ION won't start on cold morning...
 

My ION 2006 didn't start this morning... was cold, windows and doors were frosted but winter isn't started here... and minus 40C (yeah C not F)is not that abnormal in my winter so I'm getting a bit worried...

So wouldn't start this morning so I drove to work with the old cavalier instead. Girlfriend started it without any problems an hour after... was still frosted. What gives ???

Anyone has insight on this phenomenon ?
What is wrong either the car or should I pick up on a trick I just don't know anything about ?

READ all Saturn forums, Search ION no start cold

I started doing that right after posting actually... a lot of different informations out there and some are contradictive.

A co-worker had the same problem and said that I should just basically have the key in ACC mode and wait 5min+ before actually starting it... and that works.

I'm thinking a remote starter would(well might) solve it as it will warm up the car and starting it bypassing the ignition and passlock. But I could be wrong....

Mine is automatic if it makes any difference... I'll keep researching it... hoping to find a veridic and definitive solution for this... woudl be too sad not to have oen since I like that car a lot... and can't afford to change it and bought it as a work commut ecar (I drive 100km daily!)

I have a brand new never installed ignition lock and tumbler set with key. If you find thats what you need I'll sell this for $39 dollars American plus shipping.

Could you expand on the statement, It won't start!
Does that mean that the engine cranked normally but never fired? Or does it mean that you put the key in and turned it and nothing happened.
Contradictory information has a tendancy to indicate that incorrect data is being applied to the symptom.

Nothing happened... I was getting the all the accesories to work(music, fans etc) when I turned teh key to start NOTHING... no starter noise, no sign of anything, no blinking light in teh dashboard... about an hour later while car is still frosted my girlfriend give it a go and it started like nothing happened. By that time I had time to reach work with the old cavalier and I got her messaging me with that...

Right now I'm seriously considering the remote starter option as having one up here is must have anyhow with our winter conditions. If it could solve that issue also even better.

From what I read it seems like in my case it's a problem with the dielectric grease in there getting thick aroudn freezing point... because I have no battery,starter or spakr plug problems here... I'd rather remote start it than sit in there for 5-10min on ACC mode before starting it as a work around mostly in the -20 to -40C conditions...

I think he has what you need.

I've seen a video of a similar problem, they guy just cut some white wire off under the steering column and it solved the problem, here is the link check it out it may help, at least this fix is free = ) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ww5AGhFWcBw

and involves cutting wires off that conceivably served some design purpose....

The "cutting the white wire" thing is mostly as a way to shut-off the passlock. Which may be part fo teh problem in some instance. Either it's that or the dielectric grease that gels around freezing point. Getting to the dielectric grease and replacing with better grade one like I have foudn online is tedious... but something I could do if I had a day to kill... which I don't like most on here I guess ;)

GM should have just gotten a new switch with better grease in there as a replacement and "trashed" the previous version so that we coudl just by a fixed switched and get it replaced calling it a day. Since it's not safety related there's no point in a recall... and there's probably a ton of those so they don't want to scrap them when tehy could just sell them as they break (again and again). End of rant haha.

So in the meantime I now have a remote starter installed and working. Which meant getting a passlock bypass done in order to allow for it to remotely start the car by default :) So that part is covered if the passlock is part of the problem.

If the grease is... we'll see when it gets cold again one morning. I'll remote start it and see when I get in the car if it got warm enough to actually get the grease to working condition. My thinking is it will... but I might be wrong... I needed and planned a remote starter for this car anyway. One thing I noticed is that the ION has a ventilation duct right by your right hand holding the steering wheel so you could easely position it pointing to the key... so technically that should help.

I'll keep you posted either this works for me or not. :D