What is wrong with my car?

[brian_riendeau]

I have a 92 Saturn SL2 with 105,000 miles on it. My wife drives this car whenever she needs to get somewhere. Starting yesterday, it has trouble starting.
The engine turns over fine so the battery and starter are good. When the car tries to start, it just turns over for a while before actually firing. The engine acts like it is not getting enough gas and will stall out very roughly a couple seconds after going. The first time this happened, it took about 10 attempts just to get the engine to fire up, then another 10 or so tries of starting and stalling before the car would actually idle. Once it starts idling, it will stall out if the gas pedal is pushed in the first 15 seconds or so. During this time, the oil pressure guage dances around pretty erratically which has never happened before. After that inital process, the car runs perfectly fine. If I stop the engine and restart the car within a few minutes, it starts up fine with no issue. I tried filling the tank with new gas and also using some water remover in case some water was in the tank. Maybe the fuel filter is clogged? The problem only happens when the car has been sitting for a few hours. Someone told me it was the fuel filter or fuel pump. Any ideas?

 

[Anubis]

fuel injector could be clogged. along with the pump

 

[Anubis]

take it someplace to get it looked at

 

[cmf21]

Could be the fuel pump. Mine went out recently on my Blazer and was doing some of the same things. Cost me a pretty penny too.

 

[malbojah]

Originally posted by: brian_riendeau
I have a 92 Saturn SL2 with 105,000 miles on it. My wife drives this car whenever she needs to get somewhere. Starting yesterday, it has trouble starting.
The engine turns over fine so the battery and starter are good. When the car tries to start, it just turns over for a while before actually firing. The engine acts like it is not getting enough gas and will stall out very roughly a couple seconds after going. The first time this happened, it took about 10 attempts just to get the engine to fire up, then another 10 or so tries of starting and stalling before the car would actually idle. Once it starts idling, it will stall out if the gas pedal is pushed in the first 15 seconds or so. During this time, the oil pressure guage dances around pretty erratically which has never happened before. After that inital process, the car runs perfectly fine. If I stop the engine and restart the car within a few minutes, it starts up fine with no issue. I tried filling the tank with new gas and also using some water remover in case some water was in the tank. Maybe the fuel filter is clogged? The problem only happens when the car has been sitting for a few hours. Someone told me it was the fuel filter or fuel pump. Any ideas?

I definitely recommend going
here here for your problem

 

[Vette73]

It could be a host of things, please don;t replace something that may not be needed.

Check all your maintaince and get it up to date. Like fuel filter, plugs, etc......

But when it is cold do you hear the fuel pump humming when you put the key in to the start position? If not you might have a bad fuel pump realy, or other item.

But do maintaince first then try and find what is causing it not to run, fuwl, air, spark, then go from there.

 

[Pepsi90919]

What is wrong with my car?

it's broken?

 

[BatmanNate]

What is wrong with my car?

It's a saturn.

 

[malbojah]

Originally posted by: BatmanNate

What is wrong with my car?

It's a saturn.

Hey now! My Saturn runs just fine.

All I had to do was replace the motor...

and the radiator....

and the alternator...

and the cat convertor...

and the muffler...

and the speakers....

....

 

[brian_riendeau]

I replaced the plugs and plug wires about 7,500 miles ago, all other oil change related maintenence get done everything 3,000. The fuel filter has never been replaced in at least the last 55,000 since I got the car. I posted over at the SaturnFans forums so hopefully someone has been through the exact same thing over there.

"What is wrong with my car?"

"It's a saturn."

Wow! Helpful!

 

[cmv]

Sounds to me like fuel supply problem. Sometimes fuel injector systems have a lock that keeps the fuel up near the injectors when the car is off so they don't need to be reprimed for every start. Maybe some seals are failing in that part of the fuel system. Could be electrical problem too or fuel pump(s) or fuel injectors. Doesn't sound good and going to people who have experience with the model is probably best! Good luck over at the Saturn forums.