When my sister still had my car (before giving it to me), she kept having battery problems. I cleaned everything up and replaced the batteries for her when i could, but i thought something seemed weird. I know that typically, the alternator would be the problem (voltage regulator)...

But someone had told her separate from that, that the leads to the starter were causing the problem? She had the starter and Alternator replaced, along with the leads...

now today:
I have had the car for a year, and have put in a lot of money for the suspension (stock replacements), chasing oil leaks or consumption, and have now noticed that the battery is boiling over again.

Has anyone else had this problem? and what is with the oil consumption? adding about a quart every 1900 miles or so.

 

from my reading the saturns use a bit of oil due to sticking or poor oil control rings .nature of the beast they say .i have my 2002 sc2 since it had only 74k on it (currently over 100k)and it has used about a quart or so between changes .maybe 1 1/2 quart .small price to pay for the fuel economy i am getting so its a non issue with me .

if you battery is boiling over i would suspect bad voltage regulator/alt...since the regulator is in the alt anyway .

do you see any flaring of the headlights when your on the gas?

just grab yourself a vom and take a voltage reading at the battery with the car running while someone gives a little gas .
if its over 14.5 volts then you might wanna replace the alt .

good luck

 

Ayup -- added a dash-mounted voltmeter to both my '93 wagon and my '02 L200. So far, so good

 

I vote for with the rest. Measure the voltage at the battery posts with the engine running and find out what is going on before you start throwing parts at it.
As you have found out to date, you have thrown parts at it with out finding out what is going on and all that has done is cost money. Not fixed it.
The battery should measure out at about 12.4 or 5 volts with the engine off and about 14.6 with the engine running.
Any measurable difference from that indicates something is wrong. The next question is what and that can be figured.
As to the cost of a meter? If harbor freight is around where you are they have a perfectly serviceable DVM for sale onsale at about $2.00. If you have spent more than that so far not fixing the problem, it has been a waste of money.

 

I thought that I had already updated....

I keep forgetting to have a load test done at a shop, but with my meter, everything seems fine off and running.

at first, while running, battery was at 14.30, then went to 14.70(?) after a while. I am going by memory on this, and it has been a while. I cleaned and neutralized all of the acid on the battery, but it still seems like more coming out.. my guess is starting to be that the cheaper made battery cracked at a seem, isn't messing with performance, but seems to leak out when heated....

 

I still think you've got a defective alternator, man. And as far as the oil consumption goes, if you have a 1.9 DOHC, that's a normal characteristic. I'd recommend a 10W-30 or even a 10W-40 weight oil to cut down on that.

 

X2 on the 10W30. It will crank a little slow in cold weather, but it will start fine. My oil pan leaks a little, but not enough to leave a puddle in the garage. The car will leak/consume 1/2 a quart of oil between oil changes. I have around 250,000 miles on the clock. Check your grounds. A bad body ground will cause a boil as well.