First major problem - Engine pwr reduced!! @!#%#!$%!@#$

[lostcause]

So I get in my car to drive home tonight, put the top down since it's a nice breezy night out, pull out of the parking lot I was at, hit the gas, car bogs down....no power...no boost...no nothing...suddenly the engine light comes on and the DIC says engine power reduced.

Called onstar and they had me shut the car off for 3 minutes and turn it on again. Problem still there. They told me the problem they detected was the the fuel rail pressure was low. Anyone know what that is? I asked them if by disconnecting the battery and resetting the ecm I might at least be able clear the code long enough to drive it to the dealer. The guy told me that unplugging the battery would be the worst thing I could do to it. That doesn't sound right to me.

Anyway, I managed to drive it the 30 miles home at a whopping 25 mph.

Next dilemma - the onstar guy told me that saturn's roadside assistance will only tow the car to the nearest saturn dealer, not the dealer of my choice. The problem with that is I refuse to deal with the nearest saturn dealer. Their service department is absolutely horrible and I will not take my car there. Any ideas on this? I can drive it to the dealer of my choice but it's about 50 miles away and would take me about 3 hours on city streets going 25 mph. Any way to get saturn to tow it to the dealer of my choice?


My car has been in so many times that it's starting to become a running joke at work wondering what kind of car I'm gonna show up in on any given morning. At least they give me a loaner, and fortunately all of the other problems have been relatively minor.

[Skip]

Originally Posted by lostcause

So I get in my car to drive home tonight, put the top down since it's a nice breezy night out, pull out of the parking lot I was at, hit the gas, car bogs down....no power...no boost...no nothing...suddenly the engine light comes on and the DIC says engine power reduced.

Called onstar and they had me shut the car off for 3 minutes and turn it on again. Problem still there. They told me the problem they detected was the the fuel rail pressure was low. Anyone know what that is? I asked them if by disconnecting the battery and resetting the ecm I might at least be able clear the code long enough to drive it to the dealer. The guy told me that unplugging the battery would be the worst thing I could do to it. That doesn't sound right to me.

Anyway, I managed to drive it the 30 miles home at a whopping 25 mph.

Next dilemma - the onstar guy told me that saturn's roadside assistance will only tow the car to the nearest saturn dealer, not the dealer of my choice. The problem with that is I refuse to deal with the nearest saturn dealer. Their service department is absolutely horrible and I will not take my car there. Any ideas on this? I can drive it to the dealer of my choice but it's about 50 miles away and would take me about 3 hours on city streets going 25 mph. Any way to get saturn to tow it to the dealer of my choice?


My car has been in so many times that it's starting to become a running joke at work wondering what kind of car I'm gonna show up in on any given morning. At least they give me a loaner, and fortunately all of the other problems have been relatively minor.

Iffen I remember correctly the fuel pump , the second one that boosts to 2000 psi is on the fritze. It will take them awhile to get another fuel pump. Search for fuel pump or the code in advanced searches and read up.
As to having the car towed it should not cost you but fifty dollars to get it done. It is cheaper than having to deal with a dealership that you do not like....Skip....

[lostcause]

Originally Posted by Skip

Iffen I remember correctly the fuel pump , the second one that boosts to 2000 psi is on the fritze. It will take them awhile to get another fuel pump.

well that would suck. I've entered a car show and am supposed to take a spin on the homestead motorsports track the following weekend.

I hope they can get one sooner than that!

[Skip]

I could rent you my girls and you put them on a treadmill and I think we can get your pump back up to 2000 psi.. you just have to feed them pizza. But ol Fartblossom just loves Pizza and farts to show it ....Skip...

[lostcause]

Originally Posted by Skip

I could rent you my girls and you put them on a treadmill and I think we can get your pump back up to 2000 psi.. you just have to feed them pizza. But ol Fartblossom just loves Pizza and farts to show it ....Skip...

Hey man, as long as it gets me on the track I don't care if the car is running on gasoline or methane.

Anyway, I disconnected the battery despite what the onstar guy told me. Figured I'd let the ecm reset just in case.

[Sol-Candy]

I had this happen to me. It was the fuel pump and they had to replace it. It's my understanding the Solstice has 2 fuel pumps. The high pressure pump was the one that went bad.

BTW - good luck getting one. Mine was on back order/back order. They had my car for almost a week. The service dept put a rush on the part because they said the car was undriveable. I did get a loaner car but gosh the weather was great that week and I missed my baby so bad..

[Bogie]

Gasoline Direct Injection (DI) is one of the unique aspects of the Turbo Ecotec. The Solstice/SKY are the first North American cars with gasoline DI. When squirting fuel directly in the cylinder (as oppposed to a port injection), you need over 2000psi (versus about 60 for port injection) on the high end. The DI psi directly correlates with engine RPM. If you lose the high pressure, the engine can't turn high RPM. You are left with a no go....or slow go.

I wonder about the failure statistics on these pumps. How many have been replaced versus the number of units sold, and what did the analysis show? I hope it's a supplier issue and not a design issue. Has anyone correlated failures reported here by born on dates?

[MidniteBlues]

Originally Posted by lostcause

Hey man, as long as it gets me on the track I don't care if the car is running on gasoline or methane.

