Okay so I'm at a wits end over here. I'm new to this site and would appreciate if anyone could help. [img]smileys/smiley6.gif[/img]

I have a 1993 Saturn SL1 with about 160000km on it. Last monday I stopped at an intersection and waited for the green. When it came I hit the gas and the car started to chug (RPM went up and fell, and kept trying to go up but would fall again). So I let go of the gas and let it stabilize - which it did and I drove home. I figured it was just the spark plugs or I went to fast to the gas from the break? anyways... I continued to drive and on Thursday it happened again except this time it didn't stabilize when I tried what I did before - it just stalled.

It stalled pretty badly too because I couldn't get the car to start again after that and it had a bad smell coming from it not like a burning but like a really bad odor. So I replaced the spark plugs and it helped a BIT - except it caused RPM to go up to 4000 upon starting the engine. A couple minutes later the car went down again.

My friend came and took a look at it and found a makeshift valve. There are two valves on the top of the engine block - The right one connected to the air filter housing the left one I don't know. We found the valve that was fake to be the left one. And the real valve was inside the air filter housing..............(I had my engine rebuilt two months ago. I guess it didn't go well.) The car started up after that and ran fine again. About 5 minutes of driving after that it started to chug and stall again.

It got to the point where it couldn't start properly anymore so we checked the computer diagnostic and three error codes came up.

Codes:
19
35
49

I'm not 100% sure if I found the right meaning for those codes, they were: a vacuum leak, crank sensor error and idle sensor issue.

I was almost home and we decided to reset the CPU memory and giver gas to get it there and leave it in my parking lot until we know what to do. After clearing it, the car ran until the next intersection and into my complex and then gave out completely again.

So I guess my questions are... what is the difficulty of replacing or fixing/cleaning those errors? and could it be because of anything else? what was that smell at first - it never came up again?

If anyone has any suggestions on anything else... please do tell, and thanks in advance for anyone taking the time to read this.

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19 1991Perf. (LLO) 1992-1994 vehicles. 6X signal fault


35 Idle air control rpm out of range


49 Idle rpm out of limit high (vacuum leak)


These codes are from another saturnfans site but the codes can be found anywhere online for GM/Saturn DTC's. 19 is amystery to mte but I'm guessing it means more than 6X an error was detected in a short time interval before it codes. 35 is verifying the rpm is out of range probably compared to the throttle position sensor, as detected by the crank position sensor. 49 is suggesting a large vacuum leak, possibly from the fake valve. It would have to be a leak as engines are sealed so any blowby gases are supposed to be vented back through the PCV valve. If another vent were to be made then excess air will be drawn into this vent and raise the idle speed. You'll have to find a way to seal off the fake hole/valve. There shouldn't be any valve inside the intake air filter. Can you describe it?


The burning smell may be from something electrical. The EGR valve, throttle position sensor, idle air control valve, air intake temperature sensor, andwiring insulation all give off a bad smell when burned so take your pick.

 

erratic RPM behavior while driving, followed by stalling, and lack of ability to start the car right afterwards sounds like an EGR valve issue. A nasty smell comes as part of the package whenever this happens.....


I believe these were vacuum controlled on 93's so your vacuum leak -type behavior (goofy idle) could all be interrelated....maybe...


I would also change out the crank position sensor -- flakiness and intermittent strange events with failing CPS are not uncommon. A dead CPS will inhibit spark and keep the engine from starting.


Derf