My driver wiper is inoperable. The entire arm pivoted 180 opposite of its resting position while I was driving down a road going 50mph to clean my window. Initially my passenger side wasn't working at normal speed. It seemed 'sluggish'. So I increased the speed of the wipers until it reached its highest level. This occurred 1 day after about 8 inches of snow fell including ice. This is very dangerous because I was driving down a busy highway. After I reached my destination I removed the blade from the arm so the entire wiper would not interfere with traffic. An auto mechanic stated the piece is made of plastic. I am fighting my extended warranty company to replace the piece at no charge. They stated they would only cover the wiper motor, but not the wiper transmission. Reading other reviews, others are having the same problem. Saturn should really consider doing a recall or fix for free. Occurred at 54k miles on car. Jan 16, 2010.
2004 Saturn Ion visibility complaints
Page 2 of 2: complaints 11 to 20 of 20, newest first, as owners wrote them.
I was driving down a busy highway during a snow storm, my wiper on the driver side began acting funny. Then went up past my windshield kicking the wiper completely off onto the highway, making it impossible for me to see anything. I found it is something to do with the windshield motor assembly. Which I am now trying to get a new one. Every junk yard I have gone to says the same thing...every part that I need they pull out and it is also broken on the same models. Saturn has told me there is no recall on this part. Why is there no recall if it is broken in every saturn!?
Knob for the defroster/air/heating failed to work. Switch doesn't change it to defrost/front/floor like its suppose to. It just comes out front,can't switch. Doesn't clear windshield of frost,ice,fog,etc.
Failure of a wiring harness in a front door that controls windows, mirrors and door lock. A 2004 saturn ion with 25, 106 miles had 5 broken wires in the drivers door. The left rear door has no power at the window switch. This failure is due to an inherent design flaw that forces tiny wires to bend 2 times at 90 degrees and be slammed by a door!! Think of the safety of unlocking a door in a panic situation or driving with a window down in rain, sleet, cold, etc., and a fuse is not the problem.
Drivers side wiper arm won't maintain contact with windshield flips up in the air whole arm assembly seems to be loose.
Windshield wiper transmission assembly failed. Driver's side pivot arm is made of plastic and broke suddenly! Cannot use the wipers at all. Definitely a safety problem!!!!!!
Following several weeks of heavy snowfall the windshield wiper transmission on my 2004 saturn ion failed. The failure occurred on a clear day while using the windshield wipers to clean off the windshield. The failure caused a potentially unsafe condition due to the accumulation of salt residue on the windshield caused by driving on the highway. Dealer replaced the windshield wiper transmission and said that the failure was caused by "ice loading" and cautioned me to make sure and clear away ice and snow before activating the windshield wipers.
Windshield wiper fluid pump! I live in las vegas, so you would not think that the pump motor would go out after about a dozen times of use but it did!! Called up the dealership said to bring it in. After upon getting the item looked at told me that heavy use of the item leads to pump mal-function. I then told them we live in the desert! No rain or snow, how could I heavily use this item. So they replaced the pump at a whopping 250.00 dollars. Six months later... You guessed it pump out again. They then give me the same lines from above. They then want me to replace the motor again! I told them that maybe they gave me a faulty product or that it was remanufactured. They told me no that it is a brand new part never used. So I cant just have no fluid on a long road trip during the winter months so I paid for it again! This should go under a recall!! There is something seriously wrong with this part!!!!!!!
No specific accident has occurred but numerous close calls have occurred as a result of what apparently is a design flaw. The driver-side outside rear-view mirror cannot be adjusted (electrically or manually) over the angle ranges needed for safe driving and always available on previously owned vehicles. The mirror can be adjusted so that the driver can see well back into the vehicle (which is worthless) and only outwardly to the point that the left side of the car is still visible. Adjustment to allow visibility other than straight back is not possible. The service person said that a physical stop inside the housing prevented any movement further out and there was nothing that could be done. Entering a freeway this way is very hazardous since the on-coming traffic in the near lane cannot be seen. In an attempt to show the service person how it should work we went to another model of saturn and the results were exactly the same indicating that (at least) more than one model of saturn has this same visibility problem.
While the vehicle parked while running the vehicle idling high on its own. The driver noticed while driving the vehicle would hesitate and would stalled. The driver tried to restart,but was able to do so. The driver was able to drive the vehicle to the dealer. The mechanic informed the driver that the vehicle was operating as design. *nm (possible valve sticking) when accelerating from stop, the vehicle would hesitate, then take off at a high rate of speed. This would also occur in reverse as well. There were times when accidents would almost occur. There would be high RPM's of 6000 plus. This was an intermittent problem. It was believed to be a problem with the vti transmission. Additional problems: wind noise when sunshade was cracked, turn signal would not cancel on turns and the chime would go off and was an intermittent problems, the driver's side dash seemed loose and or misaligned, and the wipers would not clear the window.
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