Ryan's Daily Driver 1999 SC2

[yottabit]

Cliffnotes:
1999 White SC2 5 Speed, ~130k miles
Engine: Stock except for drop in K&N Filter and resonator delete
Suspension:
H&R Sport Springs on ST Struts (~1.4" drop)
RPM 17.5 MM 3-Way Adjustable Rear Swaybar
BWTucker Rear Swaybar Brackets, Moog Endlinks
-2 deg camber front, -1 deg camber rear
Brake, Wheel, Tire:
205/50-16 Mastercraft Avenger HP on 16x7 Rota Slipstreams
195/60-15 Arctic Claw TXi on Teardrops for the winter
Stock brakes
Audio:
Pioneer DEH-P5100UB Headunit
Kicker IX702 Amp w/ 10" Kicker Comp VR sub

Full Story:
So I bought this 1999 Saturn SC2 5 speed last summer for just a bit over 2 grand. I fell in love with it after my first test drive, and t was a one owner car with about 111k miles. Has the 3rd door and 3rd gen motor but no air pump. Had some trouble with her initially, the day after I bought it the CEL came on and the driver's window got stuck down on a week full of a rain. After fears of having bought a lemon, $50 I had installed the new O2 sensor and Power window motor I needed and since then I've been trouble free and put about 20k miles on including some 400+ mile, 40+ mpg road trips, drag racing, and auto-x. Somewhere after the first 10k miles the modding started.

Stock pics after some cleaning:




This photoshop by GBRunner got me started:


And so I finally decided to drop some dough on the wheels:


Then came the suspension mods:


Now the vision is a reality:



The interior:


At NED:

My first Auto-X:


Not quite sure where I'm going to go with it yet from here. For next summer I'm planning on throwing some good tires on it and upgrading the brake pads, possibly also doing a rear disc conversion with poly bushings.

My immediate plans are to get the AC functioning properly this summer and take the car on a 4000 mile road trip to Florida and back. Not sure yet if I want to go down the road of major engine mods, but I can see doing an intake and exhaust in the future, possibly an SAFC. There's some more cosmetic mods I want to do such as tinting, clear corners, and some different foglights.

Overall I'm very happy with the car now... it handles great, it sounds great, and the power it has is good enough (all these things are for my standards by the way). Most importantly it is reliable, it doesn't burn a whole lot of oil, and I almost never average below 30 mpg in mixed driving, and reach over 40 mpg on extended highway trips, even with the bigger wheels and tires. I feel lucky to finally have a car that can fit the bill for me and I definitely don't hesitate to recommend well maintained Saturns to my friends and family now.

[MskedmaN2]

Re: Ryan's Daily Driver 1999 SC2

looking good

[GBRunner24]

Re: Ryan's Daily Driver 1999 SC2

Good looking car. Wheels are a perfect match for that car. Why not slap an intake on now? They can be had for $40 or so.

[SPower1124]

Re: Ryan's Daily Driver 1999 SC2

I like the wheels

[yottabit]

Re: Ryan's Daily Driver 1999 SC2

Got the AC repaired (had it charged a couple weeks before my road trip, noticed it was leaking, they had to replace an o-ring, total of < 200 bucks) and had a fun road trip over the summer (only made it down to VA beach). Also was able to make it to a few more auto-x events, I think I did 4 this year. I'm at a bit of a crossroads now, I have a good chunk of change saved up and I need to decide whether I'm going to continue saving and blow all that money on a summer car (either a lt1 camaro or 300zx na 5 speed probably) or treat my Saturn to some more upgrades and keep the rest of the money... time will tell! The car has about 135k miles on it now and has given me absolutely no trouble...

[Ricer Ryan]

Re: Ryan's Daily Driver 1999 SC2

Buy another Saturn, SC1 or SL1, for gas mileage, and pull the motor and do a full N/A build on it! That is what you should do. lol.

Or more practical, but a sweet car and dd this one like you should.

[JRSTANGE]

Re: Ryan's Daily Driver 1999 SC2

i like it alot this far.

[yottabit]

Re: Ryan's Daily Driver 1999 SC2

MORE POWERRRRRR




Seriously though I am considering a turbo build... (just not with that turbo!) I should have enough money where I could use all quality parts, etc, doing my own work. I've always wanted to get into the nitty gritty of fuel tuning.

