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I see you already have a plan for repairing your Saturn. If we can be of any service to you, even by looking into safety recall information on your vehicle, please don't hesitate to get in touch with us via email with your name/user name and the last 8 digits of your VIN.
Best,
Sarah
GM Customer Service
Note - we now learn there is a bulletin from saturn about this!! How come that saturn did not take care of this during the warranty period? How come those gm dealers that service and repair saturn's know about this? The one we have dealt with is 100% clueless about any bulletin - but will happily sell us the $50 part and point out, no return, it's an electrical part. Do I have one, yes, did it work? No ...
Like so many other owners posting ...go elsewhere but a new gm product!
my AAA expired, I have to reup and get it towed AGAIN and try the ignition relay switch this time. btw, I live in southern california. cold weather has nothing to do with it!!
there is a utube video about all this, but be careful. good luck. this is so insane. every week more and more people on here, yet GM won't do a thing if we are over warranty. So over 40 pages on this blog going back years and no recall. they simply have their people monitoring this site. I was very sweet when i started on here. Now I am jaded and just want the car working so I can get rid of it and NEVER buy a GM car again
And the cold weather just seems to bring this issue out in my ION. It may be anecdotal, but that's when it happens. Not necesarily below freezing, but I had no issues when it was over 70 degrees outside.
After having purchased total of 17 Saturn's --- we, like so many other Saturn owners, have given up on GM products. Have replaced most of the fleet at this time with but still a few to go, maybe one or two in December this as I just had report of one more of the remaining 2005 ION's are 'acting' up to frequently.
Sarah
GM Customer Service
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I am sure some of you are tired of hearing from me. I must say this. I did find a very good mechanic whom I told exactly what I was told time and again in this blog what the problem was. And I had/have the same problems as what was described by nforr121287, except as most of you know mine started in the summer of 2009 and finally died altogether. From this blog i learned it was the ignition relay switch. the mechanic assured me i needed a battery and by that time I probably did. He also said I needed the starter. after reading this 48+ page bog he was uncomfortable working on it further and also, b/c GM told me they would help me. I took it to the dealer and told them about the ignition relay switch a $25 part. they said they had to run the diagnostic on it and then would see. so $180 for the battery, another $129 for the diagnostic and I was told for $600 more a starter. An old friend of my daughters who is an ace mechanic did put a new starter in for $180 (for the part) and for a week it worked fine. now the key is stuck in the ignition, it won;t turn on, the lights, nothing,. I have to get it towed and try this $25 part, but this is so upsetting, frustrating and expensive. My problem started when the car was well under 100,000 and still in warranty. now that it is over warranty GM refuses to pay. And one would think after 843 posts and 43 pages that they would do a recall and make good on the part. I will NEVER by another GM car again. I only hope and pray to get this fixed and get rid of it and have my life back
At this stage in the ION's time on the road it's all going to be passed off as "normal wear and tear" and GM will be even more forthright in ignoring their problem. Again. Still.
Mine was replaced at least three times at the dealership and like you I am not holding my breath either. Glad to have it fixed and the place treated me right.
It still bugs me: in 40 years of driving the only time I ever had to replace an ignition switch was when I lost the keys to my car.
A shame: the ION was a better car than people gave it credit. It's almost like GM went out of their way to prove that Saturns were unsalable.
Regards,
Sarah
GM Customer Service
I bought a code reader on sale from Advanced Auto Parts for under $100 and each and every time I've used it, it has shown the same thing as the mechanic's and/or dealer's "diagnostics" . I think the $75 to $100+ fee is just an entrance fee to get in to the garage with the den of thieves who'll rob you blind once you're in there.
Just bought my oldest granddaughter a 2005 Ford Focus and it's starting to exhibit similar cold weather starting failures. Oh, well . . . here we go again. I hope I'll find a "white wire" fix for the Focus!
Good luck to you!
The mechanic who did the original work says he hates seeing Saturns come in for anything other than an oil change. But like I told him, this is the only issue I have with mine. Almost 9 years old and under 70k miles but no 'major' work on it. Here's hoping that it stays that way for at least one more year. That's when our son is done with daycare and we get a nice little break with the household expenses.
It would generate as much business as they could handle to do as Auto Zone and others do and read your codes for free. All that 99-125 dollar fee does is put people off the dealer service depts and pisses them off enough never to return.
First brand that gets wise is going to have people lining up to use their service dept and an opportunity to build the groundwork for potential sales. That was the basis of Saturn's popularity in the first place. And it worked.
It will never happen: the quick buck is always easier to get than the one you have to cultivate.
But I have to say: my SSP @ Oreilly's Chevrolet Tucson has been fantastic. Enough so that once again I would possibly consider them for my next car purchase. They might have actually retained me as a customer of GM with the problem resolution and follow up they've given my ION.
