Saturn Relay issue

[moliva1568]

Good evening,

I'm having trouble with my daughter's 2004 Saturn Ion. It sometimes doesn't start and even shuts off completely when driving. I've narrowed it down to the run/crank relay under the hood. It seems the contacts for the relay are worn out and it just goes in and out with no tension. Can anyone recommend a way to "fix" this? It seems I need to order a whole fuse box online. In the meantime, i need to do something so the car doesn't shut off randomly while she's driving! Any suggestions?

[shorod]

Is the relay removable or is it integrated in to the fuse box? If removable, you should be able to pretty easily source a relay that will either fit perfectly or can be cable tied somewhere and connected with jumper wires. If integrated you can either disassemble the panel and remove the old relay, the do the jumper wire trick and relocate the relay external to the box or possibly find the appropriate wires leading in to the panel and tap in to them externally.

-Rod

[shorod]

I found a diagram of the fuse panel for a 2004 Ion and it appears the relay you are referring to is Relay 28. I see there is also a Run/Crank fuse (30A) in location 38. Have you confirmed this fuse is making a reliable connection?

Many years ago my now wife had a 1995 Saturn SL that randomly would stall when the rear window defroster was turned on. The car was still under warranty and the dealership claimed they fuse connections were not making good connection with the fuses and the added current draw of the rear defroster would cause the intermittent connection and stalling. They replaced the entire fuse panel under warranty and it did seem to resolve the issue. I'd like to think that if this was a common issue in 1995 (it didn't take the dealership long to determine this was the issue, leading me to suspect it was a common issue) they would have made improvements by 2004, but it's possible they didn't.

-Rod

[Stealthee]

Lol GM fix a known problem? That's rich.

[shorod]

Originally Posted by Stealthee

Lol GM fix a known problem? That's rich.

I had the same thought and almost wrote something similar, but sometimes people are very brand loyal and I didn't want to offend.

-Rod