2003 Ion cold weather problems

I've been looking through the threads, and I've seem some on this
topic, but they were all pretty old. So I was looking to see if anyone
has any more information about this, or if they experienced it, what
the final outcome, or fix was for the problem.

I've got a 2003 Ion 3, that I purchased two months ago. It had 11k on
it when I got it. When I purchased it, it was approximately 35 months
old. November 2005, marked 36 months, and with that, the expiration of
my warranty. (I wasn't offered the extended service package when I
purchased the car.. so that's a different battle that we're fighting.)
So the dealership wants to do a $90 diagnostic.. to TRY and find the
problem, and see if there are any error codes.

THE PROBLEM:
It seems to be that when it is cold, usually 35 degrees or lower, the
car won't start. It seems to be fairly spontaneously. Sometimes it
starts, and others it doesn't. On the days where it doesn't, it acts as
if it has only been turned to the auxillary setting. The lights will
come on, as well as the radio. Although the odometer, or 'Message
Center', will display 'Service Vehicle'. The only other coincidence
I've noticed, is that my rear view compass with intermittently
alternate from the temperature, to 'ICE'.

Someone in my house has to be at work at 6am every day of the week, so
this is always happening early morning. The first time it happened, it
took about 20 minutes, and 15 tries to get it to start. About 10
minutes into it, it would try to crank, but never successfully turn
over. Once it did fire up, it sounded, and acted perfectly normal. And
drove perfectly fine for a about a week and a half until it did it
again. Each time I've had this problem, its progressively taken a
little longer to start. Now when it tries to crank, it sounds pretty
weak.. and then when it does finally start, the idle is rough for a
couple of minutes.

This has happened about 6 or 7 times now. I have yet to take it in for
a diagnostic, I've procrastinated because I'm a single mom, so $90 for
an 'if we can find the code' isn't something viable during the holiday
season for me. Although I'm finally going in next wednesday.

I found a video on one of the older threads at :
http://www.lust4sun.com/ftp/video/satrun.wav
that shows EXACTLY what happens to me.

Also most of the results that I've found have said something about
having the ignition switch replaced, and yet that still isn't
correcting the problem in the long term. And there's even a few cases
where the car has been exchanged for a newer one.

So if anyone can please give me some insight or advice about this, I
would greatly appreciate it.

Thanks!

 

Check all the battery cable connections. Clean them if necessary.

Check connection(s) at the starter.

Don't know if your car has more than one fuse block, but check all fuses are
seated properly.

This is the limit of my experience with cars in general, so hopefully
someone else will chime in.

I've found very helpful information in the forums as saturnfans.com. You
may try a search there.

 

Hi. We have an '03 Quad Coupe. It's cold the last two weeks here around
Philly. Last night the low was 4F. No trouble starting.

The temperature indicator will flash "ICE" for the first couple of minutes
when the temperature is 37F or below.

Bill

 

All of the obvious stuff seems to be fine. I've been printing off
threads from pretty much any forum I can find where someone has
experienced this issue, so that I can take them to the dealership with
me on wednesday, thanks for the response!

 

Bill,

Thanks for the reply. My car seems to do it sporatically. For example,
yesterday, it was 29F, and the car was partially frosted, with a little
bit of ice on the road, and it wouldn't start. Today it was 24F, car
was totally frosted, tons of ice on the road, and started up perfectly
fine :-(

 

Wouldn't that indicate a bad spot on the starter?

 

I'm hoping its something that simple. My only concern is that I've
found several people that have had this issue, and some of them have
been able to do something with the ignition, or the starter, and the
solves the problem. Others have done the same things, and end up having
the problem all over again :-( My car did it again this morning, I took
video footage with my digital camera, so I'll be armed with that on
Wednesday... I've got my fingers crossed. Fortunately I haven't been
transporting my 9 month old anywhere when this happens...

 

UPDATE!!!

My car did it again this morning. I got Saturn to take it today instead
of waiting until tomorrow. Evidently the error code is invalid. For
some reason the car thinks that someone is trying to steal the car, and
disabling the ignition. New ignition switch put it... I'm picking it up
in an hour

 

I have a Saturn ION-3 (2003) too, and I had a similar problem about a
year ago. I brought the car in and was told I had a bad security
sensor. Apparently, the security sensor recycles every 10-15 minutes.
For those 10-15 minutes before it recycles, it thinks you're stealing
the car, and won't let it start. After it recycles, it'll let you start
it right up as if there were never a problem. I had mine replaced, and
never had a problem again until this morning. Of course, I don't think
it's the security sensor this time, as I actually got the car to turn
over once before it stalled

Gotta love GM vehicles...this is the last one I'll ever buy for sure...

 

wow my car does the smae thing......i have a 2004 ion1 It only did it
once last winter and now itr does it almost every morning. I still have
quite a bit lest on my warrenty. I think I will call my dealer today.

 

Yikes Adam!

My main frustration is in the lack of information about this issue.
Obviously its a problem, but you only see information on it when you
are digging through forum threads. So far (its only been 2 days), my
car hasn't had any issues since it got repaired. But I'm not giving it
a whole lot of credit. There were time lapses between issues, and its
also been warmer here than it had been when it was happening... so
we'll see....

If you don't come back and post it here, please let me know what
happened to your Ion this time. I'm trying to keep myself prepared with
as much information as possible if anything else comes up....

 

There is a bulletin out for it. When one of 2 codes are present, it is due
to a faulty ignition switch. The grease they use to lube the switch
thickens in switch, therefore making it inoperational. Once you put some
heat to it, from your hands, body etc... it warms it enough to thaw the
grease after about 10-15 mins. Take it to your dealer, have them replace
the ignition switch with the UPDATED part with new grease, and have them
program your BCM with the latest calibration available. It takes about 2.5
hours, and 99% of the time, problems go away completely. I am a saturn tech
and change at least 1 ignition switch every day for the last 8 weeks....
Hope it helps.

P.S. For reference, the codes needed to be present for this bulletin are
B2960 and/or B3033.

Hope it helps!