93 saturn sl2?

Question

I have a 93 saturn sl2 and if i drive it for more than an hour it starts to studder and lose drive and die on me. it will always start right back up but as soon as i put it in drive or reverse it dies. and if i let it sit for a day it will be alright again for about another hour. ive replaced the fuel filter, tranny fluid and filter, spark plugs, and cleaned out a sensor on the intake. can anyone help? last night i was driving it after i replaced the tranny filter to see if it helped and it did alittle bit but then it started to act up again. but when it lost drive i just kept my foot on the gas and it never died. just wouldnt go over 10 mph. and sometimes it would kick back in for a sec and be normal. i wanna say its a sensor but im not for sure.

Answer 1

So this only happens when the car is warmed up? My guess is the Crankshaft Position Sensor. It's about a $10-20 part. From the underside of the car, it's positioned just above the starter, it may be difficult to see, but on a DOHC Saturn it should be up and to the right of the starter. It's held when just one screw. If you don't want to change it out yourself, buy the part (preferably an OEM part from the dealer) and pay a mechanic to do it for you. The part itself is about the size of a pen. Looks like this:

http://www.partsamerica.com/ProductDetail.aspx?MfrCode=NIE&MfrPartNumber=DR1411&PartType=762&PTSet=A

One of the members of the Saturn Fan's forum posted a YouTube video on the location of the sensor:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnvUX0kcoFw

If you want to rule out catalytic the cheap way, you can get/borrow an infrared temperature gun and measure the temperature pre and post catalytic (with the engine running). If there is a large temperature difference, probably the catalytic is a dud.

If that doesn't solve your problem, go to the Saturn Fan's Forum. It's just a better knowledge base for Saturn specific problems. I'll leave links in the source's section.

P.S. If you've never changed the Coolant Temperature Sensor on your Saturn, you should probably change that too. I'll include a link for that in the Source's Section.

Answer 2

Try this----->

Remove the oxygen sensor from the exhaust. With the sensor out of the pipe, drive the car. Drive it long enough for it to act up. If it drives better, or normal, replace the catalytic converter.
If you are mechanically adept, and have a vacuum gauge, install it and drive the car (with the sensor in place). After it warms up, and begins to at up, put the car in neutral, and rev the engine to 1500 RPM. The vacuum should be around 20" Hg at steady throttle at 1500 RPM. If the vacuum is less than that, the cat failure is confirmed.

Answer 3

Well, I would change the spark plug wires and oxygen sensor as well. Also take your negative battery cable off so that the computer can reset. Is it possibly a really bad tank of gas?