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My saturn is having so many problems

8K views 38 replies 25 participants last post by  LAC Sky 
#1 ·
Hey everyone.
So I have a 07 saturn sky with just over 67,000 miles on it.
Its automatic and it will not start after I drive it around. Ill drive it about 30 minutes away go in to my destination come back out and sometimes it will start and sometimes it wont. I just did the ignition recall after this started happening and everything stopped. But now, a month later, its doing it again. The head lights and dash lights come on, and so does the radio, but the car wont even try to turn over. Now sometimes, when the car does start, it says the car is on empty, the speedometer does not work, neither do the rpms, and the air will not blow cold. If I drive it while all of this is going on, it will start to do this thing that I can only best describe as slamming whenever the car starts to decelerate. When the car is like this (on, but speedometer and etc is not working and car slamming) the ABS light is on and so is the check engine light. When I get my car home, shut it off, and try to see if itll turn back on, it wont turn over. Only the head and dash lights come on. I do not understand this!
Any one know what is going on?
I know for sure it is not the battery.
 
#3 ·
My dad has been working on my car testing and eliminating almost everything. He's tested the battery, the connections, the relays, and even tried to jump start the car using the solenoid. It still won't budge. We had two other people look at the battery and both of them agreed it's not the battery.
 
#32 ·
It is likely that you have an electrical problem. the hard shifting when decelerating could also indicate an issue with the cam position servos and / or the cam position sensors. When they fail or intermittently operate erratically the transmission control module can go into protection mode which results in very hard downshifts .

The battery needs to be tested under load. A straight up voltage check is not sufficient. The car is operated by a combination of electrical and mechanical systems. When you open the door you are also turning on the body control module. The BCM is a specialized computer that basically runs the car. The BCM controls the engine control module and in an automatic car the transmission control module.

These three computers work together to make the car do what you command it to do. They operate on the car through a set of sensors and actuators.

There have been many cases of a car having electrical supply problems that result in erratic and strange behavior. I have seen my car throw every check light in the book when there was nothing wrong but for a low battery.

Batteries can test normal and still fail under a full load. You could have enough voltage to boot up the car but not to run all the systems. So it will turn on the lights but not turn the starter motor.

Jumping the car to start it can be an issue. You should never jump the car on the battery terminals. This can and has sent voltage and current spikes through the car that have caused huge problems. The car should be jumped using the red positive terminal on the fuse box under the hood above and in front of the battery.

There are multiple grounds on the car. Any of them could be causing problems. The biggest culprets are the battery connection and the engine ground. There is a ground strap that connects to the left front of the top of the engine that is exposed enough that they some times develop significant corrosion. Pull and inspect the engine ground. A symptom of a bad ground there is everyting looks normal but the car will not start.

with an automatic car there is an interlock between the shift mechanism, the parking brake and the ignition. It is possible that you may have an intermittent failure in some part of this system of mechancial and electrical parts. Check it. There is a thread on this subject on the Sol forum. Or maybe TS can point you. :D

Hard downshifting is generally a result of issues with the cam position servos or sensors. See the thread on transmission succage on this forum to find out more.

You are in a diagnostic mode currently. Begin by eliminating all the obvious problems. then if the issue persists, go to the more complex ones.

Check the fuses, both under the passanger foot carpet at the BCM and under the hood in the fuse box there. Look for failed fuses and for those fuses that contribute to starting the car, pull them out and reinsert them to assure that you have excellent contact.

Inspect the connectors that enter the BCM in the passanger area, the fuse box under the hood and the ECM on the left rear of the engine compartment.

Pull, clean, grease and replace the engine ground and the battery ground. Do the same for the battery positive terminal.

Have the battery LOAD tested if you have not done that already. Take it to a local auto parts store and ask them to load test it for you. Almost all of them will do it for free.

Inspect your cam position servos and cam position sensors for electrical contact through the connectors and make sure they have no visible issues. If it were me, i would just swap them out for new and call it good.
 
#5 · (Edited)
Some people refuse to think its the battery EVEN when it is supposedly tested & checked by a competent person... And lo and behold, the person finally replaces the battery and all is well... Just make sure you replace it with an equivalent to the OEM if not the OEM Delco itself, not some cheap knock off, those can make issues worse... At this point what do you have to lose? a couple hundred if that.. Actually less than that, I bought an OEM at my dealer for $142.27 with tax 10/23/2012..part number 88865255.
 
#9 ·
Again: This car is not like ANYTHING your dad has ever worked on before.

In fact: "tried to jump start the car using the solenoid" Is something you shouldn't be doing with this car. The ECM/BCM is incredible sensitive to power surge, and what he just did there was not a good thing at all. Hell, we have had club members fry things just trying to jump start a car normally.

FYI: You may have now engaged the Security System lock out and it is disabling everything, we have seen that happen as well with bad battery connections and/or bad batteries.
I have a parasitic drain in my Sky that I haven't had time (or will) to investigate/fix. I've had to jump start it three times off my other car, which is also known to be notoriously sensitive to jump starting, a 2005 Saab 9-3 Aero. It has been successful all three times.

