bling821
Full Access Member
Its been a while since I've been here so I thought I'd let you in on a little secret.
Here is a little background. I bought a 1993 Saturn SL1 for $700 the other day and did a little work to it to get it in tip top shape. This thing is going to save me some cash for sure. Anyway, I pulled the valve cover, because it was seeping oil, and squirted some high temp RTV on there. Doing that caused me to have to unplug the EGR solenoid harness (remember this) and some vacuum hoses. Got that cinched down and them replaced the motor mount because the car vibrated violently at idle. That went easily too. I also cleaned up the throttle body with some carb cleaner.
After I got everything buttoned up and let the RTV set for 24 hours it was time to start er up. And it did...until the engine started to slow to idle RPM and then it died. Crap! I should have left it alone. There goes my $700 bucks. I dug around in the engine and found nothing disconnected except for a green plug that I figured was for an option this car didn't have. So I searched the internet and found all sorts of things and narrowed it down to the engine coolant sensor which causes 90% of the issues with these cars. Ten bucks down the drain. So lets see what kind of trouble codes I get. IF you stick a wire in the the diagnostic port and short two pins, the check engine light will flash and tell you the code. Code 26 means, quad driver output fault. Great, I don't have a multi-meter to check these components. One of the options was the EGR solenoid. Well, I pulled the EGR valve and cleaned it up and put it back on when I realized where the solenoid was. I followed the vacuum line all the way to the thing next to the green plug that was just laying there.
So here is the secret. A 1993 Saturn SL1 will not idle with the EGR solenoid unplugged. I know, I've seen one not do it.
Now I can get at least 25 MPG on my 34 mile round trips to work.
Here is a little background. I bought a 1993 Saturn SL1 for $700 the other day and did a little work to it to get it in tip top shape. This thing is going to save me some cash for sure. Anyway, I pulled the valve cover, because it was seeping oil, and squirted some high temp RTV on there. Doing that caused me to have to unplug the EGR solenoid harness (remember this) and some vacuum hoses. Got that cinched down and them replaced the motor mount because the car vibrated violently at idle. That went easily too. I also cleaned up the throttle body with some carb cleaner.
After I got everything buttoned up and let the RTV set for 24 hours it was time to start er up. And it did...until the engine started to slow to idle RPM and then it died. Crap! I should have left it alone. There goes my $700 bucks. I dug around in the engine and found nothing disconnected except for a green plug that I figured was for an option this car didn't have. So I searched the internet and found all sorts of things and narrowed it down to the engine coolant sensor which causes 90% of the issues with these cars. Ten bucks down the drain. So lets see what kind of trouble codes I get. IF you stick a wire in the the diagnostic port and short two pins, the check engine light will flash and tell you the code. Code 26 means, quad driver output fault. Great, I don't have a multi-meter to check these components. One of the options was the EGR solenoid. Well, I pulled the EGR valve and cleaned it up and put it back on when I realized where the solenoid was. I followed the vacuum line all the way to the thing next to the green plug that was just laying there.
So here is the secret. A 1993 Saturn SL1 will not idle with the EGR solenoid unplugged. I know, I've seen one not do it.
Now I can get at least 25 MPG on my 34 mile round trips to work.
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