93 Saturn Odometer broke, 400 bucks I don't think so

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
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Truly a MPSIMS, Here’s my story on how Saturn attempted to rip me off for a .10 cent gear. (That I figured would cost me 10 bucks)

Last Saturday, I look at a 93 Saturn wagon. The Odometer has 67K on it, but it was “discovered” broken on the test drive.

So I buy it, prior to researching the cost of repair. (Bad move) I had noted in research of Saturn’s that a red gear in the odometer tended to break, so I figured no biggie, what’s a gear gonna cost. I go to purchase said gear, ot oo, it’s only availible with the rest of the dash attached, for about $400.00. I said nevermind, and asked who I should call about this problem. I called, the rep took my information, they called back and said, they wouldn’t help as the car was to old. We discussed it, the only thing they would offer was “you could purchase it in a junk yard” This gear is made of a plastic that doesn’t seem to like a car environment much. It’s soft, no very nylon like, so a junk yard part is likely going to fail quickly.

I’m kind of a pack rat, and have 10 or so car sterios, from the “old” days. So I start tearing into the autoreverse cassette decks, and find a gear that’s just a bit to big in diameter. (around .050) I try it, it’s to much for the stepper moter to win. So I proceed to sand it down, and notch the teeth deeper, until I get it working. It Works Great now, the gear is nylon, rather than thermoplastic, and should outlast the engine.

So there you go, If you have an older Saturn, and the odometer breaks, take a good look at that cassette deck. <smile>

Just FYI, It was a Kraco autoreverse unit, the spindle gears were the one’s I used. Had to cut down the shaft of the gear, but the pin diameter is perfect. A small nylon washer was inserted on the shaft to provide clearance. I made an extension cable for the odometer so it would work outside of the dash. It was rather fun to have my odometer sitting on the passanger seat.

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They’re charging you for ripping out the dash and putting it back in. They probably don’t have to, but auto mechanics believe in being thorough, I suppose.

This is why a dead speedometer is a major “d’oh!” moment…

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$450 is for just the panel, after the $180 core charge. I didn’t ask about service time, as I was at the parts counter. (they wouldn’t know) I expect that they would charge 1.5 hours for a dash replacement. I was impressed with the ease of disassembly. For that I give the engineers credit, as for this gear, oh, this isn’t the PIT. <smile>

The part they wanted to sell me included the spedo, tach, fuel, etc, it is the entire gauge panel. It’s nice that Saturn purchases this as a unit, (to save money) They could however, provide a parts number for the supplier who makes the unit.

Dan

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Not just the mechanics! I took my car into Jiffy Lube for an oil change and they wanted to change all kinds of belts, rotate my tires, do emissions tests…

My car has about 8300 miles on it. It’s still basically new. Go away, Jiffy Lube. Change my oil.

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Grrrr! My 94 Saturn’s odometer broke about a month after I bought it. Supposedly it only had 62K miles on it, but I dunno…
I don’t have the money to get the whole damned dash replaced, nor do I have the ingenuity to fix it myself. It’s nice to know there is a way to fix it. But in a way, that makes the problem even more frustrating since I’m not able to do it.
I doubt I’ll ever bu a Saturn again. My car is still under warranty so I had the transmission, chassis problems, and the cruise control fixed about a year ago. Guess what… All those problems are back.

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Now I’m a bit confused. Did the gear you replaced the old one with have the correct number of teeth? Because in an odometer, that seems like a pretty important consideration.

While 400 bucks for a ten cent gear does seem outrageous, I’m skeptical that there’s a car company on the planet that would have sold you just the part. Probably lots of places on the web where you can custom order gears, though.

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I didn’t check the number of teeth, because in the application it doesn’t matter. (however it must be close as the pitch and diameter are correct) The gear is simply an idler between a pinion gear and a ring gear. Picture a dot in the center of an “O”, the idler in this case connects the dot of the pinion to the ring. To me it was a cool way of simple gear reduction. I tested the odometer’s accuracy over 24 miles of interstate, at he end it was well within 1/4 of a tenth.

I did search the web for nylon gear, and other things, but was unable to come up with a supplier. (All Electroics, MCM, and others sell gears, but no match) I would have been much easier to locate a .450 diameter with 35 teeth, rather than machining it down by hand. Besides, I really wanted to post a link to the gear, so others with the ability, could replace the gear easily.

Other manufactures likely also wouldn’t have sold me the gear, but they would have had the odometer for $50.00 or so.

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I have learned the hard way that repairing a Saturn is damn expensive. $850 for a rear window (vandalized), a new fan belt assembly, $300 to fix the automatic driver’s window, $600 for some kind of transmission work, two new alternators… it goes on.

Now the temperature gauge is broken, some yahoo knocked off my passenger mirror, and the air conditioner barely works. I cringe to think of the cost. I will NEVER, NEVER buy another Saturn.

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YappingPoodle, I’ve had the same experience. My ex-SO used to have a Saturn that was an incredible money pit. Anytime something broke (a common occurence with that car), it cost a fortune to fix. Way more than most cars. In fact, some of the repair expenses were inline with the expenses for cars like a Merceded S-class. I wonder if they subsidize the cost of new Saturns with repair costs. . .
And those plastic body panels they touted so highly when they first came out, it’s true they don’t dent. Rather, they shatter. And then you have to buy a whole new panel at very high prices. I had an ultra-low speed fender bender in that car that resulted in zero damage to the other car and a gaping foot wide hole in the front fender of the Saturn.
Argh, I can feel my blood pressure rising just thinking about that car! And the dealers added to the experience as well. They constantly put forth a Clintonian effort to weasel out of their promises and obligations.
“We didn’t say we could fix it for that much.”
“Yes, you did. That’s exactly what you said.”
“Well, it depends on what the meaning of ‘fix’ is. . .”

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YappingPoodle, I’ve had the same experience. My ex-SO used to have a Saturn that was an incredible money pit. Anytime something broke (a common occurence with that car), it cost a fortune to fix. Way more than most cars. In fact, some of the repair expenses were inline with the expenses for cars like a Merceded S-class. I wonder if they subsidize the cost of new Saturns with repair costs. . .
And those plastic body panels they touted so highly when they first came out, it’s true they don’t dent. Rather, they shatter. And then you have to buy a whole new panel at very high prices. I had an ultra-low speed fender bender in that car that resulted in zero damage to the other car and a gaping foot wide hole in the front fender of the Saturn.
Argh, I can feel my blood pressure rising just thinking about that car! And the dealers added to the experience as well. They constantly put forth a Clintonian effort to weasel out of their promises and obligations.
“We didn’t say we could fix it for that much.”
“Yes, you did. That’s exactly what you said.”
“Well, it depends on what the meaning of ‘fix’ is. . .”

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It’s so true! My fender bender resulted in $3000 worth of repair. Saturn doesn’t tell you that “crumple zone” really means “expanding insurance premiums.” My Mechanic From Heaven has said, that he while definitely appreciates my business he really wished I had asked his opinion before I bought the money pit on wheels.

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I’m sure you could go to a salvage yard and ask someone if they have what you need, or you can ask them to put your name and what you need on a list and they will call you when/if they get the part in that you need. Ther are very cheap too.

You can also go to www.americanautoparts.com and look at the list of things they have, im sure they will have what you are looking for. You might have to call the number and talk to a real person. I looked at this website when I was looking for a new headlight assembly for my car.