Alexander
LOD Board of Directors
I changed the oil on my girlfriend's 1998 Saturn SL2 over the weekend. She has about 38,000 miles on the car. The car had some problems stalling out when new, but for the last few years has been trouble free.
I found changing the oil on this car interesting. Changing the oil in the transmission on this car is as easy as changing the engine oil. Both have a drain plug on the pan and both have a spin on filter. The only problem I imagine with this set up is some new owners might mistakenly drain the tranmission oil and remove the tranmission filter and then wonder why four quarts of engine oil causes an overflow. The tranmission filter is marked "TRANSMISSION", but I know that is not enough to enlighten some people. One other possible source of confusion is that the oil level dipstick goes through the transmission.
Car makers should have had spin on filters and drain plugs on transmissions long ago. The filter in the transmission pan is a mess to change.
Alexander
President
Lincolns of Distinction
I found changing the oil on this car interesting. Changing the oil in the transmission on this car is as easy as changing the engine oil. Both have a drain plug on the pan and both have a spin on filter. The only problem I imagine with this set up is some new owners might mistakenly drain the tranmission oil and remove the tranmission filter and then wonder why four quarts of engine oil causes an overflow. The tranmission filter is marked "TRANSMISSION", but I know that is not enough to enlighten some people. One other possible source of confusion is that the oil level dipstick goes through the transmission.
Car makers should have had spin on filters and drain plugs on transmissions long ago. The filter in the transmission pan is a mess to change.
Alexander
President
Lincolns of Distinction