'99 Saturn SC2 dies after being driven on longer trips

This is actually my bros. car. Occasionally on longer trips, say 2-3
hours, the car will start to lose power and quit. After cooling for
an hour or so it will work again.

He's replaced the ignition coils and had the computer checked. Is
this problem common? Has anyone seen this before?

 

Well, many years ago the first thing one would think of when this
problem occurred would be the gas cap. Old gas caps were vented to
prevent a vacuum from forming in the gas tank and starving the
engine, and sometimes the vent hole would get clogged. Now gas caps
are sealed, and the tank is vented through the vapor recovery
canister (in order to reduce the amount of gas vapor that is
released into the atmosphere). In this case it could be that the
gas vapor recovery canister is clogged, causing a vacuum over time.

A simple test is to unscrew the gas cap a bit when symptoms start.
If symptoms clear up when you do this then the vapor recovery
canister or some of the related gorp needs service/replacement.

 

any engine codes set? s-series saturns are notorious for solenoid valves
burning out. egr vacuum solenoid and fuel canister purge solenoid should be
replaced together because they are not really expensive and have roughly the
same lifespan. coolant temp sensor affects fuel-air mixture and is relatively
cheap and easy to replace also.
jefff

 

back when cars were cars, and made here in the usa, with steel, gm in
general, with hei distrubiter, i would look at the ingation moduel, but
since its DIS i would look for an egr, problem, or a clog in the gas
recovery system.. i have seen on ocasion, that a faulty fuel pump, was
the culprit.. after it working for long periods of time, they loose
suction power, thus losing engine performence.. might want to look and
see if maybe the pump is getting old. ~b~