I have two 02 SL1's 110k miles and 113k miles, both manual trans, same color, same options everything the sames. It's easy to target issues between the both of them, if I find something looks wrong or feels/sounds wrong I go the one thats running correctly to check. This one I can't figure out.

For the past 30-40k or maybe more miles one of them had a botched intake manifold replacement job by the previous owner. They broke the gasket putting it in and left it like that, so it's had a huge vaccum leak forcing it to idle at 2.5k-3.5k. I finally got around to it and fixed it about a month ago. (This is my gf's saturn).

Yesterday she thought that the clutch was starting to go out and said it was driving funny. I test drove and it was bucking repeatedly and very hard in 1st, 2nd, and 3rd gear no matter how easy you were on the clutch. it will go into gear very easily and shift nicely but once you let off the clutch it bucks. 4th and 5th gear are normal once you reach speed to shift to 4th and 5th.

Now where I'm stuck is that the car is stalling while idling now, even in nuetral. If you let the car sit for an hour it will start up, run for a while then shut down. It will start back up while depressing the gas pedal down and cranking it over for about 10-14 seconds it will eventually fire up then quickly stall again.

This has happened twice now after it stalls and it you close the ignition turn key completely off and out, the radiator fan motor turns on and runs until the ignition goes open again (put key back in and turn on).

Occassionally the coolant gauge goes dead and coolant light on dash turn on, then turns off and gauge goes normal again while driving the car.

These two signs are a sure sign of a grounding or battery connection issue although I have just eliminated this possibility by doing the following:

It has good spark in all 4 cylinders.
All grounds are grounded good.
Battery connections are good and clean.
You can hear the fuel pump prime when ignition is on.

I have not done the following:
Check fuel pressure.
Run a scan

I will do this today when I can get ahold of my neighbor to barrow his pressure tester and obd2 scanner.

So........ Thoughts anyone?



EDIT; I did a little reading here and seems the first few posts on bad idles are to replace the ECTS and the sensor that is in the plastic intake snout. Seems like the first logical fix that is cheap, assuming that the fuel pressure comes normal.

 

Well everything is good. I still have not ran a scan yet but I replaced the temp sensor. Nothing has changed, I regrounded everything out but have not used an ohm meter to check for an open ground in the two wires to the temp sensor. I am beginning to think that it is an open ground somewhere in the harness.

I read in the repair manual that quoted "If the temperature gauge reads hot and the car has not been running or idling for any longer than 10 minutes there is an open ground or short in the wire."

The car wont even fire up or attempt too, it just cranks over and the temp gauge instantly goes to hot. When you turn the ignition off the radiator fan motor turns on thinking that the motor is hot. It has to be a short or a ground somewhere.

 

indeed low ects resistance when coolant hot -- though without consulting wiring diagrams I don't know why this would be tied into ignition position.

If PCM thinks engine is that hot, it may be leaning out the fuel mix to the point it wont fire.....