Timing belt slippage

I am the owner of a 2000 Saturn Wagon, which has been in Winnipeg's Point
West Saturn repair shop for the last 3 weeks. Apparently the car sustained
massive internal damage (repair costs of $5500.00 CAN) because its timing
belt slipped.



The Saturn mechanic says the damage that occurred to the car is the result
of "improper timing belt tension". The car's mileage is only at 82,000 and
the required timing belt maintenance timeline is 166000 km. This car has
had all the required maintenance and invoices have been provided to your
Winnipeg dealer.



The dealer and Saturn Corporation have decided they will pay for 55% of the
repair costs. I believe Saturn should be responsible for all the repair
costs as I'm not sure what else I could have been done to prevent this; it
is obviously a mechanical dysfunction that has to be taken seriously.



It's difficult to accept that this is "something that happens" and I have to
live with it. I have a Toyota that has 470000 km and has never had any
problems. I believe it is not unreasonable to expect the same performance
from every car we purchase.



We have enjoyed this Saturn Wagon; it is the perfect style and size for our
family.

Does anyone have suggests or ideas on any other things I can do to get it
all paid for? This really peeves me.

 

A few months ago on the Toyota group a guy was complaining that his 1 year
old Toyota engine had self distructed. The dealer claimed that he had
redlined it and therefore Toyota would not cover it under warranty. That
according to the black box computer installed in every Toyota and many other
cars these days. My arguement would be that perhaps the computer
malfunctioned and led to the engine failure and recording of the redline
data. He never posted how it ended up. Bottom line is that just because
your Toyota is perfect that does not mean all of them are. I usually buy an
extended warranty on my cars for 7 years and sell them in mid year 6 so I
can offer them with a warranty (it is transferable) and get a good price.
You might consider that next time but this time you are lucky if they pay
half.

 

There is NO timing belt on a saturn 1.9L motor it has a timing CHAIN. I

 

Belt? Must be the 3.0L
When will people learn not to buy cars with timing "belts"? The 3.0L is
nothing to brag about, neither are Toyota's. I'll put a million miles on
a chain before I trust a belt to last 10 miles.

 

I agree, too. There's no maintenance on the system you failed to do,
and you did the other regular maintenance. It failed cause it broke
prematurely, which is in all certainly a material/manufacturing defect.
Though you'd have to prove you dont' ''abuse' it, which should be easy
if you've got no teenage males and it's a wagon anyway.

I wouldn't go bragging about Toyotas, though. I've been hearing more
and more Toyota horror stories, not to mention they are known for engine
sludge issues, which Toyota claims isn't an inherient defect in their
cars, though I know of no other engines that have them. Hell, at
210,000 miles, my Saturn's motor was darn clean inside.

Then again, I'm waiting for the *big* Honda recall on their flakey 5
speed automatics...

 

I wouldn't go bragging about Toyotas, though. I've been hearing more

Yeah, I remember reading about the sludge - can't remember what it ended up
being (thought it might have been undersized oil galleys). I got a new
Tundra and I read that older ones had brake issues and they didn't like the
overdrive in the autobox (something about metal fillings in the pan).

And there's a few reports of fires on the CRV/Element because, and I
paraphrase, if the oil filter is not installed correctly during a service,
they drip oil on the exhaust and burn. I believe in Japan they are equipped
with a fire extinguisher

 

Whoa, Girl.
What does the warranty book say on a 2000 Wagon for the timing belt? If the
warranty says "yes - covered" then I would promptly call them back and
politely tell them they can shove the belt 55% of the way up their azz, or
the next person to get a phone call will offer to go 105%, and yank it out
their nose after they post your complaint in every local newspaper within
100 miles. Either that, or run down to your local court house and file a
small claims (sue them - or whatever they have where you're from - I'm in
Canada) against Saturn. It would be worth the $55 to file it to make them
spend $1,200 on a lawyer's letter back to you. Then I would pay the 45%.

If it says "no-not covered" I would quietly say, "Thank you oh so much Mr.
Saturn Dealer sir" take the 45% kick in the junk, then sneak up behind them
and shove the rest of the working car 55% up their azz.



Can you tell I have a serious hate-on for bullsheit warranties which are
sneakily designed to tilt the table in favour of failure? I like the
"extended warranty - sell it" idea, though. I might try that myself on my
next one.

Best of luck, friend.
-e

 

Piss poor design. To boot - the temperatures differential between the
head and block is apparently very hiugh, plus there's a lot of places
the oil can pool and cook up there, and a few other things (like tiny
passages).

Toyota, naturally, has been playing the blame game and dragging their
ass on what's pretty much a known, predictable defect on these cars. I
think there's a class action going around now.

*shrug*. Toyota gets their trucks generally right, at least.

Bad maintenance practices coupled with poor design. The gasket sticks
to the engine, if you don't pull the gasket off, the new one doesn't
seal right. Actually, it's probbably not a BAD design, I think they
pinned it on a supplier issue with the gaskets.

Might be standard equipment on cars there, along with really stupid name
(Diahatsu Applause?)

Hey, first few models of Xerox machines had built in fire extinguishers
too....