Service Engine Soon light keeps coming on and on and on.

HUNTR777

MEMBER
SATURN

Hi there I have a 2001 Saturn SC-2 with 118,000 miles. I have had all major tune ups done by Saturn, the most recent one being last year. In the last 6 weeks the Service Engine Soon light has been coming on. I brought it to my local mechanic and scanned the car for trouble codes. Every time the code came up with something wrong, he checked and found nothing wrong with that part. After this happened for the 3rd time he suggested brining it to Saturn, which I did. They scanned the car and came up with 2 codes: P0442(Evap Small leak) and P0410 (secondary air jection). They fixed both things and charged me $400. A week later, the Service Engine Soon light came on again, and Saturn told me that it's due to the engine coolant "burping" after they filled it, and the light should go off by itself, which it did. A week later, the light went on again, and my mechanic scanned it, once again P0410 error code. I brought it to Saturn again, this time they found a ground wire to be gummed which could be causing that problem. Picked it up this afternoon, light came on again within 5 hours and a trip around town. I'm at the end of my rope here. Because it seems that Saturn themselves can't help me. They keep telling me a car with that many miles can have over 200 reasons for the light to go on blah blah blah. Any ideas here, or should I just be done with it and buy a new car?

Tom

5 Replies

SERVICE WRITER

MECHANIC
9,123 POSTS

Very impresive strategy by Saturn. I have seen this strategy before, where the dealer wants to sell a new car, and will give a customer a headache with the old one to accomplish it. Dealers sell cars. Ask them to list the 200 reasons the light will come on. For po410. IT's BS. 118,000 is less than halfway til it's end of useful life.

There is certain criteria for this code to set. One of which is the ECT must be 39-174 degrees at start up. These have a very common problem of a bad ect sensor that give bad data causing tests to run when they shouldn't. I don't know if that is the problem, but may be. The engine coolant temperatur is a sensor that tells the computer what the temperature of the coolant is. It would not hurt to try one, or have your regular mechanic check the temperature with his scanner. If his scaner can't do this, he is not up with technology and I'll help you find a shop that is. If needbe. The car will need to be looked at after it has set for 8 hours and not started to check the temp.

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Wednesday, May 23rd, 2007 AT 9:06 PM

HUNTR777

MEMBER
3 POSTS

Well, at this point I think that they're giving up on trying to sell me a new car because I'm bringing it back to them over and over again. They're really getting tired of seeing me. Plus every time they have to spend time (gratis) on my car and giving me a loaner (also gratis). You think the ECT (whatever that is) could be the problem at this point?

Feels good to hear that that car still has a bit of life to it. I was hoping to keep the car another year and then trade it in for a new one. Any other ideas how I should handle this? Do you think I should bring it to a different Saturn dealer, or the same one?

T

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Wednesday, May 23rd, 2007 AT 9:30 PM

SERVICE WRITER

MECHANIC
9,123 POSTS

ECT-Engine Coolant Temperature Sensor.
I don't know if it is the problem, but have had cause problems that it should not be related to. If the bill is on them until they fix it, stick with them. They have more time into diagnosis and in theory should not have to repeat steps.

Unless you don't like the car or don't like money, keep driving her. Genneraly it costs roughly under 13 cents/mile for maintenence and repairs. To buy a car that costs 15,000, it will cost you about 47 cents per mile just to own it for the first 3 years. If you do move into another car, get one that is 2-3 years old and that the depreciation loss isn't so severe.

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Thursday, May 24th, 2007 AT 4:46 AM

HUNTR777

MEMBER
3 POSTS

Hey there, let me update you on what happened. I brought the car back to Saturn that Friday, with the comment that hopefully 3rd time is a charm (this was the 3rd time they were looking at this car for the same problem). About 1:30 they called me, saying that they finally found the problem. There is a pipe going to the air vent that was almost totally clogged with carbon. They cleaned it out, and reset the light. Well a few weeks later the light is still off (and hopefully will stay that way).

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Tuesday, June 26th, 2007 AT 6:24 AM

SERVICE WRITER