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Your first problem is that it’s a Saturn =P…I would say a trip to the transmission tech is in order. I would also check out how the engine is running, since there could be literal acceleration issues/performance issues with the engine. Ignition or fuel delivery could be suspect. The fact you’re going through more gas could be indicative of some engine issue (perhaps a loss of compression, or a dead cylinder). I’m not the most knowledgeable guy myself, I’m just throwing out there what I might be thinking about. Best of luck to you, one way or another!
First and foremost, welcome to the forums!
Secondly, do you have a check engine light on? If so, you can get the codes pulled at an Autozone or other big chain parts store for free, as I imagine you don’t have a code reader if you are just getting into this gig.
Third, your car wouldn’t have a throw-out bearing as it is an automatic. When you checked the transmission fluid, did you check it with the engine running or off? Most vehicles (excluding Hondas Eric has taught us) want the vehicle running and on a level surface. The level surface part is super important.
Keep us posted!
Eric has taught me that each problem requires a systematic approach. Also that we should start with the most obvious checks and work our way to the more complicated ones in order to make a more informed diagnosis. In addition, we should not overlook anything. You mentioned the following concerns: STIFF STEERING, SLUGISH ENGINE & EXCCESSIVE FUEL CONSUMPTION. Below are some things that you can look into.
[b]STIFF STEERING:
1) LACK OF FLUID IN THE POWER STEERING RESERVOIR. ANY LEAKS IN THE CONTAINER AND CONNECTING HOSE.
2) LACK OF LUBRICATION AT STEERING JOINTS.
3) FRONT END OUT OF ALIGNMENT.
SLUGISH ENGINE
1) INCORRECT IGNITION TIMING
2) EXCESSIVE PLAY IN DISTRIBUTOR SHAFT. AT THE SAME TIME, CHECK FOR WORN ROTOR, FAULTY DISTRIBUTOR CAP, WIRES ETC.
3) FAULTY OR INCORRECTLY GAPPED SPARK PLUGS
4)FUEL INJECTION UNIT NOT ADJUSTED PROPERLY OR EXCESSIVLY WORN.
EXCESSIVE FUEL CONSUMPTION
1) DRY OR CLOGGED AIR FILTER ELEMENT.
2) INCORRECTLY SET IGNITION TIMING.
3) CHOKE STICKING OR IMPROPERLY ADJUSTED.
4)EMISSIONS SYSTEM NOT FUNCTIONING PROPERLY.
5)INCORRECT TIRE SIZE [/b]
First off , Welcome to the forums ! now for a couple of questions… how many miles on the car ? is this a 4 or 6 cyl ? how long has it been since a major tune up was done ( use top quality parts if it needs to be done ) what color was the trans fluid ? your car being an automatic dos not have a throw out bearing. I would start with checking engine operation and then go from there ( idle issues , tune up etc )
Quoted From 619DioFan:
First off , Welcome to the forums ! now for a couple of questions… how many miles on the car ? is this a 4 or 6 cyl ? how long has it been since a major tune up was done ( use top quality parts if it needs to be done ) what color was the trans fluid ? your car being an automatic dos not have a throw out bearing. I would start with checking engine operation and then go from there ( idle issues , tune up etc )
Man I type slow ! curse of having large ape like hands ( they tend to reek havock on the key board ) by the time I finished typing others already blasted out what I was attempting to say “cursed large hands ” LOL
Hope the info helps .Quoted From 619DioFan:
Man I type slow ! curse of having large ape like hands ( they tend to reek havock on the key board ) by the time I finished typing others already blasted out what I was attempting to say “cursed large hands ” LOL
Hope the info helps .LOL! This made me laugh! C8-)
A lot of great suggestions have been made here well done forum! I agree that you need to determine if it’s an engine performance issue or transmission issue but based on your very good description I’d be leaning toward a transmission issue. Given that it seems intermittent and also to ‘buzz’ when put in different gears then perhaps there is an electrical issue and not a mechanical one. As suggested I would pull any check engine light codes you might have to shed some light on the problem, I’d be surprised if you don’t.
That said I’m still trying to figure out how the stiff steering comes into it as that would be a separate system from both the engine and transmission. The only thing that I could come up with on that is that if the transmission is pulling so much power from the engine there’s nothing left to run the power steering pump OR that it’s stuck in a low pressure mode due to the vehicle thinking it’s going faster than it really is. Your power steering actually turns off the faster you go in order to save fuel and believe it or not make the car handle better at speed. It could be that the computer thinks you’re going faster than you really are and thus turns off the pressure to the PS rack. Now that I think about it if you are having a problem with a speed sensor the transmission also will not shift properly.
See if you have any check engine light codes and check back with us and we’ll take it from there.
Thanks a ton guys! No check engine lights. Trans fluid was checked while started and it was pink/red and I could see thru it to the dipstick, so that’s good from what I hear. It has 110K+ miles on it. Already changed the air filter, it was clean. Never had a tune up as I just bought it back in October. 4 cyl. It did have some build up in the air intake that I had to clean out with throttle cleaner the other day but it was after the issue started. Curious, does it have an equivalent to a throw out bearing? I know it’s a Saturn, 🙁 lawl That’s why I said I use it to get to and from work. (Ashamed). I used to have an Acura Vigor, miss that ol’ 5 cyl. ho. My transmission guy said he wouldn’t touch it, as Saturns have weird transmission that he hasn’t had luck with. I’m gonna look for a different guy to take a stab at it.
