Thanks uncljohn for the heads up. I think this a little over my head and I do believe that it is going to come down to the security system.

It's a second car so I am just going to wait a few weeks or so then I will have it checked out.

I will post once I know more.

 

Just a heads up, average Mike the Mechanic doesn't know chit about Saturn S cars or any Saturn for that matter. The dealer IS the the place you need to go to save money in the long run.

 

Be prepared to discover the dealer also knows very little about Saturns. First of all the cars have become so incredibly complex that knowing much about a specific one is a bit of a stretch. Yes they see more of the same one comming through the doors but what the know is mostly repetition of the same problem and where the part might be on that car. A good, well trained mechanic that is also a diagnostition that can read a manual is a rarity.
Secondly?
The dealers are gone, there are none. And even if the later Saturns were a badge engeneered GM corporate car with the significant differernce being the name on the trunk lid. The fact that they were one of many assembled from parts gathered all over the Globe does not make them easier to figure out, diagnose and repair if they are no longer comming through the door.
The last and frankly one of the few times my Saturn saw a dealer was one of the times a previously estimated $350.00 repair had turned into a $3500.00 must have done list presented to me by the nice kid with a tie and a clip board as I waited in the customer lounge. After a not so nice discussion the repair became a $750.00 repair rather than the orginal $350.00 repair and two trips to get it right. That and to be honest recent dealer experiances with my New Chrysler and the Lincoln prior to that have pretty much soured me on the supposed benefits a dealer are supposed to have and frankly used to.

 

Uncljohn thanks for the post. I had someone check it out and they are saying that the VATS needs to be flashed to correct the issue.

I called the dealer and they told me to bring it in for an inspection but said that the sysmptoms don't line up with them having to flash the VATS. I could not help but feel like the guy from the dealer was trying to work me.

At this point I am really trying to consider if it is worth it to fix this car since it is older and other repairs are needed. Eitherway I will post once a decision is made and I will let everyone know what happens.

Thanks

 

From what I l know S Saturns don't have "vats" or passkey II so someone is working someone.

 

Yep .............. someone is Stroking someone.

http://video.search.yahoo.com/video/...Music+Video%29

 

Well I didn't have to pay the guy that advised of the VATS system so I guess you get what you pay for.

I brought the car to my mechanic and he is checking it out. He's a good guy but said it is going to take a few days to get around to it which is not a big deal for me as this is a second car.

Either way I will post once we have something more but he seems to think that it is a lose wire. Hopefully whatever it is he will be able to find it.

 

Problem solved. The fuse box itself was bad. We replaced the fuse box with one from the junk yard and everything seems to be working good.

The fuse box that was in the car did have some visible burn marks on the back side. There was no way to see the burn marks without having removed the entire fuse box. At this point I am confident that this is what the issue was.

Since this was a easy fix it looks like I will be keeping the car. I really appreciate everyone's posts regarding this issue.

Thanks!

 

Glad to hear you've got it fixed and back on the road. It seems the RjIon mentioned the fuse box back on April 7th. He hit the nail on the head!

 

Towhomit may concern
Please take note that a burned out fuse connection was diagnosed by a number of people as major computer or system related problems.
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Problem solved. The fuse box itself was bad. We replaced the fuse box with one from the junk yard and everything seems to be working good.
==============================
My many years in the service industry can be a parallel to this. The biggest part of the problem solving experience undertaken by the average repairmen was dealing with the unknown.
I was back up problems solver and diagnostician. (and resident poor speller). Invariably the service person coming upon a problem they did not feel good about solving blamed the least understood and most expensive part that also was the most reliable. The computer.
I can not tell you about the amount of money pissed away replacing computers that did not fix anything. It as not unusual to get a phone call from a frustrated technician. Poor terminology here, they referred to them selves as technicians. They thought of them selves as technicians and they were treated as technicians. The problems was that they knew very little about technology and even less about how to check for it's operations. The question would be some variation of (after describing the problem) I have changed the computer 3 times do you think I should change it again and the answer was;
No, you should not have changed it the first time.
Saturns and cars of their time frame have become electronically extremely complex.
By in large, the electronics are trouble free. But age and oxidation play hell with connections and there are a whole bunch of those. Generally ignored, damaged and the root cause of the problems.
But take it to the dealer, buy a new computer, have something flashed and then junk it because you have spent a ton and it still don't run.
The day of a bobby pin and chewing gum repair is gone.
And so is largely easy to solve problems.