Messages in 1997 Saturn - engine shuts off in mid-drive
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| I own a 1997 Saturn, automatic. Twice this week the car has shut off mid-drive, as if I turned off the ignition. All of the lights on the dashboard come on. The car has started right back up both times. At first I thought it was due to all of the rain that we have been having. The cars electrical system is very touchy. Any ideas what the problem could be? I don't want to take it to the mechanic and be ripped off. Thanks! | 04/06/2008 08:12:33 |
| Honestly, I'd take it in somewhere - even if it's just an AutoZone to see if they can get any messages out of the onboard computer. It could be an alternator going. It could be a hose. I had a friend who recently had a water pump hose break and that caused every light on the dash to come on. It was very odd. | 04/08/2008 11:56:55 |
| Ok. so I took it to my mechanic. He said that unless the car wasn't starting he really had no way of knowing what the problem was. He said that he could just start replacing pieces but it would be a hit or miss. He told me to just drive it until it wouldn't start up again after shutting off mid-drive. Nice mechanic. He was no help. | 04/08/2008 04:49:31 |
That's really surprising. Did they hook up a diagnostic tool to it to see if the computer had any saved error messages? My old neighbor was a toyota mechanic, but he could always pull the codes from whatever car we had - saturn, infiniti, bmw, etc. Any decent mechanic should be able to do this, and the car should certainly be keeping a log if something is going wrong. If you just keep driving it until it does again, you're likely to get stuck somewhere, with the chance it won't start again at all. I'd say that mechanic is probably not real high quality :) | 04/08/2008 09:36:30 |
| I thought it was strange that he didn't even want to hook it up. he basically told me he couln't help me and sorry. Thanks for the advice. I will try to get a new mechanic. | 04/09/2008 07:44:23 |
It's truly amazing how many rocket scientists there are out there in the auto repair profession. My Mom just had this problem just three days ago (she got rocked for a starter too). What about the tumbler for the ignition, does your key go in smooth, does it come out with ease or does it stick? How many keys do you have on your key ring? I'm not a rocket scientist, but I know it is NOT the crankshaft position sensor. If they tell you that, run them over on your way out of the garage. | 06/04/2008 08:15:02 |
The car stopped again. This time my friend jiggled the wires to the battery and it started. So we tightened the wires and I haven't had a problem ever since. I am keeping my fingers crossed. Then again, with the price of gas I might just have to put on my walking shoes and ditch the car. LOL Thanks for all of the advice. | 06/05/2008 05:58:07 |
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