With further testing today, I found that if I don’t accelerate more than 2.5K RPMs then the fuel consumption is not a problem. It’s loosing fuel when trying to accelerate at high rates. I used cruise control. The car actually sounds louder in a sense, a deeper rumble. I was going to replace the spark plugs the other night but ran out of day light. The weird thing is that the two issues were tied together except for today. The steering felt fine on the way home but the car was more sluggish. I did see a weird electrical issue not too long ago. When speeding on the highway, I hit a dip at a pretty good speed and it caused the wipers to do a one stroke like I manually pulled down on it. I thought this was from force/gravity but after kinda checking it out, it seems impossible that it was from the controller switch and it could be an electrical issue.
I’m leaning more towards transmission at this point but it would be a godsend if it’s a sensor or electrical issue. Fingers crossed.
This post is going to be rather long, and I apologize in advance for that. Hopefully you’ll find it helpful. I used to work at a Saturn dealer, but I don’t work for them anymore.
For as much flak as Saturns get, they’re surprisingly rugged little crap-boxes. The engines only have a few common fail points, which I’ll explain in this post, as well as how to fix them. Since you said you’ve got a ’99 SL1, that tells me that you’ve got the sedan body with the 1.9L SOHC engine.
First and foremost, you should take a close look at the engine coolant temperature sensor and it’s related connector. It’s on the driver-side, near the bottom of the cylinder head. If the connector has a lot of green corrosion in it, you’re going to need to replace the sensor and the connector. I know it sounds like an unrelated issue, but that sensor controls a lot of things on those engines, and when it goes bad it causes all sorts of seemingly unrelated stuff to fail/not work correctly. It can also affect the transmission shifting. At your mileage, you may want to replace the sensor and connector anyway, just as a matter of maintenance.
Another common fault is the intake manifold gasket leaking. Easiest way to diagnose that is to get a can of carburetor cleaner and spray it where the IM gasket sits while the engine is idling. If the engine speed increases, you’ve found the leak. Swapping the IM gasket on this car is no different than swapping an IM gasket on any other car so all the usual instructions apply; unhook the negative battery terminal, relieve fuel pressure, remove the throttle cable, etc etc.
The third common failure, which is unrelated to your current problem but something to keep in mind anyway, is the radiator fan motor will die, causing the car to run hot when it’s not moving. Replacing that fan is a simple matter of removing 1 electrical connector on the fan motor itself, removing the fan and it’s shroud from the engine bay (it’s held in place by 2 10mm bolts and it just lifts out from the brackets it’s sitting on at the bottom), removing the fan from the motor (it’s a reverse-threaded nut), then removing the motor from the shroud (3 8mm bolts). Installation is reverse of removal.
From the problems you’re describing, it sounds to me like your ECT has gone bad. I think pretty much any GM dealer will carry the sensor and connector, or at least can get one for you. I know that common sense would dictate that the sluggishness has nothing to do with that sensor, but the normal rules don’t always apply to Saturns. The sensor and it’s connector aren’t terribly expensive, and I’ve never seen one fail without damaging the other, so replace them as a set. Since the fluid was red and translucent, I highly doubt that there’s anything wrong with the transmission. The transmissions in those cars almost never fail, at least, I’ve never seen one with a broken transmission that wasn’t abused/wrecked before it died.
One last thing, the buzzing sound you heard right as you were coming to a stop may have been the electric smog pump, if your car’s got one. I can’t find a decent picture of an SL1 engine bay, but if your car has such a thing, it’ll be a big round black thing mounted right behind the passenger side headlight. It’s there for emissions reasons, and if you unplug it the CEL (Check Engine Light) will come on.
Great to know! That may make more sense. I’m a noob of course but thought the engine temp is not reading correctly the whole time I had this car. The temp only gets up to the quater mark on the dial and seems like it should be at half for running temp. I did also think that the fan was not working as it did used to ramp up in temp when sitting idle. However, I thought I felt the fan kick in when it hit the half temp marker. Where should the temp gauge be for regular running conditions. I thought the ECT was fine seeing I saw it increase but after my trip to Austin for New Years, I found the engine bay extremely hot while the temp gauge still showed quarter to half reading.
I also thought I heard a vacuum leak near the intake. I did spray carb cleaner around the area as I was cleaning the air intake but didn’t hear the engine change idle speed.
http://www.oreillyauto.com/site/c/search.oap?keyword=ect&year=1999&make=Saturn&model=SL&vi=1357275
Is this the sensor needed? It’s cheap… so I’m not sure if this is the right part your speaking of.Thanks again 3SheetsDiesel!
Thanks for posting some great info 3sheetsdiesel ! did not know about the ect being able to affect the transmission. again I will say this- I love this forum because every day I learn something new ! and knowledge is power.
Hey Milas. Yes, that’s the right part. I replaced one for a friend after she had it diagnosed, and that’s exactly what it looked like. . It helped with her driveablitity problems, but didn’t cure all of them. I didn’t know the connectors were so prone to fail, so that may have been the difference, as I didn’t replace it. I looked around for a minute trying to find one. It may be a bit harder to track down. Make sure you put some teflon tape or equivalent on the threads before you install the new sensor. It looks like one of those on your link already had some teflon on there. If you get that one, than ignore the tape suggestion. Good luck.
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