19bonestock88's 2004 Saturn "Ion Green Line" build...

[19bonestock88]

Car service was done. Old wheel bearings were really gritty, brake pads were well worn down but not bad enough to harm the rotor, slide pins were good and CVs were fine... installed new hardware (added drag reduction clips) and have the car in service again, it’s now whisper quiet and butter smooth, even up to 100mph lol...

But in the way there I had a wheel skirt come off, it just peeled off the car as I drove... makes me wonder if they were helping at all if there was enough force on them to break off the push rivets?

[19bonestock88]

Bought new rivets and out skirts back on, drove around today and got a record shattering tank! (Admittedly a short one at 114.5mi and 2.111 gal)... ambient temp was near 80F, and IAT was hanging out between 105 and 110F... 28 mi of “normal” driving, 25 mi of PnG on two lane roads, and 60-ish mi on the freeway (cruising at 60mph and EOC down any grade which permitted) the PnG portion was combined with the freeway leg (first bit driven this morning) and the UG showed an average of 49.5mpg at the end of it (sitting at gas station)...

I think my UG is now reporting pessimistic numbers somehow... not the first tank with longer trips that was higher at the pump than on the UG, but this is the first in nice weather with no mechanical defects holding the car back...

[mpg_numbers_guy]

Woot woot, congrats! Your % above EPA is insane!

[19bonestock88]

Right now my car is top of the list above the usual suspects... of course, had I been logging my fuel all winter I wouldn’t be even close...

[19bonestock88]

...aaaand I lost my wheel skirt again... this time in the dark so it’s just gone... took the other one off so the car at least matches...

[California98Civic]

Bummer. I have never lost any. Or even got close. How did you attach them again?

[19bonestock88]

They were attached with three push rivets and they went inside two “u” clips per side... the one I lost is the same one I lost last time, I think the mounting holes in the skirt were compromised from the last time it came off...

They held up fine at 60mph, but not at 100+ (was on way to see deathly ill grandmother)...

However I don’t think I’ve suffered any additional drag from losing them, I don’t think mine were made right...

[19bonestock88]

I think I’ve about reached the apex of my build... while there is still low hanging fruit to pluck (both aero and drivetrain) the car has basically achieved what I’ve set out to achieve. It’s fun to drive when I wanna have fun, it gets pretty good mileage without effort (42-45 hwy without hypermiling) and gets 100+% over its original EPA rating when hypermiled...

That being said there are more mods planned, so stay tuned!

[19bonestock88]

Next mod is done! I swapped the old nasty foam steering wheel for a leather wrapped wheel from a newer Ion, that I restored and recolored prior to swap...

Wheel restoration thread here...

https://www.saturnforum.com/forum/de...671/#post62126

[19bonestock88]

I did another mod, sort of... the car has always had a bad habit of rev hanging when you shift... not a huge issue in personal driving where in very seldom over 2500RPM, but sometimes when I punch it in 1st (going for hole in traffic or something) and then clutch in (either to shift or to coast) it’ll hang up there at 4-5000 for a few seconds before very slowly idling down... judging by sound I knew the PCM was holding it there, that it wasn’t just due to flywheel mass...

So I unplugged the IACV, done while the engine was idling warm at 750RPM... no more rev hang! Now it drops revs as soon as I let off the throttle and hits normal idle speed much faster off a warm start... I’ve yet to test it from a cold start, but when I turn the AC on it pulls the idle down to just under 500RPM (probably not ideal)