though the note did not say what type
of Saturn the person had. If they had a L-Series then they abused the car
and tough luck. The L-Series was NOT designed to be pulled without a
trailer holding it up.

Jim

Paul Dougherty > wrote:
> Please read what the saturn in fargo has to say.

> http://www.fargoweb.com/saturn/tow.html

Now click on "New Models" and you'll see it only covers the
cars that were new for 1998. IE, the S series. (Hey, mine
is a 1998 S series... SW2)

Apparently they need to update their web site..

-DanD

--
# Dan Duncan (kd4igw) http://pcisys.net/~dand
# Love is a matter of chemistry, but Sex is a matter of physics.