As I was turning into my mom's garage sunday, the engine died on me . It happened when I put the clutch in. Instead of stopping at idle, the RPM's just dropped to zero. Only one warning light, oil light, came on when it died. I cranked her over agan, no problem, but she just wouldn't hold idle. I tried to rev her, but after my foot went off the gas and got on the clutch, I just watched the RPM's just drop to zero again. I had to do this 3 times to get into my parking spot. After I was parked, I made sure to check the oil (fine), and there was over a 1/4 tank of gas too.

This has happened twice before, both times while going around corners, but as soon as I fired the engine back up, it didn't happen again.

Has anybody ever heard of this before? I've got a 2.2L Ecotec, and it is under a year old. I plan on taking it to a dealership since its still under warranty. Though I get the feeling that unless they can repeat the problem, they'll just send me on my way

This sounds like the famous idle problem that all the ecotecs seem to have a problem with.......they have a program to change the idle it seems to have work a little bit but not a lot....hope this helps you a bit.
Later
Redrider02

To be honest, I think it's more of a J problem than anything, not really an ecotec problem. I haven't heard any of the ION community having this issue, nor do I hear about the grand am's or aleros with this issue either. The idle problem is something specific to the J cars. As to what it is? I have no clue, but good luck.

Well I have a '04 Ion QC2 and it was happening to me. I had them reprogram it and it seems better now but not completely. It will drop too low but not to the point of stall and it seems to only do that when the AC is on. The wierd part is they did a full ECM flash, when they were done my gas milage went way down to 22MPG until it started learning and averaging things again.

hmm. my 2002 cavalier with the eco does this too. it freaked me out the other day i had defrost on and my idle went from 900 (manual) to like 5 and it was going up and down up and down and kinda freaked me out. i dont know if the reflash was done on this car or not. i wonder how i could find that out..

From what the service guy told me they get new CD's all the time to upgrade their softwares. Not stuff that is always needed but could show up as a problem on some cars. The guy that told me this didn't know what version he had or what version my car was but it seemed to help and it was only an hour wait. It is worth getting it done if you are still under warrenty. mine still drops but not as low.

i went to the dealer on monday and got the reflash done on my eco and it hasnt done it since and it only took them 15 minutes todo.

I'v had it happen once. It freaked me out. I had the AC on max (its AZ what do you expect) and I put the clutch in when I was comeing up to a light and the RPMs droped to zero. No jerking, no sputter, no nothing. It was like I just turned the thing off but left the key in the run pos. Well anyways, I hit the starter while I was still rolling and it started right up like nothing happend. I haven't had that problem since. But I haven't had this car for very long. Its an 04 J body. But I have noticed that the RPMs do drop below 900 with the AC on after I put in the clutch when I was doing engine brakeing.

I had mine in for the reflash as well. I haven't had any idle problems since then. Although somehow one of my fuses had blown that caused the "theft system" to not let the car start because it was not sensing that the clutch was engaged. $70 to put it on the damn diagnostic computer for a blown fuse, good one.

Is the Saturn Ion available in a manual transmission?

My cavalier idles smoothly a 600 rpm, sometimes 700rpm with the a/c on.

Will I be encountering the same problem soon?

Do you think it is because the ecotec still uses the tiny 2200's intake box, with that tiny air filter? I see that IONS and ALEROS have twice if not 3x as big of a filter and box, maybe GM is choking the j's with cheapness?

All 3rd gens 95-05 (2.3, 2.2, 2200, 2.4 and 2.2Eco) have had the same air filter size.
Later
Redrider02


"i reject your reality and substitute my own." -adam savage "mythbusters"

My 04 classic had that idle problem, to an extent. For one, it wasn't a manual. My problem had two issues. one was a high idle. 1100 rpm w/ no lights, AC, anything. 1200 w/ all acc. That bothered me, but what was worse, was at stoplights, the engine would fall to like 300 rpm, and then climb back up to its "normal".

Instead of hitting the dealer, I put in a new battery ( i hate those ac delco batteries, JUNK!!!). That solved my hgh idle, but my stall was still there.

Took it to the dealer, they did a reprogram, and since then it has not done it once.

I had the high idle problem and low idle problem, and the occasional stalling. Reflash of PCM fixed it completely.

I have an 03 cavy and my engine dies out too. It happens I would say every 4-6 months.
I was thinking it could be the fuel injection, a problem with the pistons, anything electrical.....the list could go on with possible problems. I did notice, however, to control the idle, if you have a 5 spd, downshift more often than you usually do. I do it all the time. That produces more torque to the engine. Doing that keeps my rpms up.

One other thing you might want to look at is if you have a cai....check to see if it is connected tightly. I noticed this after my enginge kept quitting on me on my way to work. I looked under the hood and saw that the air filter tubing came loose. After I reconnected it and tightened down my clamps....the engine was fine.