Five problems related to power train have been reported for the 2000 Saturn LS. The most recently reported issues are listed below.
I started the car and backed out of the driveway when a put it in forward it stalled. It started again and I drove to my destination. It also started again and I was able to return home. While I was driving to and from my appointment I could not maintain speed going up hills on the highway. When I went to start the car the next day it turned over but did not start. From there on it would not turn over at all. My mechanic says there no compression on any of the cylinders and it is most likely the timing chain.
The contact owns a 2000 Saturn Ls1. He stated the vehicle was consuming large quantities of engine oil. The dealer stated the rack and pinion assembly needed to be replaced. The vehicle was taken for a second opinion to a local mechanic where the power steering reservoir was replaced and the failure ceased. On a separate occasion, while driving at speeds of over 10 mph or attempting a left or right turn, the vehicle would lose power. Also, while in the reverse mode, the vehicle would stall. The dealer could not duplicate the problem. The failure persisted. The vehicle was taken to the dealer over 4 additional times and the failure could not be duplicated. There were no recalls on the vehicle and no further repairs were made to the vehicle. The failure and current mileages were under 103,000.
I have a 2000 Saturn Ls2. I was approaching a red light. I downshifted from 3rd to 2nd without incident. When I tried to shift down to 1st, I heard a pop and the gear shift lever was completely disconnected to the linkage. This was very disconcerting. When I called the mechanic and told them what happened the first question was 'do you have a Saturn?" I found out that this problem is caused by failure of a plastic bushing which costs less than $20 but which Saturn is charging $800 to replace along with a lot of other parts. They will not sell just the bushing. I bought one on ebay for $19. 99. If this happened on the freeway or while pulling into traffic causing a stall, it could result in a serious accident. I suggested that Saturn ought to be fixing this for free and they laughed at me.
The vehicle experiences powertrain noise. Nlm.
Speedometer was making noise.