Could not shut car off, key is locked in ignition, could not get key out of ignition.
2006 Saturn Ion electrical complaints
Page 8 of 14: complaints 191 to 220 of 392, newest first, as owners wrote them.
The key became stuck in the ignition and would not turn off. It was repaired by a gm dealer and has happened again twice since that time.
Upon parking and attempting to exit the vehicle, I can not get the key out of the ignition switch. It is stuck in the accessory position. If left for a period of time it will usually come out. But if left in the vehicle for an extended period of time in the stuck accessory position, the battery is drained due to the systems that are still left on. This is a persistent problem. I have not taken the vehicle to a dealer for repair or diagnosis. Reading the complaints on this website convinces me that this is a general problem with saturn ions. This vehicle has already been part of the fuel pump replacement recall.
I was driving my car when my consul read the phrase "pwr str" meaning that my power steering was malfunctioning and no longer worked until I pulled over and restarted the car and that reset the power steering. This now happens about two to three times every time I drive my car.
Key was stuck in the ignition while in the on position. Lock cylinder binding seized into housing.
I have a 2006 saturn ion-2. Every morning when I get in my car and I go to start it doesn't start and the passlock light comes on. When I called saturn the said it is my ignition switch. The problem I have is that this has been happening to all varieties of saturn models, including ones before 2006. I have read many reviews and hundreds of people have the same exact problem with their saturn. If saturn or gm sees this happening how come this has not been declared as a recall? I would like saturn to fix the issue since the bad thing is they know about it and if you are out of warranty you are paying for a problem saturn should have recalled, but instead they make money off the problem.
I could not turn off the car and remove the key. The key was frozen in the on position. Since the car was running, I drove to the dealer and they replaced the ignition system and charged me $650.00. I have since learned this is very common with saturns. This could potentially be dangerous. It is a defect and should be recalled.
Tl* the contact owns a 2006 saturn ion. The contact stated that the key would become stuck in the accessory position and the vehicle could not be turned off. The contact stated that the only way to turn the vehicle off was to disconnect the negative cable from the battery. The vehicle had not been inspected or repaired. The VIN was not available. The failure and the current mileages were 100,000.
While driving down a residential street I hear a click and the cars warning sound, then the power steering message appears on the dashboard. I immediately notice that my power steering is no longer working. I pulled to the curb and shut the car off and upon turning it back on the light went away and the power steering was working again. Three days later, while driving to work, as I was in the middle of turning, again I heard a click the warning sound, the message, and the power steering went out again. This time I had to grip the wheel and work to get it to finish the turn safely. Pulled into a gas station, turned the car off, then back on. The power steering worked for the 10min drive to work. During the drive home the power steering shut off 4 times, each time it took less time from the restart of the car till the it failed again.
I am having problems with my 2006 saturn ion, it started out with a start problem just on cold mornings, when there was dew or frost or it rained on the car. To reslove the issue the car was moved into the garage and then I noticed the problem continued even when car was in the garage. The start problem begin happening even in warm weather. It got to the point that even when I would park the car in the garage I could get up the next morning and it would not start at first it was frequently then it became intermittent problem. This car has left me stranded at school, work and even at home sitting in the garage. It got to the point where I had to have the aaa service truck come to my home and jump start my car. On one of my service appoints to have the oil changed I mentioned the problem to the tech at the gm dealer and when I picked the car up they said that they could not get the problem to simulate on the computer and the there is nothing they can do. I have noted a number of blogs about this problem and instead of gm helping to resolve the issue it has been left up to the owners of these vehicles to give each other advise at blog sites.
When it is cold outside (around or below freezing) or just very wet outside my car will not start. It has what is described as a "no crank/no start with full power" issue. My car has complete power, but it will not turn over. A technical service bulletin says that it is my ignition switch or the body control module. This appears to be a "normal" problem with ion's in all model years.
Tl* the contact owns a 2006 saturn ion. The contact stated that the vehicle was parked, but the key would not remove from the ignition. The vehicle was taken to an authorized dealer for a diagnostic test. The technician unplugged the ignition connection and removed the key. The technician also stated that the ignition housing and lock cylinder would have to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The approximate failure mileage was 49,598.
