01 Saturn SL1 is really impressing me
 

40mpg at mostly interstate velocities is pretty good in my book for 1.9 litres

That's knocking at the door of geo metro mileage but with actual ac

If I can cure the HVAC stink and windows fogging I might have a pretty good $600 commuter on my hands.

The only mods have been 5 psi overinflation and some low level hypermiling (all after the first fill)

When this happened to me it turned out to be a leak in the heater that put moisture to fog the windows and brought the smell of the antifreeze into the compartment. Might look for this.

After exhausting all other possibilities I came to this as well. However I'm not losing coolant and don't smell antifreeze. I dug in and changed the heater core anyway hosed out the evaporator, removed a double handful of wet rotten leaves and I think fixed a stuck recirc door. I even removed all the carpet and sound insulation

I'll know if I fixed it today

Are you sure the removed insulation won't have any detrimental effect to the efficiency of the air conditioning?

Seeing as it was soaking wet and growing fungus that's a chance I had to take lol

Saved about 80lbs

Ready for a layer or two of Dynamat? https://www.dynamat.com/

Of course you had to take it out of the car, yet replacing it with something more resistent to moisture and easier to clean would be still beneficial somehow.

But then I'd have to fix all the leaks

The bare metal floorboard is pretty easy to take care of and not nearly as loud as you think. Plus it made the foot well area feel twice as large for a tall guy like me.

Even for a $600 car this thing was nasty inside. I literally pressure washed the seats and door panels.

It's just really not been a big deal to have it gone

Do it the Paraguayan way :D


I'd be more concerned about thermal insulation, to decrease the load on the air conditioning, than I would actually care about soundproofing.

Is the A/C smell only when you first turn it on? Try turning off the A/C a few minutes before you complete your trip, leaving the fan running.

The problem has been solved. It was a combination of leaves and crap in the evaporator and a non functioning blend door stuck on recirculation

And it's usually not the easiest to access in order to repair.

I had one of these! They're a fantastic car, and the SaturnFans forum is top-notch.

I had an 02 SL. Not an SL1, just SL. Manual everything. My high fuel economy mark was 42.3 MPG. I basically don't hypermile. I think I averaged 32 MPG.

I've gotten a few more mpg calcs since last posting and the car just does 40mpg give or take slightly

My 50 mile daily commute is virtually all highway miles and I do try to hypermile as much as possible.

But because my driving is disproportionately steady highway speeds it almost doesn't matter of I drive like a douchebag or hypermile. (See my fuel log for details)

The only thing I don't like about the car is it's not a hatchback. Compact sedans have no redeeming qualities from a practicality standpoint

The whole time I drove my Notchback, I knew the Squareback is more practical, but it sure was pretty.

They're not super common, but the SW1 "wagon" version exists, and it's a more practical version, with maybe tiny sacrifices on fuel economy.

My SL was replaced with a Ford Focus wagon, and I averaged 32 MPG with it, although I never got 40 MPG on the highway. VERY practical car, wish I still had it.

I've had about 6 Saturn's over the years. The first one ihad for 13 years and 350k miles. They are amazingly relibke and economical. Super cheap to buy and maintain. The dual overhead cam has 25% more power and actually delivered better fuel economy than the sohc. I used to tow a travel trailer with my SC2!
Best mpg was 42, average was 38mpg

If you find it cheap or have other uses, a can of orange foaming evaporator cleaner sprayed into the vents works wonders. The foam drags down all the vent gunk and then drains; can help clear up the drain too.
Of course a pressure sprayer into the vents outlets will do it as well.

Micro coolant leaks that don't show up in the engine compartment are often leaks in the gaskets of the water pump, etc, and burned collected into oil. But no issue an pretty common for older high mileage cars.

Sounds like you have yourself a nice Lil beater.
Likely the only real improvement left that's not drastic would be LRR tires, or possibly a lighter narrower rim but I'd guess you already have about the most economical option on the car.

I've always wondered how much a block heater or coolant heater would give ya, run before startup to optimum temps. Toyota thought enough of it to put coolant into a thermos like container after shutdown on the prius. And either wouldn't cost too much to try.

Even though Saturn had never been officially available in my country, there was a demand for grey-imports in the '90s. I have seen mostly the sedan and a few coupés, and only one wagon in '08 or '09.


Doesn't really seem to justify any sacrifice on fuel economy.

I decided after spacing the seat up and actually getting comfortable in the car that it was worth spending a little money on.

My first mpg mod, a set of racing disc hubcaps

Those look good. Do you have a link you can share? Thanks.

Rather than a link that will go dead in a few weeks I will give you a manufacturer and details that will last as long as this forum.

They are united Pacific brand purchased from hubcap kingdom in Tulsa Oklahoma through eBay

With the assistance of some CAD (cardboard aided design) I made some skirts and mirror delete panels from aluminum composite sign board

After doing so I took a 160 mile highway trip and netted the best tank to tank fill the car has yet to produce @ 43mpg. That's running 60-70 through the Ozarks on interstate 40 with the AC on 100% of the time

Attachment 32310

Have you measured any eventual impact of the insulation removal to the efficiency of the AC?

There's no impact

This car lacks any kind of automatic climate control or a variable displacement compressor. The AC is either full on or off. It keeps the car cool so far up into the 90s F although the real triple digit tests is yet to come

I did tint the rear windows and part of the windshield to the legal limits to help the AC out as much as possible and just generally make the car more comfortable

EDIT after commuting in the rain this morning I realized there's another mpg benefit to removal of the carpet and a seat. Without as much grody moisture absorbing material in the car I don't have to run the defrost nearly as much which does run the ac compressor

As I was more used to the Opel rebadges which could use defrost without having to run the AC, one thing that was quite odd to me at a first glance on a Blazer that an uncle of mine had was the defrost only working with the AC on.

While it's a little too early to pass the ultimate judgement it's looking like my mirror delete and side skirts were good for approximately 2mpg

To say I'm pleased is an understatement

Data in my fuel log

Attachment 32393

Next round of mods.

Grille and front smoothing

FINALLY RESULTS

I think I may have found why the car just never seemed to respond to my mpg mods frustratingly. A plugged up pre cat in the manifold. Up until now no matter what I did mpg was acceptable but never good. Now a couple fill cycles after dealing with that issue it's like all my modifications were unlocked at once

The latest fill to fill 47 MPG!

That's with the uncorked exhaust and power steering delete

That funky smell:

Make sure your evaporator box drain is not plugged. That will accumulate moisture and cause that horrible musty smell if it is trapping some water in there.

When you sit park with the A/C on after a drive, does your car drip water from the evaporator box?
It should. You might be able to find the drain port or line under the car and blow it out with compressed air or water.

You might also have a heater core leak, but those will have an added sweet smell from the coolant.