Hello Sixthsphere!

[mosthaggardbeast]

My name is Brady and I live in Northern California. I bought a 1993 SL2 from my sister-in-law for $800 almost 2 years ago now and it served as the family ride until 5 months ago. Recently my wife and I bought a 2004 Dodge Durango 4.7L to be our new DD as we have 3 kids and needed a little more space than my trusty SL2 had to offer. I also have a 1987 Ford F-150 4x4 that I recently got running again and plan to use that as the new beater. This has kind of left the Saturn unused for the better part of the last 5 months unfortunately. However, my wife is volunteering at the kids school more, leaving me with the Saturn for work the last couple weeks. I forgot how much I love this car... I bought a 20 year old car and drove it two years with only basic maintenance and not an issue.

My SL2 is a manual trans, bone stock and in desperate need of some love. The engine runs really strong but the plastic panels are fairly trashed and I've been told by a friend that the clutch is on it's last leg. I've never worked on any of my vehicles aside from oil changes and a water pump on the F-150, so I'm about as noob as they come on that front (I'm more of a computer guy). That said, my SL2 has been great to me and I feel that I should show her some love and hopefully learn more about my vehicles as well. This brings me to Sixthsphere.. I'm here to learn as much as I can and hopefully make some new friends in the process!

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[mostmint]

Welcome. Those panels look OK to me for a 20 year old car. It's all straight with no major cracks. If you are serious about working on it yourself getting a factory service manual will be a big help. I found a complete set for like $40 used a couple years back. That and a friend who has some mechanical expertise.

[mosthaggardbeast]

I've definitely got a friend who is a mechanic that has helped a ton with my vehicle maintenance in the past and he's offered up his expertise at any time. That said, I'll definitely be on the lookout for a factory service manual for my Saturn. I'm very serious about diving head first into this car and I'm hoping a lot of the knowledge I gain transfers easily to my other vehicles.. I've never worked on anything more complicated than a 2 stroke dirt bike engine, so this will be a very valuable learning experience for me. :]

[85HP]

+1 on the factory manuals. Ebay and, to a lesser extent, Craigslist are good sources. Go for the most complete multi-volume set you can find. It looks like you live in a comparatively warm climate compared to many of us ... rust is the biggest enemy of 1st gens where I live.

The fact that this is a 'secondary' car will work well with your plan to gain experience -- much more fun than doing repairs to beat a deadline on your daily driver.

There are some folks with serious knowledge here. Welcome.

[slipstreamconversion]

Welcome!

As a person whom got mechanically inclined friends to help out at first, I say that you should not hover too close but hover them and learn. Ask to do things and let them instruct you.

Don't be afraid to get into it. And there are lots of write ups and information available on Sixthsphere. Saturn S Series cars are great learning cars!

Welcome here!

[mosthaggardbeast]

Well It's been a couple years since I posted so I figured I'd reintroduce myself. I spent a lot of time reading and not posting here after my initial welcome message. This forum taught me an ass ton about my turd.. pun entirely intended. It's been sitting in the side yard the last couple years and I am about to get rid of a project motorcycle to fund this project turd. A turbo is in her not so distant future. Anyway, thanks for all the help learning how to work on my turd in the past and thanks in advance for the infinite knowledge I get to dig through to learn how to turbo her!

[mosthaggardbeast]

Also, it seems pretty hard to make a meaningful new post here seeing as these turds are all old and well studied, so here is my 5th post to make sure I'm not missing anything on 6s. Thanks again!

[S.Bretz]

Welcome aboard. Glad we could help broaden your technical knowledge.