2001 SC Shaking, Inconsistent Error Codes
 

Hey fellow Saturn fans. I'm having a sudden and frustrating problem and I'm hoping someone here can help me identify the source.

Yesterday I drove my 2001 Saturn SC 3-door around running errands. Despite the fact she has 130,000 miles on her, I take great care of her and I'm a competent mechanic. She drove fine all day until I came out of a store and tried to start her up.

Upon ignition the car started shaking pretty hard and the check engine light began blinking. Used my code scanner and came up with p300: Multiple Misfires.

Turned the car off and on, no luck. Drove it a bit and smelled rubber, which I suspect was the serpentine belt wearing from all the shaking. Stopped, turned it off, turned off the AC and cleared the codes. When I started it rumbled a bit and then went back to normal and worked fine for the next two hours.

This morning, I went to drive again and the same thing happened. Rumbling, undrivable. This time there was a smell of gas and a different code P0410 Secondary air.

After some poking around on the internet, I've heard it could be either the Body Control Module or the Ignition Control Module. I can easily get an ICM at Advanced Auto Parts, and I'm tempted to change it along with the plugs and coils. At the same time I don't want to wade in and spend the money without really knowing for sure.

Any advice, thoughts on the matter would be much appreciated.

I have nothing clever to say comradecupcake.

The first question is when was the last time you did a tune up? Perhaps you have a plug that is misfiring. I'd pull the plugs and check them and do a thorough cleaning of the throttle body too. That's a very weird thing. I've personally never had that happen with a car. Maybe some fuel injector cleaner in the tank too. Techron is top notch, and I do use it myself. I add a bottle to the fuel tank about every 10,000 miles or so. I've got 189,000 miles on my Grand Caravan and just rolled 100,000 today on my Equinox. Both still have the original injectors.

pull the plugs before you go to start it up and check for soakage that could be causing the misfire on startup.

Burning rubber smell....you may have an alternator problem. These cars are extremely voltage sensitive. Inconsistent voltage will result in poor driveability and SES issues.

Thanks for the advice everyone.

I managed to diagnose and fix the problem on Saturday. Some further internet investigation into the symptoms did indicate I should check the spark plugs. They were indeed shot and several were fouled by gas. This seemed to indicate problems with either the ignition coils, the Ignition Control Module, or perhaps both.

Tested voltage on Coils and they looked fine, but just to be safe I replaced them along with the the ICM and the plugs. Car fired up with no problem and has been running great since.

Since the issue was somewhat intermittent on Friday I'm still a bit nervous, but I drove the car a lot both Saturday post-fix and Sunday with no further issues.

Glad to hear you got it fixed, but I think you probably spent more money than you needed to.

Glad you're back on the road .............. enjoy

Drive on .................