I saw this and thought "Finally! I've found what appears to be my problem!" I drive (when it runs) a 1999 Saturn SL2 with approximately 109,000 miles on it. Today, when I went to start it, the engine just made some sort of horrible, grating, clicking noise, and refused to start. My interior lights are dimming fast; I've lost my trunk interior light (and it was working fine yesterday, as was the car), which would seem to me like my battery is dying. A couple of weeks back I was told that I had a leaky valve cover gasket and that it would cost upwards of $150 to fix at the local shop, and that WOULDN'T fix the fact that the mechanic said my spark plugs are now mush due to the leaking oil. I don't have that sort of cash.
My questions are: how much would this cost, parts-wise, if I were to get them and find a friend to help me out in fixing it, and secondly, how hard IS the venture I'm looking to get into? I HAVE to have this fixed. The car no longer runs now. Please help! Thanks again!
Little_Mo
EDIT: Just adding a few things about the car. As I said, it's a 1999 Saturn SL2 with approximately 109,000 miles on it. It's an automatic. It had its oil changed and other fluids topped up about two weeks ago and that was when I was notified about the mushy spark plugs and the leak. Since I don't know where the problem actually IS, I can't take any pictures of it. Sorry. If there's anything anyone can do to help, I'd really appreciate it.
Tuesday, November 6th, 2007 AT 6:52 PM