This is actually my bros. car. Occasionally on longer trips, say 2-3 hours, the car will start to lose power and quit. After cooling for an hour or so it will work again.
He's replaced the ignition coils and had the computer checked. Is this problem common? Has anyone seen this before?
Well, many years ago the first thing one would think of when this problem occurred would be the gas cap. Old gas caps were vented to prevent a vacuum from forming in the gas tank and starving the engine, and sometimes the vent hole would get clogged. Now gas caps are sealed, and the tank is vented through the vapor recovery canister (in order to reduce the amount of gas vapor that is released into the atmosphere). In this case it could be that the gas vapor recovery canister is clogged, causing a vacuum over time.
A simple test is to unscrew the gas cap a bit when symptoms start. If symptoms clear up when you do this then the vapor recovery canister or some of the related gorp needs service/replacement.
any engine codes set? s-series saturns are notorious for solenoid valves burning out. egr vacuum solenoid and fuel canister purge solenoid should be replaced together because they are not really expensive and have roughly the same lifespan. coolant temp sensor affects fuel-air mixture and is relatively cheap and easy to replace also. jefff
back when cars were cars, and made here in the usa, with steel, gm in general, with hei distrubiter, i would look at the ingation moduel, but since its DIS i would look for an egr, problem, or a clog in the gas recovery system.. i have seen on ocasion, that a faulty fuel pump, was the culprit.. after it working for long periods of time, they loose suction power, thus losing engine performence.. might want to look and see if maybe the pump is getting old. ~b~
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