I had the same problem but it happened when it was cold out or not. What happened in my case with my 2003 saturn ion 1 was the ignition switch. After it wouldnt initially start, i had to wait 30 mins. till the security passlock
disabled itself then it would start. Whats happeneing is there is a resistor on the ignition switch. When that goes bad, the anti theft/paslock system thinks the car is being stolen! So i had the gm dealership replace the ignition switch even though they tried to rape me by telling me it was my BCM(Body Control Module) and would cost $500 to replace the computer. Then i came on this site and talked to saturntech on here and said it was the ignition switch so i had it replaced about a month ago and low and behold no more problems!! To replace the switch at the dealer was about $120. Hope this helps, Adam
The same switch is less than $20 at rockauto.com - less than half of what gm dealer charge! The install is a matter of minutes ... if handy you should be able do it yourself.
Have installed a few switches purchased from rockauto ....
Also have one 'on the shelf', bought at the gm dealer for like $49, with clear conditions, that "it is an "electrical component" and "no warranty" - and sure enough it was a bad one, bought at a gm-dealer! It does not make you turn to the gm-dealer for more parts ...
anti-theft problem also, 6 times. I also had to wait 10 to 20 minutes for it to reset. Another woman in my area had the Ignition switch replaced to remedy her issues with this same problem. I while waiting one darn cold morning, remembered how my OIL change indicator kept coming on after an oil change 2 days prior, and was told that to reset that, you turn key to ON position (not start) press gas slowly to floor 3 times. Turn off key for 5 seconds then start. I wondered about that and tried that 4, 5, 6,,,, until I got to 11 times. After each sequence turn to off position for 5 seconds and tried to start vehicle. #11 seemed to have done the trick for me as I have not had a problem in 2 years. Seems there are computer codes for certain things using the gas peddle to reset them like the OIL one.
BTW, still running just fine with the 'genuine GM part' ignition switch from the dealer a few weeks ago. For now...
I just took an educated guess that other codes may reset by trying a different sequence. Like I said not another problem in 2 years, no more -20 degree waits Hope this works for others also as it gets expensive at least for me to travel 50 miles to a GM dealer just to get ripped off.
in a response to pamela519
I had vehicle once with that problem. Ended up being a fuse for maintaining the running of the vehicle after starting. Hmmmm wonder ???
UPDATE: Actually as I now remember I would stay running as long as you never removed your foot from the gas, then it would stall.
Although I have never heard of, nor could conceive (nor sound logical ) such a Relay that can entrap a key, especially if battery dies leaving such relay with no power.
A key locked in such a position due to my knowledge of the mechanical pressures from tire back to locking steering column, could in fact leave some vehicle systems active, thus draining battery voltage over a period of time giving the appearence of battery issues. Much like older vehicles where one dome light use to drain a battery overnight.
Even my 2005 Ion entraped my key once but as I described it was due to pressure from tires back to locking steering column. Once I forcefully turned steering column it Released.
I hope there is no such relay :mad: in modern vehicles.
She is wrong use the trip reset to toggle the message to change oil message then hold the trip reset down for a few seconds and you will hear a beeping conformation. So of the saturns used the gas pedal for oil change reset but not all the them. I worked at the saturn dealer for many years working on these cars. As far as your no start its most likely your ignition switch being bad. Have your body control module scanned for codes if you have a B3033 and or B2960 replace the ignition switch its easy to do. You could even do it yourself if you need instructions i will give them to you.
I believe dozensaturn or notcrankyion may have written about the trip reset, I was writing about the "She" that informed me about the depressing the gas peddle slowly 3 times to reset OIL change warning indicator, which did work immediately and several times since, on my 2005 Ion. BTW I like my Ion and the 45mpg that it was not suppose to deliver 135,000+ winter snow and summer.
Video: http://youtu.be/gN6tBpeyi40
unClean / insecure battery cables can cause lots of woes, not always the same on all vehicles. The 30 minute wait agains sounds like pass lock anti-theft issue. Starting then slowly shutting down could be clogged fuel filter,
as by your gages it looks to have sufficient fuel.
I made some still shots of your video, noticed that the indicator at 11 o'clock above your speedometer does not come on if the check engine indicator is on, and the reverse happenes if the indicator above the speedometer comes on. This happened twice during your video. Maybe a hint. (Ask someone reputable about this and if it could be the BCM module but have them do the research first before replacing) ( I am suspicious of a lamp controller preventing my vehicle from starting my vehicle. Maybe it does more though. I am no vehicle mechanic, just and Electrical / Electronics tech )
I had the fortune of resetting my pass lock anti-theft problem (read my replys) others have had to have Key switch cylinders replaced (may have been problem but some seem to have repeat issues with that fix)
some have been cond on battery replacements and some type of ignition relay (may / maynot be issue ) , BCM modules (controls idiot lights amongst other things I guess )
Good luck
Hope you reconsider going to the dealers....
Good Luck
Has anyone tried to have the anti-theft system disabled? Can they do it? Does it solve the problem?
Best,
Sarah
GM Customer Service
I can go out to my car at 6:30am, 32 degrees and no start. But I can go out to my car on another day, at noon, with the sun hitting the car for a couple of hrs. at the same temp. , 32 degrees (obviously it would be lower than 32 at 6:30a) and it starts right up.
Is the sun loosening the grease? Beats me. But I'm so over it.