I'm going to post the trials and tribulations of returning my old Saturn Ion to operating condition. It used to be my brother's car, he traded it to me back in 2012. My wife gave it to her mother ( without asking me first!) after a couple of years, and her mother didn't take care of it well - I came over to change the oil, but she just let the car sit except for a couple of times where idiots she lived with stole the car, which caused me to have to change a control arm and a couple of other parts. Last weekend, (12/14) she returned the car to me, and I towed it home, and this weekend, after a couple of little repairs, despite some people on my introductory post telling me to just give up before I even try, I managed to get the car to run.

Here's the car when I picked it up. on the exterior, it needs headlights, and one of the headlight brackets.



First order of business was the fuel pump. Everyone told me to cut a hole in the floor, but that seemed much more difficult than removing the fuel tank, and besides, I needed to remove four years of old gas.



Success! Ignition module and fuel pump, and it runs. Took me a couple of hours work, which makes me think "Scrap it, it's not worth fixing" was a bit dramatic.



Going to flush the coolant, change all the fluids, fix the radiator fan, and get some tires.

 

Good news, they have to be pretty rough or not worth the effort before I give up on them.

 

Theyre worth saving most of the time.

What parts do you need? I have 8 years and 5 cars worth of parts laying around.

I'm sure I can cut you killer deals.

 

compression test before dumping time and money into it?
Hats off to you for knowledge and perseverance.

 

After a couple of weeks, I'm driving the car to work.

One of the first things I did, before I started getting too excited, was a compression test. All four cylinders were pretty even, only a few PSI from each other.

Other than the fuel pump, I ended up with an ignition module. It would rev up, but it pretty definitely had a misfire. Both coils gave me about a half an ohm, and the car was missing on two cylinders... I got the test light out, and had someone crank the engine while I held the test light on the little terminals under the module. One didn't flash, so it's not sending the signal to the coils to fire. That replaced, and the car ran smooth.

And now I got into the stupid stuff that was done to the car, because fixing it right would eat into the beer and meth money. First order of business was the fan. This is what was in it.





After spending a rainy few minutes in a junkyard, I was the proud owner of the right part, and I installed it and fixed the associated wiring.



This replaced, the air conditioner even works.

Next, I had to track down the vacuum leak I was hearing. Turned out to be pretty obvious, there are a couple of ports on the front of the intake that normally have caps on them. One did not. Always one to stick my finger in something to see what noise it makes, I covered the whistling port and... the engine died. Re-started, open the throttle, and cap it, and the engine slowed a bit and smoothed out. I remember in the dim recesses of my mind, that it used to have a check engine light pertaining to a Idle Air Control valve. Like everything else on the car, it's held on by one screw, so I pull it out and... it's gross. Gunked up. Cleaned it, put it back in, car starts and runs to 3,000 rpm... and gradually slows down. It gets warmed up and it idles dead smooth at 700 rpm.

So what's next? Well, a test drive of course!



Drove it to the gas station, put some gas in it. No leaks. A bad wheel bearing, and a clunk in the suspension. Just out of curiosity, I took it home and put it on the ramps, and start shaking stuff. It's the sway bar bushing on the passenger side, so I have ordered one of those. This weekend, I'll take the wheels off and see which bearing is bad. If I remember right, this car has a cartridge type bearing.

Other than that, the car is faster than I remember. The clutch engages almost immediately, too.

The next day, I took it to get tires. Thats when I found out I had a bent wheel, bent BAD. So I go back to the salvage yard and drop $10 on a wheel. Now, the car rolls smooth, and corners well. I need to take the steering column apart, as I getting a noise when turning the wheel fast.

 

Good job, sir. Hats off to yuh

 

I went to RockAuto today, to order headlights. They should be here next week. Someone at work said I should try polishing them, but as the picture below will show, they're a bit beyond that.



I don't know if the other headlight is similarly broken, but I ordered both of them just so they'd match.

While I'm on the subject of headlights, I feel I should mention, how is it Saturn can make an aerodynamic car with composite headlights that can be removed in seconds without tools, and almost nobody else can? This car is almost old enough to vote, people, this isn't new and magical technology. At this point I'm going to choose to believe that any time I see headlights that require the removal of the front end of the car to change, that it was designed on purpose with malicious intent.

Not that removing the entire front of this car is much harder. Getting to the point shown below took me a 7mm socket, a 10mm socket, and five minutes.



Even with the new support bracket for the headlight, they just can't be aimed correctly. The reflectors, especially the one on the driver's side, are just too far gone. It's more like having a light bulb sticking out of the front of the car than having a proper headlight.

I drove it to work this last week, and was considering taking it on a road trip 90 miles to Arkansas tomorrow, but the headlights are just too bad. Last thing I want to do is crash it because I was so eager to drive it!.

It's almost disappointing. 192,000 miles and it doesn't even have the common decency to leak fluids on the ground.

Does anyone have a recommendation for gearbox oil? I *think* my brother put GM syncromesh in it back when he had it, but I'd like to know what everyone else suggests.

 

Hit your new headlights with some clear coat.

is it manual or auto? Think the manuals took atf if I remember correctly.

And please get rid of the intake. Its hurting performance.

 

If I remember correctly, when my brother had it, he put that intake on it because it was cheaper to clean the filter than to buy a new one - they were $25 at the time! I know where there are a couple of stock intakes I could grab. Is it really hurting performance that much?

The car is a manual. I thought the automatic 2003 Ions were all CVT's, and therefore, dead?

Headlights came in today.


I'll try to get a daylight picture of it tomorrow. I aimed the lights against the side of a building, and it's a LOT easier to see now. And as a bonus, the turn signals work now.

 

03/04 ion coupes came with the cvt. Sedan got something else. Can't remember right now.

it does hurt performance a good bit. Stock air box with a k&n filter is much nicer.

Aftermarket intakes dont pull cold air like the stock ones do. They are also anywhere from 1/2in to an inch smaller ID, so its pulling less air.

New lights look good!