Tl* the contact owns a 2006 saturn ion. The contact stated that she was unable to shut the vehicle off or remove the key from the ignition. The vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic where they disconnected the battery to shut the vehicle off. Approximately six months later, the vehicle was shut off and the contact was unable to remove the key from the ignition. The vehicle was towed to an independent mechanic and the contact was informed that the ignition switch would need to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was 50,000.
The key is stuck in the on position in the ignition and the car can not be shut off. I found a consumer affairs web site that has 7700 listings for this problem. Http://www.consumeraffairs.com/automotive/saturn_ignition_lock.html gm wants me to bring the car in and charge me $115 to diagnose the problem. With the amount of info on the internet about this problem I do not understand why gm has to diagnose this problem. This is a series issue when a car can not be shut off and gm needs to address this problem.
My ignition switch has been replaced 3 times in 4 years, costing $350.00 every time. It keeps going out. Now my fuel pump is leaking. I looked up and found 3 different website showing recalls on the fuel pump for my year, make, and model of my car. Saftycar.gov, motortrend.com, and usedcars.com. I call both gm and saturn number which were provided and they tell me there no recalls for my vehicle. Now it going to cost $600 to fix my problem. The sad thing is I have to fix it or my car can blow up. I urge people not to buy saturn they are no good.
My car is only 5 years old and now has 36,000 miles on it. Whenever it is cold outside my car does not start. All of the lights work and the car will make a click, but the car itself will not turn on. I have been stranded multiple times at night in the freezing cold with no way of getting home. Two times I have been stranded in a dark parking garage. This is constantly re-occurring problem and I see that hundreds of people have had the same issue. When I have taken my car to the shop I have been told it is electrical problems. This problem should be recalled as many people have the same problem. Also, I have had many issues with the fuel system. I have already had the fuel injector replaced,and the fuel tank replaced. It is in the shop again today because there were more issues with the fuel system. The fuel in my car was not heating up the right temperature, and I was getting about 30% less miles per tank than before. Over the few years I have had cords to the fuel system replaced, removed, adjusted, etv. I have spent thousands of dollars on repairs for a 5 year old car with 36,000 miles on it. And it is the same problems happening over and over.
Tl* the contact owns a 2006 saturn ion. The contact stated that the key could not be removed from the ignition. The vehicle was taken to the dealer for diagnostics where the technician advised that the ignition switch would have to be replaced. The vehicle was repaired. The approximate failure mileage was 52,000.
I am experiencing a variety of problems with my 2006 saturn ion. The power steering stopped working, the speedometer stopped working (it remains at 0 regardless of my speed), also the odometer doesn't seem to work either - my mileage does not increment when I drive. My car registers a diagnostic code of p0502: vehicle speed sensor a circuit low input. I saw posts online in various forums from 2007 saturn ion owners who say that they received letters from gm in 2009 to have this problem fixed under warranty but why didn't I get a letter in 2009? Gm and the federal safety agency have apparently been aware of this and "watching" the problem for a couple of years now - it's gm's responsibility to fix this since they didn't forewarn me and encourage me to get this fixed back in 2009 when they knew enough to have 2007 saturn ion owners take their cars in to have this problem fixed.
Today was the second time the ignition has seized up when trying to turn off the car when parking. The first time (a few months ago) we had a new ignition installed. It already is doing the same thing. When putting the car in park, the key/ignition will not move at all so we were unable to turn off the car. We had to block the airflow to the engine to stop the car and also remove unattach the battery because all of the electrical components were still on.
Beginning in november of 2010, my 2006 saturn ion will frequently not start when I enter my key and turn the ignition. This usually occurs in cold temperatures, but has also happened in warm temperatures. The security light on my dashboard will light up and it will take at least 10 minutes, sometimes up to 40 minutes for my car to finally start. I have missed several days of work because of this problem and have spent over $1000 trying to repair this problem with no luck. I have seen that thousands of other saturn ions have the same issue. A recall needs to happen!
For the past 5 months, the saturn ion 3 power steering will intermitently go out. When I first start the car the power steering works fine, and then at any random time the car makes a ding,ding noise and then there is no power steering. If the car is shut off and turned back on the power steering is fine. Then a few miles down the road it turns off again, almost every day. This makes it very difficult to turn corners. The next problem is if it is damp or cold (below 60) in the morning at 8am the car will not turn over or start, until the sun comes out and warms up the car, by noon the car starts just fine. I can get it started if I place two warm blankets on the battery and motor and wait a few minutes, then the car will start. The drivers side windows have also stopped working.