The idea would be:
Some sort of AC-retaining manifold
Biggish T3 or Smallish T3/T4 turbo
Internal WG or External depending on header & turbo, if I do external I'm definitely doing open dump!
Megasquirt or 034 EIC for the fuel with a WBO2
Big FMIC
Some nice AFR and boost gauges in a sleek location
My own custom mandrel bent downpipe, exhaust, intercooler piping... along with the oil lines and tuning
Money in the bank in case I blow something up

The idea would be to run about ~6 lbs and retain stockish drive ability, fuel economy, and ability to pass inspection. Some people on here think this is impossible, the select few on here know its possible because they drive it

[Satizzle]

Re: Ryan's Daily Driver 1999 SC2

definately buy another car before you turbo!

and it looks just like my 1st 99, cept i had all black interior

[yottabit]

Re: Ryan's Daily Driver 1999 SC2

So I set the turbo idea aside for at least until I'm out of college... I'm going to stick to the small mods for now . Right now I have a VMS Short throw and Energy Suspension bushings that are waiting to go on the car, which I would install with a rear disc swap and some better brakes all the way around. But I'm going to wait a while to get into that because I think both my struts and my clutch may be on their way out. My big investment this year is going to be a helmet for Auto-x, and I'm just going to keep running my crappy all season tires until they really wear out. I'm back on a stock alignment right now, running the winter tires, with 137.5k miles and still going strong!



I'm debating what my next visual mod will be... I'm torn between:
A) 35% tint on back windows (most that is legal in NH)
B) Thermal Research Exhaust (visual and audio! )
C) Nissan Maxima Foglight retrofit

[yottabit]

Checking in about a year since my last post, and very little has changed. No major problems with the car except for having to replace the wheel bearings at about 140k. Had the shop handle that because I didn't have a press. My wireless key fob stopped working and I haven't figured out why, it's not the battery. My amplifier also stopped working a while back and I was too lazy to look at it, just discovered today it just needs a new fuse :P That's probably because I'm using a 200 watt RMS amp with a 500 watt RMS sub... :/

There's also a trunk leak I've always had that I'm looking forward to fixing sometime. Not the most exciting update but money is tight. I'm over 150k miles now and still averaging about 28 mpg in the winter and 30-32 in the summer. This will be my only car until I graduate college in another 1.5 years and most likely for some time thereafter. I'm hoping to take the car past at least 200k miles, and really hoping I can hit 300k with her someday. She seems to be resisting the New England winter's rust quite well, although there are a couple of spots I'll want to take care of soon before it spreads.

I figure a couple years after college this car can be downgraded to my backup driver and it should fill that role for sometime. I really do enjoy driving it.

There are many items that are wearing on it now. If I had the money I would really replace the struts, tires, bushings, etc... everything is getting a little looser and more worn. It's tricky to justify spending the money on all that though until something really needs it. Right now I'm focusing on consolidating and paying down my student loans. One thing that will need fixing is the exhaust. The muffler has some pinholes in it, and the downpipe flex section is beginning to let go. I'm hoping to use this as an excuse this summer to go for a full stainless setup.

[yottabit]

Well I got myself in a good bit of debt for the first time ever (bought an engagement ring for my honey, and then within a couple of months had to finance $1500 to save my cat)

Working over the summer now and focusing on paying all that off. More exciting news is I should be getting a spare care pretty soon so I'll be able to do more work to the satty

Just about to turn over to 160k miles and desperately needs some attention. Struts are blown and I'm riding on my winter tires because the ones on my rota's are dry rotted pretty bad. Also I've got an exhaust leak around my flex pipe. I'd love to go for a set of coilovers but realistically I'll probably be getting some new KYB's and doing the strut mounts over, and getting some UHP all-seasons or summer tires.

[Donnie]

This car desperately needs AMR's and a Rear Disc swap.

...I have both for sale.

[yottabit]

You're an evil evil man for offering coilovers and a rear disc swap to someone you know is in debt! Hahaha. I would love to buy them, but now is not the right time

[yottabit]

So this car is officially back to daily driver duty. I had listed it for sale many months ago when I bought an '05 Mazda3 s 5-speed. (There's probably some angry members here who PM'd me and I'm sorry!)

The Mazda3 was a nice car, similar level of handling or better than my Saturn. However I didn't like the more upright seating position, and although it was a little quicker with the 2.3L / 160 HP, it wasn't really worth the amount of MPG I had to sacrifice (averaged 28 a tank with careful driving with the 3, 35+ with the Saturn)

Some life changes going on- going back to college, sold the Mazda, had to do some fix-up work to the Saturn (new rear struts, brakes) mostly because it sat for so long. I've got almost 180k miles on it now, I'm a little concerned it may start consuming more oil and the MPG has seemed to go down a little. I'll see what I can do about that.

I was trying to look on the EPA website and there really aren't that many cars that get better gas mileage than the Saturn, without going to like MY11 or MY12. The ones I'm looking at if I did have to buy a replacement would be something like the 2012 Hyundai Accent hatch or 2011+ Chevy Cruze eco. But my main plan is to keep driving a beater and buy something nice as a fun car

The car is riding on the stock wheels and winter tires which makes me really sad. I'm trying to ride it out until spring since winter is coming up anyway, but I noticed discounttiredirect added a lot more wheels, so I'll probably do a cheap wheel + falken 512 combo in the spring.

It's amazing how well the car has held up. There's very little rust and only a few rattles to take care of. I'm even considering re-ringing the motor at some point if necessary.