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1997 Saturn SL Base SL Manual

1997 Saturn SL
Trim Info:
Front Wheel Drive, 4 Door Sedan, Compact
28 mpg city / 40 mpg hwy
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June 21, 2012, 8:09 am

Meaghan M
 

Question: Steering wheel shaking, dash vibrating, oil issues?

Wanted to ask you about a problem I'm having with my 2002 Saturn SL2 (around 150k miles), and if it's something you can fix, get an estimate. My steering wheel is shaking violently at any speed over 50mph (though if I go above 65, it stops shaking for the most part), shaking a tiny bit depending on the speed at all other speeds (though it comes and goes), and shakes violently and vibrates when you take your foot off the gas or put on the brakes at high speeds, but usually seems to get better when you accelerate. On occasion, you can feel the vibration in the pedals, but I just had my brakes done less than a month ago (after the problem started) and there was nothing wrong with them at the time, so I don't think it's a rotor issue.

In addition to that, there is a smaller sound that comes and goes, sounds kind of like popcorn popping in a metal tin, coming from under the middle console (between the seats). It's not loud like a CV joint would be, and seems like it could be an exhaust leak? It tends to get louder when you accelerate. My dashboard also vibrates at a stop, which never happened before these issues started.

Slightly less worrisome issue (maybe), the car has always seemed to go through oil very quickly; we drove it a thousand miles and it was down a little over a quart, but it was not leaking, at least in a place we could see or anywhere visible on the ground.

Thanks, and please let me know what you think!

Have a great afternoon!


 
 



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