I am beginning to believe that the issue with the saturn ion is an electrical or computer based. I put in a complaint earlier about how the car shuts off in the middle of making turns. This morning as I went to work I was met with the automatic steering not working. At first I thought that maybe the emergency break was still up. I checked my steering fluid and it is full. I turned the car off and then on again and tried to move the wheel. No dice. I drove the car to work fighting with the steering all the way there. When I got to work I called for assistance to get my car to a shop. After making the arrangements, I went to try to straighten up the vehicle somewhat so that others could park beside me and so the towing company could get it out. To my amazement the car steering worked fine. There are several complaints on the web about this issue, the key getting stuck in the ignition, the key being removed from the ignition and the car engine continuing to run anyway, and the shutting off while going over tracks and making turns with the saturn ion 2004-2007. Please get gmc to fix these issues. What makes me really angry is that the company knows, they simply are avoiding fixing the problems and only focus on the fuel pump problem. Somebody is going to get killed sooner or later btw the shutting off issue or the steering wheel issues. I hope you guys look into these issues and demand that gmc fixes them before then. Thanks.
On sunday, september 25th, 2011, I was driving on a familiar road in town when all of the warning lights on my vehicle suddenly illuminated and began blinking. The speedometer, fuel gage, temperature gage, and RPM indicator all went down to zero and the message center began saying "trac off" and "pwr str." as this happened, my power steering went out. I pulled over and turned my car off. My car would not turn back on. After about one minute, I was able to start my car again and resume driving as normal. This has happened on four other occasions since the first time, three days ago. The last time it happened I was going around a curve and I almost went into the ditch. In addition, it is also important to note that at 40,000 miles, the vehicle began having the same issue (message center occasionally flashing "trac off" and "pwr str", and the ABS and emergency break lights going on). The dealer found that the steering column was shorting out and had to replace the steering column in the vehicle. This leads me to believe that this is an electrical problem...
On 9/27/2011 I was unable to turn the key to the off in my ignition. The car stayed on and I cannot remove the key from the on position. There are thousands of complaints online regarding the very same problem with the saturn ion. This is a safety problem and is very dangerous. This vehicle and/ or part must be recalled.
Tl* the contact owns a 2006 saturn ion. The contact stated that the key would not turn in the ignition to shut off the vehicle after several attempts. The vehicle was immediately taken to an authorized dealer where the battery was disconnected and a diagnostic test was performed. A part was ordered and the vehicle would be repaired upon availability. The manufacturer was made aware of the problem. The approximate failure mileage was 35,256. Updated 10/27/11*bf updated 3/30/12
Tl* the contact owns a 2006 saturn ion. The contact stated that the key could not be removed from the ignition. The vehicle was left parked and running until the battery died. The vehicle was later towed to the dealer and they advised her that the housing ignition needed to be replaced. The vehicle was repaired but the failure recurred approximatley ten months later. The manufacturer was not contacted. The vehicle was not repaired. The failure mileage was approximately 43,500.
Driving with traffic, the car dies and the steering gets very hard to turn then battery light comes on. Car will restart with no further problems. This will happen at least once a week. Took to the dealer they fixed the gas tank leak and other recall parts. This continues to happen almost caused several accidents. Do not know if it is the steering or electrical. It doesn't matter what speed your going or if your going straight or turning. Please look into this problem. I have had the battery checked the thermostat, checked the fuse box checked. The dealer checked and fixed the other 3 things from recall as stated. The ignition sometimes gets stuck when the steering goes out you can not get the key to do anything until you turn the steering wheel that has no power then you can restart the car. Also the car heat gauge never goes above half way so car is not over heating.
Power steering and ignition problem. Went in to have the power steering checked then the ignition failed on me and the computer in the engine went nuts.
Ignition stuck in "on" position, can't remove key.
My key has gotten stuck in the ignition in the "on" position three times now. I have had to purchase the pay for parts and labor three times. My ball joints have gone out. Mechanics say this is very odd for a newer vehicle (2006 saturn).
VIN decoder
See the problems and recalls for an exact car
Buying a used 2006 Saturn Ion?
Check the exact car before you pay: accidents, salvage or flood titles, odometer readings and previous owners.
Check its history