Perhaps the Sky can only be jump-started from equally sensitive brethren?
 
#7 ·
Also jump starting at the battery is no good either, with us all it did was let us release the key that was stuck.. If it won't start by trying to jump it at the battery itself is another indication of a bad battery.. Let hope s/he's dad didn't damage anything electronic..
 
#8 ·
I had the same problem with my sky.. check the battery connections. One of mine was barely 'connecting' all the time. We replaced both the battery and the connectors and never had an issue again so far. SkyBaby
 
#11 ·
I had the exact same issues as you describe in your post with a 2006 Pontiac Grand Prix GXP. My battery also tested out and was fine. Could not figure out what was wrong for a long time.

The problem was a bad terminal on the battery. It was replaced under warranty and I never had a problem after that. I bet that is what is going on with your car.
 
#13 ·
Hey there saturnsky,

Since your last post, was your dad able to resolve the many issues you were experiencing with your Sky? I understand that your vehicle was at the dealership recently for a recall work but have you been to the dealership for these concerns?

Jennifer T.
GM Customer Care
 
#16 ·
It's the fuse.

Put new fuses in. I had the same problem and after checking the fuses and all connections I changed the starter. Guess what it still wouldn't start. After I changed the fuse for the starter and throttle body it's been fine ever since. The problem is the way our fuse boxes are made once the prongs of the fuse get a little worn the connection isn't good enough to start the car. Even the throttle body fuse will cause it not to start because the ECM is looking for the throttle body but if the fuse is worn it won't start because the ECM cuts power to the starter. Looking at the fuse it won't be blown but the prongs will be scratched a little and that's all it takes. Install a new fuse and try it. :thumbs:
 
#19 ·
That's great.



Apparently they don't look at our forum or maybe they would do something about the passenger airbag problem. Ok back to the meaning of this thread. I wonder if he tried new fuses like I posted.
 
#23 · (Edited)
They all have their problems. Loyal Ford owner since my 1969 Mach 1 Cobra Jet 428. Bought close to 40 new cars from then to 2007. Bought the biggest lemon I had ever seen. F350 turbo diesel. Ran great here in California, but took it to Utah, Colorado and it would not pull a hill to save its life, just crawl at anything above 9500 feet. It was just me having the problems. Long story short their Oasis report told the whole story. Wanted them to take it back, no hard feelings, put money in escrow for new engine coming out. Refused, had to go to arbitration. Ford sent two lawyers, engineer and field tech. I won the arbitration in the first 10 minutes. But it took them almost 6 months to pay me back, all the time my truck was setting on their lot. Will never buy another Ford for as long as I live. I own 3 GM vehicles currently, and all of them work just like they are supposed. We have a 2007 DMC 3500 dually, 2013 Volt, loaded, and getting 175MPG with it and of course the sky. Also have a Toyota, Japanese made and it is the best car I have. The clunker is a 1987 PathFinder with every bell and whistle imagineable in 1987, 297k on the old monster and it keep running strong. Looks like new outside and inside, engine compartment has suffered some.

But the fact that they GM representative even speaks to this site is amazing to me. No real obligations to do it. I think honestly trying to help those that are frustrated with the whole deal. Good PR...

Our beloved FJ died /got the axe this year, and I have yet to hear from Toyota on how to help us with future problems. Parts will be at a premium as we tear the things up every weekend.'
 
#24 ·
But the fact that they GM representative even speaks to this site is amazing to me. No real obligations to do it. I think honestly trying to help those that are frustrated with the whole deal. Good PR
Yes, good PR. But I'd be interested to know if they've actually done anything to fix a problem for anyone here. In my case last fall they took a bunch of info and then told me there was nothing they could do, even though the exact same part in the Cobalt was getting repaired for the same problem I had free of charge.

Of course, now they are all recalled, and I'm told I'll get my money back, but I'll believe it when I see a check.

They said they same thing ("We can't do anything about that") when I reported that Lee Johnson Chevrolet told someone here it would cost $800 to 'install' the GM tune on their Sky.

As is, I can't even be certain it is an official GM person.
 
#26 ·
Because a parts guy here at the dealership that no longer works there told me dealer cost is $301.00!!!!
The member already had the parts- this was install labor only. $800. It takes a good tech an hour at most to splice in a new MAF sensor and send the software to the ECM.
 
#28 ·
Something is going on, and I am not quite sure what is causing it; but something has changed in recent years. And that something seemed to changed with virtually all of the manufacturers.
Agreed. And I do know that dealers used to make most of their profits from new car sales and just a little from service. Sometime in the last 20 years that completely flipped. This, of course, wrongly incentivizes the system to produce cars that need service.

Last oil change I had done at a Toyota dealer cost me $85 (that's you, Michael's Toyota). I thought they were kidding when they told me. I got the insulting, "We did do a multipoint inspection" line of BS.

I told them I'd pay this one time, but never again. And it also cost them any chance of me buying a new car there, ever. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.

There seems to be an epidemic of profound short-sightedness in this automobile industry right now. With the notable exception of Tesla, who is seriously messing with the broken status-quo (and hurray for them).

