car won't start

[jmeekins]

My 98 SL2 5speed won't start unless I press the gas pedal. And then it won't stay on without the gas until after it's been running a while. It also dips way below 1000rpm when ever I come to a stop and sometimes stalls. What might be wrong?

[saturnspeed_12]

cts. thats all im going to say unless i get even more info about more issues. but how low does it go below 1000 rpms? and is it automatic or manual?

[jmeekins]

CTS? What's that? I'll bet it's expensive to fix.

It's a manual. The RPM can go pretty low, sometimes to the point where it stalls. Usually it'll dip down to about 500 RPM and then recover.

[saturnspeed_12]

cts is coolant temperature sensor. i bought one from napa for like $10 and it works fine, but never go with anything else. use either the dealer part, $15 which i got one in reserve for a motor im building, or if you cant hit a dealer then napa.

also ive known saturns to have rpm jumps with the clutch disengaged, mine does it,it bounces between 1300 and 500 and after a few times it settles at 800 rpms. it doesnt do it alot but it still does it. i have never been able to fix it so i live with it.

[jmeekins]

Thanks a lot! I'll definitely look into that.

[saturnspeed_12]

ha i just read it again. i always overlook things. i noticed that you did put down 5 speed, i totally overlooked it til just now. but yeah i hope that solves your problem. ive heard this subject about a million times and so far like 99% of the time its the cts. its very common on s series saturns. same goes for fuel pumps going out causing excessive cranking which leads to the starter going out. they also have an ses light that is so stupid pertaining to camshaft sensor, which there isnt one on a saturn, but a cam sync, ignition module, that detects misfires at certain times. not much to fix that problem, just saturns are very picky at how it runs, pcm is very sensitive which i believe is a good thing, yet annoying. now saturns are great cars though, last hundreds of thousand miles. i know a guy, from last i heard, has put over 700,000 miles on his car with regular maintaince. sure they have their problems but it beats fords and electrical problems espeically when the cars set fires.

[jmeekins]

Well, it's good to know the problem should be relatively easy and inexpensive to fix. I definitely want to have it taken care of before it becomes a starter issue. Thanks again for your help. I really appreciate it!

[saturnspeed_12]

no problem, just hope it solves your issue. im just about 100% sure it will.