You can put a test light on the wire just before the solenoid and see if it lights up to make sure you are getting the power to it and that is all i know to tell you on that one if there is power when you push the release button before the solenoid then it is not a fuse and it is the solenoid if not it may be the switch that went bad. the test light will help you chase it down

 

MarkIV: make suredistributor is turning... I have worked on a truck before and it would run fine for 20 mins... then die and never start again. The problem we found was that the distributor had froze up on plug #2 and only fired on that... thus burning that one plug up... it was pretty comedic when we discovered that.

Also, check the coil and fuel filter/ pump.

About the saty... is it an auto or manual... if manual, teach her how to shift and drive again... if auto, check the trans... jerky trans breaks motor mounts

 

keith if it's a SL car motor mounts are supper easy on the if you have a floor jack and hand tools you can do them, again if it's an SL car the down pipe is nitorious to rust out at the mounting point right under the motor

it look like one of these?


if it does always tell her to check her oil everytime she gets gas.... they have a design flaw where the there is no oil relife holes in the piston ring are so it just blows by and if she does tell her DO NOT SPIN THE TIRES!!!!!!!! EVER! otherwise she'll end up with a hole like this

 

it looks like the white one for sure and it is a SL . I will tell her about that and show her your post when I pick her up from school today. we have tripple A sow when she called me i had the tow it to a machanis shop here in town but if it is not to hard i may just do it my self they are telling me to fix all 3 things $185 . can i do it cheaper ?? i will have to pay to have it towed to the house .
and thank you man for the help !!

 

i'll make a quick wright up for ya keith in a min when my pics upload, just went out and took some, $185 seems really cheap with the down tube becuase that includes the cat if you buy a new one, you should ask what they plan to do with that

here's a better pic of my hole in the trans after i tore it down, i don't know why i tore the old one down but i did, i did end up having to use a few parts from it for the one i got off Clist, and these auto trans are build like manuals!



this is the culprit of the hole... the diff pin is just held in by a small round sheer pin basicially and with spining the tires it wears into the diff pin and adventually causing the pin to work it's way out and BAM you have a hole!

this is a pic of the one outa my new trans befor i welded the pin in

 

hers is a man trans 5 speed just so you know i dont know if that makes a difference or not on the trany problem and I was just going to have them do a strait pipe no cat the car is a good car but only worth like $1500 so i was not going to put allot of money in to it to replace the cat

 

it's the same deal manual or auto, probably worse easier to spin em!

 

Thanks Blazed SS & Augi for the information. I really appreciate it!
A little overwhelmed with both vehicles doing weird stuff!

ThankS !!

-Mark in Kansas.

 

copy man thx for all the help !!

no problem Mark !!

 

no prob keith, i know way tooooo much about saturns now.... i really hope to get rid of it next year it's a good car but i am done with it.... rebuilt the lower end in the motor, replaced the trans, wheel bearings.... too much time and money invested in that thing...