2005 Saturn Ion: adaptive cruise control problems

Filed Mar 16, 2016 · Acceleration · 120,000 miles · MO

This has happened several times in recent months, but here is what happened this morning: I was on the interstate, going about 60mph, and I sped up temporarily to pass the semi next to me so that I could merge into the right lane and catch the next exit. Upon merging, I released the gas pedal but it did not come back naturally with my foot and instead went to the floor and my car started accelerating as I exited the interstate onto a flyover ramp. I immediately hit my brakes and was able to regain control of the speed, but it scared me, especially as the flyover ramp requires a slower speed along the curve. To the best of my recollection, in all cases where this has happened, I have been going at least 35 MPH when it happened, and my cruise control was on but not active (in other words I had it available to me but it was not currently set at any particular speed). I have seen multiple similar complaints in forums online, but I am not aware of a recall. This is obviously an extremely dangerous issue, especially at high speeds in dense traffic. Please investigate further -- I cannot afford to have my mechanic replace all the possible faulty parts with other potentially faulty parts, and I would hate to be the cause of an accident because the car was out of my control through no fault of mine.

Filed Mar 17, 2015 · Acceleration, Airbags · 105,000 miles · MN

After owning this car for a few years now and becoming highly involved in the forums. I've learned that it's a common issue for the clock spring to break. When it does, it cuts power permanently to the driver air bag, and cruise control until repaired. This is a big safety concern as no power to the airbag would result in more serious injury or possibly death.

Filed Feb 17, 2015 · Engine · 95,867 miles · NJ

Engine would not de-accelerate and hitting the brakes did not stop the vehicle. I was passing cars on a highway,and I could not get the engine to down shift. It felt like it was in cruise control, and it was not. I hit the cruise control button to make sure I had not hit it by mistake. I had not. I down shifted into low gear that did not stop the engine from racing. I put it in neutral that didn't help. I managed not to hit any cars. I put the car in a snow bank near a guard rail. There was no crash because I miraculously kept the car under my control and the snow/ice kept me from hitting the guard rail. (I felt like I was gliding.) at some point when I was in the snow bank, I heard the engine finally kick itself down. I called the local police for a tow to my dealership. The dealership tried to blame me, but I told them it was mechanical failure. I was informed that there should have been overrides. There were not. The car was repaired. I was told that there was a high and low voltage reading to the accelerator pedal, and possible throttle issue. Battery replaced, pedal replaced, and throttle body service performed. I was told that this was "a perfect storm." later I was told by an independent mechanic that the fly by wire system was the issue. This is unacceptable. I was at risk and so was everyone else. I do not feel comfortable driving knowing that at any time this could occur again to me or to any other car on the road that has a fly by wire system. I maintain my vehicle by regular visits to dealership mechanics, and there were less than 100,000 miles on my car.

Filed May 5, 2014 · Airbags, Steering · 46,000 miles · NC

In march 2014 we noticed the air bag light was staying on and the cruise control and horn had stopped working, I assume the air bag would not have worked. After checking online I found out that this is a common problem with saturn ions and the sir coil needed replacing. On 4/10/2014 we took the vehicle in to have the sir coil replaced, we picked it up on 4/11/2014. On 4/12/2014 less than half a mile from our house the power steering went out. We brought the car back home and parked it until we could take it back to the dealership who replaced the sir coil. On 4/15/2014 while driving the car to the dealership the power steering went out 3 times, the first time we were pulling out into traffic on a busy road and almost caused an accident when it went out in mid turn. The dealership says that the work they did replacing the sir coil would not have caused the power steering problem that it now has.

Filed Nov 24, 2006 · Acceleration · NH

2005 saturn ion, multiple problems w cruise control disengaging & not operable unless vehicle shut off, unexpected acceleration, & activating on it's own. The dealership would not believe me until the service manager witnessed this problem. When saturn sent an engineer to review the issue he also doubted me as he had the vehicle for 1 week & was unable to reproduce the problem. When I submitted for a new vehicle under the states lemon law the service manager accused me of making this up to get a new vehicle. Saturn required me to pay $1800 for mileage depreciation to replace the vehicle & refused to honor the extended warranty which came with my original vehicle. My big error was in giving the dealer & saturn corp 5 time to try & fix the problem. Those 2 extra attempts caused further mileage which cost me in additional out of pocket expenses.

Filed Jan 8, 2006 · Acceleration, Brakes · NJ

I purchased a 3005 saturn ion coupe 3 5/31/05 with in the past 7 months,the car has been back to the dealership 5 times. The day after I picked up the vehicle, I noticed a thumping noise in the back. After bringing back to the dealership, I was told that the rear rotors needed to be replaced. This did not fix the noise. My second trip the dealership indicated that I needed new rear brake drums. Because they were warped (future conversations with the sales manager indicated that this was completely normal, that if the car sits for a few weeks without being driven, the drums will warp, which leads me to think that saturn should re think the quality of parts they use.) since that time, I have brought the car in for a defective radio (which was replaced) a drivers window that wouldn't go down (motor replaced) and the cruise control not working (after 2 times, it was replaced). I finally was able to speak with the area manager last week after I called saturn customer service to log a complaint for the second time. He offered me free basic maintenance (oil changes, tire rotations) for 2 years. This was the first time that anyone at saturn had offered to do anything for my time/inconvenience. Very poor customer service/satisfaction.

Filed Oct 17, 2005 · Acceleration, Transmission · OK

Dt: the contact bought a 2005 saturn ion on 12-10-04. The first 50 miles he had to take it back to dealer because the cruise control was not working. The dealer fixed the cruise control under warranty. The dealer had to get a new computer program for the car. Since then he had to take vehicle to dealer five times because the car sputtered and died sporadically. The last two times was on 9-26-05 and on 9-30-05, and on 9-26-05 the dealer replaced the automatic transmission body control, TCM, and power train module. Repaired all wiring and connectors. During test drive, the service light was still on. He believed the dealer reset the service engine light. The contact picked up the car on 9-29-05, and on 9-30-05 the check engine light was still on. The dealership replaced the engine wiring harness at that time. The contact picked up the car on 10-03-05. He has only driven the car once sine then and the check engine light has not yet come back on. The contact has talked to a field representative from saturn several times, and he told him to got to the ok dmv.