2001 Saturn L300 from North America - Comments

First (two years ago) the transmission had problems and it cost me over $600.00. Now the car stalled 2 weeks ago, but started back up. Today, however, it started making a weird rubbing sound and smelled like burning rubber. Took it to friend mechanic and he said the compressor on the air conditioning was rubbing together, hence the smell, and that it should turn freely in his hand, but it was fused together. Two years ago I had him put freon in the car as the A/C did not work. The freon has run out again. He called the local Saturn dealership and the price for the part is $600 plus his labor. He can't buy the part anywhere else because it is not an after market product. But he said he could buy a re-manufactured part at Schrams for about $150 plus his $400 in labor. But no guarantee. I don't know what to do. Would the above cause my car to stall? Will this fix the problem? Should I spend approximately $600 on a repair job that is not guaranteed as opposed to a $1,000+ guaranteed repair. My car is sitting at his garage and I have to have a car to work. Help!

Should I get rid of this car?

Should I spend the $600 or $1,000?

What should I do?

Yeah, I'm a woman.

The Saturn L series had a lot of problems the first couple of years, but as yours only has 55K miles on it, it would probably be worth it to spend the money to fix it.

The problem with the a/c compressor is that it has seized up either due to a faulty clutch bearing or an internal problem with the compressor itself. The burning smell you noticed was the belt rubbing against the pulley after the pulley stopped turning like it was supposed to.

As far as which option you should go with to replace the compressor: the $150 compressor is almost certainly a rebuilt one, but should still have a warranty. The only problem is, even with a warranty, they will only give you another compressor if it fails. They would not cover the labor to remove/install it, so if your mechanic installs it and it fails again, even while still under warranty, you would still have to pay the labor to remove/install the replacement. If the $1000 option is for a NEW compressor AND the warranty includes labor, that might be the better way to go.