My car is acting like it wants to die, I need to know what could cause this?

The upper engine mount by the valve cover collapse and tear causing excessive vibration especially when the engine is cold.See if its torn or collapsed.What is the exact code number your getting for the egr?It will be P followed by a four digit number?

Here are guides to help us find out what's going on.

https://www.2carpros.com/articles/stall-at-idle

https://www.2carpros.com/articles/throttle-actuator-service

https://www.2carpros.com/articles/checking-a-service-engine-soon-or-check-engine-light-on-or-flashing

Please let us know what you find.

Cheers

I've had the same thing happen to mine previously. With mine it was the spark plugs were ridiculously dirty. Warning for you though: If you have a California Emissions standard model, like mine, the SOHC journal head unit is notorious for developing cracks between the third and fourth cams. This will cause oil and coolant to mix and your engine will start either "chugging" (hard back and forth motions at idle or slow starts) or cause it to have a slow start shifting between gears. I'm currently on my second SOHC and this one's leaking now, too. Wondering if it might just be a better idea to replace the whole engine now, instead of going with another "new" cam journal head.

I have worked for saturn for over 16yrs as a service tech and have never seen a cracked head that is mixing oil in the coolant to cause the engine to chug or transmission not shift correctly.Also all the heads crack california emissions or not i have replaced a ton of the federal emissions cars heads when i lived and worked for saturn in new york.Actually the heads crack more often in the colder climate.I have seen more of those heads crack more often while i was in new york then california.Are yiu getting reman heads?What year car do you have?When they mix the oil with the coolant they over heat thats all i have see them do.I havent seenor heard of customers complain of anything else but over heating.

I noticed the same problem with my Saturn SL1 1999, when I stop to a light it acts like it wants to die but it never dies though. It vibrates a lot but there's no change in RPM (it's around 0.8).
I have new spark plugs and the car has only 35k miles !!!

Sounds like your upper motor mount is colasped by the valve cover.

So these should solve the problem?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zaugUfILmGE

Thats the mount iam talking about is that the same style mount you have in your car?Or does yours look different?

It's the same style that I have. After I'll change it (it will take me a while to shop around for the part) I'll be back to write you if the problem is gone.

The spark plugs wires are important to change after a certain age/mileage? because I thought that could be a good move to replace them too.

The mount you want the price price is on amazon i just bought one.Just put in the search box dea A2827 its a little over 20 for the mount.To check if the mount is bad take a normal size bic pen and see if the tip you write with.Fits between the place where it bolts to the front cover and where the mounting comes out of the mount.You should be able to slide the whole pen between there.If you cant the mount is colasped and needs replacing.To answer your spark plug wire question there is no change interval i change mine when they go bad.

I've just checked today and the distance is big enough for the pen. In this case what other problem can I have?

Anyway, I want to change it in maximum 2 weeks and I'll take it from there. Unfortunately I'm in Canada and the Amazon here has almost nothing :(

When its vibrating good put the car in neutral see if the vibration goes away?

I'll check it tomorrow (today :). I know for sure in parking the vibration goes away but I never checked in neutral...

I took a spin (it's almost 1 a.m. ) and it seems that in neutral is the same story like in parking, no vibrations. The RPM goes from 800 in drive (when stopped/brake) to 1100-1200 in neutral/parking but the vibrations are gone.

Has the cat ever been replaced and aftermarket one welded in?

Can you be more specific? I really don't now what the cat is :)

Follow the down pipe off your exhaust manifold it will lead to your cat see if it has been welded there.It will be easy to see if its been changed.

Everything is fine with the cat, no welding, no new parts over there. Now the car vibrates less but it's an obvious gap in the engine functioning. I spray some water during the night on the plug wires and I saw a small small small light in the bottom part (opposite the engine entries. Should I change the wires?

So is the spark coming out of boots on the coil towers?

Yes, exactly. It's a very small spark but it's there.

I would make sure that one of the coil towers isnt cracked where the metal post comes out.I have seen that happen causing a spark to one of the mounting bolts of the coil pack.So is the engine actually missing or just vibrating?

I've just changed my wires and and everything is just fiiiiiineeeee :). I don't know exactly if the engine was missing or vibrating but thanks to you I saw that motor mount and the cat are ok (I had no idea about those parts before)so today I've changed the spark wires and my engine works smooth...

Glad to hear you finally got it fixed your welcome thats what were here for.

Engine Mechanical problem
2001 Saturn SL1 Automatic

starts but will not stay running but one or 2 sec but will not continue to run,,

has gas, & battery is good, has 70,000 miles, clean air filter, & fresh oil change

Clean out the idle air control vlave and EGR valve and test the throttle position and manifold absolute pressure sensor.

My SL1 makes a horrible rattling noise (sort of like the valves are shuddering in their seats, maybe?) when I first start it for the day. All fluids are full, and there's no history of burning oil. Lately, on top of the rattle (which, by the way, is worse if I'm on a hill or if it's cold out), it requires me to up the RPMs over 3000 for about 30 seconds, or it dies. Once it gets going, the car runs great, although the gas milage isn't what it used to be. But the rattle is making me crazy...I'm terrified I'm going to throw a rod or something.

It sounds like there could be an internal engine problem. If the timing belt has never been replaced it could have jumped a tooth and thrown the timing off. There may be some valve damage if it hit a valve as your engine is a "Interference" engine meaning it does not shut down when there is a failure with the timing belt.

But wouldn't the SES or Check Engine light come on? Very occasionally, the low radiator fluid light comes on, and then goes out after about a half mile. And it doesn't run rough, nor does the idle fluctuate (although it does when the A/C is on for a while...)