PS- I asked my (non-dealer) mechanic if they had to equipment to pressure test the turbo system on my Sky after you brought up the cracked ICs. Unfortunately they do not. And fortunately, I've not had any issues since they cleared the codes (he says with crossed fingers knocking on wood...)
 
#33 ·
Just take a battery out of another car and put it in the Sky.

If it works, problem solved. If not then there are other issues.

When says the car won't start, does he mean cranks and does not turn over or nothing happens at all?
 
#35 ·
Hey everyone.
So I have a 07 saturn sky with just over 67,000 miles on it.
Its automatic and it will not start after I drive it around. Ill drive it about 30 minutes away go in to my destination come back out and sometimes it will start and sometimes it wont. I just did the ignition recall after this started happening and everything stopped. But now, a month later, its doing it again. The head lights and dash lights come on, and so does the radio, but the car wont even try to turn over. Now sometimes, when the car does start, it says the car is on empty, the speedometer does not work, neither do the rpms, and the air will not blow cold. If I drive it while all of this is going on, it will start to do this thing that I can only best describe as slamming whenever the car starts to decelerate. When the car is like this (on, but speedometer and etc is not working and car slamming) the ABS light is on and so is the check engine light. When I get my car home, shut it off, and try to see if itll turn back on, it wont turn over. Only the head and dash lights come on. I do not understand this!
Any one know what is going on?
I know for sure it is not the battery.
I can tell u what the problem is my 2007 had the same issues . If u pull ur engine cover off there's a silinoyed on the top of the motor correct me if I'm wrong but I think it had been called an exaust silinoid it should be on the left side of motor but there's actually 2 exaust and intake I replaced them both and all problems went away haven't had a problem since
 
#38 ·
I read every new post on this forum as they come up. I realize that people don't report in when their Sky is running fine, but there are a notable amount of posts pertaining to issues with turbos and automatic trans shifting. Lately there is a new topic, intake valve carbon build-up on the 2.0L engine with direct injection.

Much discussion pertains to mods which is in a different category, but as unmodified original equipment Skys are racking up the miles and years, issues are starting to become more frequent, most especially in the Redline turbo and Base automatics.

It got me thinking that the base model with the manual transmission is most trouble-free with consideration to miles and age, a wise choice for people who don't have the skills and/or money to keep their aging Sky on the road.

My own Base with manual trans Sky (I call Money Pit) came into my life with piles of issues. Fortunately none involved the core vehicle, not the engine or transmission or other drivetrain or pulley-driven systems. I initially questioned a lot when learning about "vehicle normalcy". I did replace the valve cover gasket and perform a complete preventative maintenance program but consider all that normal routine maintenance, not failures requiring repairs.
 
#39 · (Edited)
This post resurfacing caught my eye this morning- as our Sky's age hopefully gracefully- like fine wine in the cellar or garage of choice.
As the years- and mileage rack up totals on our owners backs & their cars odometers,
problems suffered in the past- and info for solutions from our community provide owners of today with knowledge about the Kappa.

From 2014 to 2021- the information never gets old if you own an out of production model niche car by chance or personal choice.
Is it- your issue electrical in nature?
Is your issue- fluid related perhaps?
Is your issue- mechanical by chance?

With solutions galore from past owners- vast amounts of knowledge
help today's new owners with their problems- here on the forum.
Your Search feature Matters when you're not having a permagrin kinda day.

I think the Rob the Elder 2014 post covered all of the electrical options-
I see where our most recent posters have taken the mechanical parts replacement strategy, along with preventive maintenance -replacing fluids, filters, the odd rubber hose or belt after years of ware & tear by it's current owner- to say nothing of the previous owner maintenance practices or lack thereof.

Auto or Stick. Rowing the gears- or Cruise control bliss. After my recent trans- service visit I felt better about the overall health of my transmission's operation. All though lighter in my check book it was the right time for the car- so I have piece of mind for the next asphalt adventure I take next. With the fluid flush replacement out of the way- the leaking hose replaced- and road tested I now have less worry about noises- or odd sounds or reactions when the performance of my car is to me as an owner- not right to my ear, or sight or seat of the pants feel.

Right now I am inspecting, cleaning- di-electric grease to connections, maybe
checking a few bolt heads for looseness or leakage from gaskets. I know that I have not replaced the cam servo sensors- for the hard downshifting that sometimes happens in our cars. It is part of our history as they say. Checking the fuse boxes for re-seating, and inspection of questionable fuses for replacement.

Was my issue electrical? Not that I know of- but I'm checking on that as I type away.
Was my issue mechanical in nature? Yeah leaking hose. AN old hose at that.
Was my issue maintenance related? Sort of- I have no clue what the previous owner did- and I have done nothing to it since purchasing the car- so.... this is part of owner/operator preventive maintenance I guess.

I think it was Junior Johnson once said-
hell in his good ole boy southern draw it's just electrical stuff, some fluids, and metal parts.
I tend to ask these same 3 category questions myself when facing problems & solutions thereof here on the forum.

Thanks to our community of the faithful to preserving our smiles- Long may the Last- 2014 and beyond.

LAC
 
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