Anyway, I disconnected the battery despite what the onstar guy told me. Figured I'd let the ecm reset just in case.

That probably wouldn't help any, (disconnect batt) especially if it's a hardware problem (ie: fuel pump).. Also, should it correct itself, which I doubt, disconnecting the battery has now removed all the codes stored on the issues, I would of NOT done this, I would of let the dealer clear the codes AFTER they made the repairs..

As for transporting the car to the dealer of your choice. Call that dealer in PP, tell them you need a flat bed to transport your R/L to their location... They will make it happen, pay the 50 if ya have ta, this is one problem you want Jaime working on to fix it right the first time..... While it is in there, have them change the oil/filter if it's close to due..

[lostcause]

Originally Posted by MidniteBlues

That probably wouldn't help any, (disconnect batt) especially if it's a hardware problem (ie: fuel pump).. Also, should it correct itself, which I doubt, disconnecting the battery has now removed all the codes stored on the issues, I would of NOT done this, I would of let the dealer clear the codes AFTER they made the repairs..

As for transporting the car to the dealer of your choice. Call that dealer in PP, tell them you need a flat bed to transport your R/L to their location... They will make it happen, pay the 50 if ya have ta, this is one problem you want Jaime working on to fix it right the first time.....

Yeah, I guess I'll have to pay the 50 bucks if it comes down to that. My service advisor is on vacation and Darrel the service manager hasn't come in yet. I've been calling all morning.

btw, even though I disconnected the battery and as I suspected and as you predicted, it didn't resolve anything, the codes are back so the mechanic won't have any problems getting them.

What a fun drive to work this morning at a blazing 25 to 30 mph all the way. Changing lanes was an act of faith.

[MidniteBlues]

Check your PM in a second..

[ceeker]

Originally Posted by lostcause

Yeah, I guess I'll have to pay the 50 bucks if it comes down to that. My service advisor is on vacation and Darrel the service manager hasn't come in yet. I've been calling all morning.

btw, even though I disconnected the battery and as I suspected and as you predicted, it didn't resolve anything, the codes are back so the mechanic won't have any problems getting them.

What a fun drive to work this morning at a blazing 25 to 30 mph all the way. Changing lanes was an act of faith.

Had the exact same thing happen in December last year. Fuel Rail code.

I tried resetting the code and disconecting the battery, but of course this will not fix this!

And yes it is the high pressure fuel pump. The car will still run because of the
other fuel pump in the tank, but it's slow go!

I was able to limp to my local dealer and they had to order the fuel pump. They said that there required to replace the fuel lines from the pump as well.

The pump came in the next day but one fuel line didn't make it so I had to wait 2 more days. Once thay had the parts, it only took them a few hours to fix.

[MidniteBlues]

The only thing good about this issue is that, at least he don't hear the "ticking" of the high pressure pump LOL.. BTW LC, they pick up your car yet? And do they have the parts? You might get it fixed by tonight...

[BSRL]

You could drive far enough to where you are closer to your preferred dealer than the other one then call the tow truck. Probably still take you longer to wait on the tow truck then just driving all the way there.

Just a thought.

[lostcause]

Actually the ticking was worse!!!!!!
So here's where it stands - instead of calling Onstar this morning I called the dealer and talked to the service manager and explained the situation. He was very helpful and sent me a tow truck at their expense. I rode up with the tow truck and got a rental. The mechanic that is going to work on my car was at lunch so it probably hasn't been looked at yet.

[icarus]

I had my fuel rail replaced. They didn't have to replace the fuel pump and I haven't had any problems since *knocking wood*

You got up to 25 mph? Wow...mine was so boggy it wouldn't go THAT fast!

[lostcause]

Just got the car back today. Turns out it was the secondary fuel pump. Driving good as new again. My service advisor said this is the second one of this same problem he has seen. Leads me to believe there are plenty more out there. I got lucky that it happened now instead of during my 2000 mile round trip in June to the tail of the dragon.

[Appygirl]

For those keeping track- we had at least 2 more cars go kaput on us at the Dragon run this weekend. Both were fuel pump issues and turbos. I see another recall happening.

[skyluvn]

Last October my check engine light came on and at 6,700 miles and the high pressure fuel pump was replaced and high pressure fuel line on my 07 redline. Today was driving and have 10,000. miles on it and the same thing happened so as I am writing this it is on a flatbed back to the dealer. Has anyone had two go!!!!

[Bogie]

Originally Posted by skyluvn

Last October my check engine light came on and at 6,700 miles and the high pressure fuel pump was replaced and high pressure fuel line on my 07 redline. Today was driving and have 10,000. miles on it and the same thing happened so as I am writing this it is on a flatbed back to the dealer. Has anyone had two go!!!!

There could something contributing to the failure. But you can take some solace in the fact that standard failure statistics will result in some folks getting a second failures on a repaired parts.

[GaryH]

Originally Posted by lostcause

Just got the car back today. Turns out it was the secondary fuel pump. Driving good as new again. My service advisor said this is the second one of this same problem he has seen. Leads me to believe there are plenty more out there. I got lucky that it happened now instead of during my 2000 mile round trip in June to the tail of the dragon.

Glad your back on the road again. Isn't this the same thing that happened to Barry? By the way, has anyone heard from Barry? The last post I saw from Barry was "ARE WE THERE YET".