Just to add to this one the engine doesnt have a timing belt it has a timing chain.If it jumped it would never run smooth it would have rough idle they may smooth out at higher rpms.The cold start concern sounds like a bad coolant temp sensor really common to go bad on those.Also need to inspect the inside of the connector going to it if the terminals are blue or green instead instead of silver then the connector needs to.be replaced also.What happens is the coolant temp sensors go bad and read colder then actual temp causing too much fuel to be sent to the engine.The sensors also crack and leak coolant into the sensors corroding the connectors.As far as the noise is it coming from top end or bottom end of the engine?Does the noise go completly away after starting it or can you still hear but just a lot quetier?As far as the low coolant light being on are you sure the coolant isnt just a little low?I like to fill those cars up to the seam of the coolant bottle.

I checked all the fluids this morning, and yeah, the coolant overflow is a little low. But that's easily fixed. The sound just comes from the engine...hard to pinpoint where, exactly. I even checked the mounts, and they're all solid. The noise stops after I get going, though. Unless I'm backing down my parents' driveway (I'm going slow, and it's a steep hill), and then it lasts until I get off their driveway and onto the flat road.

Saturn SL1 2001 manual

I've been having random high idle for a year. Would happen every time I started the car cold. Would happen about 50% of the time during driving when clutch is depressed. Most of the time at around 2000 and occasionally more up to instances of 3000+. Maybe it would go higher, always shut it off when it tries that. Only way to bring it down is to turn car off and restart. This past week it's been out of control. Occuring almost 100% of the time clutch is depressed. Shutting off still works but now it comes right back. Tonight, after driving all day and then sitting in parking lot for about 4 hours, I started her and drove a couple of miles in town to a drive-through, where I had to shut her off and restart her to kill the high idle. About a minute later the idle bottomed out and tried to die. Tried to catch her but lost her and almost couldn't get her restarted. Had to feather the gas because simply depressing the pedal would make it die. Now at the beginning of every gear she will buck and try to die if I attempt to give it gas at all. I made it home by letting her accelerate herself up through the gears. I could give her some gas at the upper part of each gear and shifting up late would help get passed the lower ends but from a stop, getting through the first 3 gears takes forever. Took it to Autozone and here are my codes:

P0172
P0300
P0442

What just happened to her today? She's practically undriveable as of tonight.

Start with full tune check compressions and get the ignition system voltages check, this is best done on a oscilloscope, this will give you coil voltages, i would also be cleaning the iac and throttle body, check for a vacuum leak in the EVAP system (P0442) the other codes relate to fuel trim and engine misfire code,start here.

The sounds going to be a tough one iam not there to hear it but have you checked to see if the upper motor mount by the coolant bottle is torn or collasped?I have seen those cause a issue of a noise when cold and gets quieter when it warms up.

Just to add to this one from 1999-2002 S model single overhead cam engine when saturn was building the engine they wrinkled some of the intake manifold gaskets causing vacuum leaks later down the road.Its a lot more common with the 2000-2002 ones though i have replaced a lot of these gaskets for them leaking.You can usually see them wrinkled up if you take a flash light and look between the head and intake manifold.I also use carb spray to find and verify the leak by letting the engine idle while spraying around the gasket looking for a increase or decrease in rpms or the engine just dying.Also i would check the coolant temp sensor saturn has had a problem with those sensors with every year the S model was made.They will cause all kinds of symptoms dying surging no starts overheating anyone or any number of syptoms.Also the sensors leak coolant into the connectors corroding them.So when you check the sensor look at the terminals of the connector if there green or blue instead of silver you will have to replace the connector also.You can check the sensor with a multimeter with a ohms check.Do you have a multimeter?A bad coolant temp sensor i have seen cause false codes on those cars also.As far as the code P0442 the first thing i would check is the gas cap if its loose also remove and see if the rubber seal is cracking weather checked damaged etc.If it is it can set the P0442.

I have, and it's not. But I'm going to take it somewhere and get the codes read and see what's up. I'll post them when I get them.

Forgot to mention also check for a clogged cat.

Alright keep me posted.

No codes came up at all. Rats. But this morning, it took 3 tries to start it (the third time, I put my foot on the gas up to 2000 rpm for about 2 minutes before it took). Radiator light came on during that time. And when I stop, it revs to about 2000 rpm twice. When I put it in park, it revs up to 3000 for about 20 seconds, then falls. I'm still thinking it's either an idle sensor or, as you say, saturntech9, the coolant temp sensor. I'm going to try disconnecting the battery for a while, see if things reset?

I have a 2001 SL1 Saturn. The car wasn't going into reverse, so I found another transmission and changed it. Now, it stalls when I put it into drive. I've checked the shift solenoids and they were fine. Connections are fine. I flushed the cooling system (even though that has nothing to do with the transmission). I checked the codes and nothing was showing up.

I'm lost. Any ideas?

How did you check the shift solenoids?So does it die the second you put it in gear?What year and model transmission is the transplant transmission from?Have you checked all the fuses especially the tcc fuse?

Just change the coolant temp sensor there only like 11 also inspect the inside of the connector to it.If the terminals are blue or green instead of silver replace the connector also.They may solve the idle and starting concern.Also that year single cam saturn engine is known for the intake manifold leaking around the number 1 or 2 cylinder intake port.Where the gasket meets the head.Let it idle spray around the number one and two i take port which the number one is over by the power steering pump.Use carb spray if engine rpms go up down the engine stumbles or dies then you have a leakki g i take gasket.Also inspect the pcv hose that goes from the intake manifold to the valve cover inspect it for holes and being colasped.If you see ethier replace the hose.Let me know what you find.