I have a 2003 Ion 3. I purchased it in 2005 with 10k, from a local Saturn Dealership. Upon trade in, a few different recall campaigns were performed on the vehicle. One of which being the DRL/Turn signal campaign:
NHTSA Campaign ID Number: 04V547000 - Hide Details
Recall Date: 11/16/2004 Component: 2003 SATURN ION EXTERIOR LIGHTING:TURN SIGNAL Potential Units Affected: 178798
2003 SATURN ION EXTERIOR LIGHTING:TURN SIGNALRecall Date: 11/16/2004
Summary: CERTAIN PASSENGER VEHICLES HAVE A CONDITION IN WHICH THE TURN SIGNAL LAMP AND DAYTIME RUNNING LAMP (DRL) ON EITHER FRONT SIDE CAN STOP WORKING BECAUSE OF LOSS OF CONTACT BETWEEN THE BULB AND SOCKET.
Consequence: IF A FRONT TURN SIGNAL LAMP IS INOPERATIVE, OTHERS MAY REACT MORE SLOWLY TO A TURNING VEHICLE AND A CRASH COULD OCCUR.
Remedy: DEALERS WILL REPLACE THE DRL/TURN SIGNAL BULB ON BOTH THE LEFT AND RIGHT FRONT SIDE AND INSPECT FOR AND ADD A DRL JUMPER KIT IF NOT PRESENT. THE RECALL BEGAN NOVEMBER 17, 2004. OWNERS SHOULD CONTACT SATURN AT 1-800-972-8876.
Potential Units Affected: 178798
Notes: SATURN ION 04095
Make: SATURN
Model: ION
Year: 2003
NHTSA Action Number: PE04061
The above recall information matched my car perfectly. So with this information, I call my dealership to see if my vehicle was one of the affected ones, this is when I found out the work had already been done. I got off the phone, thought about it, and called them back. My car only has 33k on it. The work was done 15 months ago. There's no reason that recall work should be malfunctioning in my opinion. So after fighting with a substitute service manager, I get pissed and give up. He tells me that I have to bring the car in. If they look at it, and its the recall issue, they fix it no charge. If they look at it, and its not the recall, I have to pay them for looking at it in the first place. (I'm not talking about the repair work, the diagnostic work.) So now I'm pissed.
Last weekend I took apart my headlights, and switched the bulbs just to reverify that it wasn't the bulb, it was indeed something electric. So then for due diligence, I check all of my fuses remotely relavent to the turn signal/DRL. Under the hood, and in the car. All is well in there. As a last ditch effort, I have my husband disconnect my battery. About 5 minutes later, we reconnect it. Power up the car, and sure enough, both of my blinkers work the way they are supposed to. All I had to do was reset my clock, and re-program my radio stations.
I can't say this is a permanent fix to the problem. Its only been 4 days. But so far, without fail, my blinker works just fine. Just thought I'd let other people know. When I had ignition issues November- December of '05, I found a lot of threads in here about the problem, and once I printed them out and took them to the dealership, they fixed my ignition for free.