I have an 03 Ion Sedan base model and the 06 Ion Redline.
My 03 is great, never have to do anything but change the oil and add wiper fluid. Well, put air in the tires, too.
Now for the Redline....Constantly cleaning the TB. It is lightly modified, so my maintenance is a bit different. I believe the sway bar bushings could be better. The 06/07 really are the best years for the Ion though.


Sw2 can chime in on this, as I don't completely remember. The car is basically on jack stands more often then is on the road.




And you don't have to be a car guy to get the basic stuff down. It just helps financially to do most of this on your own. Hell, when I got my 03, I didn't know how to jack a car up. And here I am 5 years later modifying a car.


On a final note, Derf is being mean. He has nothing better to do. Im going to tell Mom he is being mean again as we speak.

there doesn't have to be any friction -- I'm not trying to be a smart ass; we are here to help . Literally, the first step is the biggest -- you overcome your fear of breaking ****, you learn that things you pay a mechanic $75 to do can be done by you in 10 min at a cost of $3.59 +tax, and as you go, you acquire more and more knowledge about your car, how it works, what parts communicate with what other parts, where the sensors are, how to read and diagnose SES codes---and equally important --- you gain that sense of confidence that I cannot describe and only you will feel once you've started.

Take your time in the beginning, it's not a race. Learn to do things right the first time, so there won't be a second time the weekend after.

The fact that you signed up and posted and are still posting tells me you're up for the challenge.

We're here for any and all questions.

But don't ask me Ion questions; I usually answer them wrong; I don't own one. Let sw2 and Goalie guide you there.

Haha, thanks goaliemo. Yeah, I love my 2006 Ion. The only thing that really bugged me was the whole low power mode, but I'm glad I finally decided to try and find the answer on my own.

derf, I was trying to say you were being rude.... Sorry it came across that way. Also seriously, thanks for the advice.

We all love our cars. That is why we are here to help.


Remember, we were all new to the game at one point. We all want to save money, and make life a bit easier.


Here is one, a mechanic will charge you close to $100 to change your spark plugs. Plugs cost under $20. And how long? Under 10 minutes...






Derf is rude. Ignore him.

Signature ---check. Thank you
2 more posts in 9 days or sw2 will ban you for inactivity.

Huh? Was I being rude? Sorry if I was. I'm trying to encourage you, not the opposite. I'm pretty frictionless as long as you don't ask about "The Incident" between me n Goalie....

I don't think he meant you were.


Yep, all started when I let Derf try to help me work on my car....Resulted in his car getting set on fire.... Don't ask anything else about that....

Yeah, Billy thought it'd be funny to change the acetylene out for Hydrogen.
I lit the thing, it went off like a bomb; the tank took off like a bat out of hell, smashed my pass side window, and set the interior on fire.

Still smells like burnin' Louisiana to this day.....but don't ask any more about that...........

screw Louisiana. I hate it here.

so what are you waitin for?