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SUVs Saturn VUE Saturn Vue Maintenance and Repair
122 messages, Last post on Oct 08, 2008 at 8:41 PM
You are in the Saturn VUE Forum. Your Hosts are steve_ & tidester
| Notice to all 3.6L '08 Saturn Vue owners: I've owned an '08 Saturn Vue for 3-months and 4K miles. First issue was check-engine light which came on Christmas Eve 2007. Took it to dealership (1st-time to dealership where I did not buy the vehicle) which reset light and ran diagnostic-check. Light stayed off for a few days a came back on again. I took it back to dealership where I bought the Vue. They ran diagnotics and ordered a cam-sensor this time, took about 1-week for parts to arrive. They changed the sensor and I went on my way. Engine-light came back on again (new cam-sensor) about 1-week ago and so I made appt. to take car in. Car has been in shop from Thursday 21-Feb. to today. I did receive a phone call from the service advisor who said that the cam-plate has too much play in it thereby causing sensor to fail and this has also spotlighted a problem with the heads. The heads are being ordered today, hopefully to arrive Thursday with completion on Friday. I have a friend who is a master mechanic at a GM dealership who has visited the tech-assist website by GM. There seems to be the same-type isolated problems in various GM models of the 3.6L V6. Total time is shop for same issue which seems to have been ID'd will be 9-days in less than 3-months of ownership. Long-term prognosis and retrospect: Not sure about long-term, hopefully this will solve the problem. However, I've never had an issue like this before with any car that I've owned. Kind of dissappointed overall with Saturn and GM. | |
| Does anyone know why the change oil light stays on alittle longer than usual. It started after I got a OIL CHANGE at Jiffy lube. | |
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Hi. I have just found this forum today and it looked like there were some good discussions. I hope you all can give me some feedback/support, etc. I own a 2005 Saturn Vue- manual transmission. I bought it brand new- only 37 miles on it from the dealership. I really like my car... when it's not breaking down on me while I am driving down the road that is. Here's the summary. My car has had to been rendered inoperable & has needed to be towed to the dealership 4 times in the 2 1/2 years/51,000 miles that I have owned it. The repairs are as follows: 9,000 mi could not get in to reverse- replaced the shifter cable clip; 19,000 clutch, slave cylinder, shifter plate were all replaced; 19,900 miles the entire transmission was replaced; 46,000 both shifter cables replaced; 51,000 both shifter cables replaced again. Also, anyone have any ideas on how to best clean the interior back seats? The color is a medium tan color- cloth. I've tried everything I can think of and they are still stained. Nothing in particular has ever been spilled. If rain drops fall on the seat there is a "stain.'' I have two 8 year old boys which make cleaning it a constant challenge  Thank you in advance for any help.
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Replying to: tidester (Jul 20, 2006 10:42 pm) |
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Replying to: doreenr (Aug 12, 2007 7:52 am) I have a 2002 Vue, manual 5 speed, front wheel drive with the 4 cylinder engine and I replace my rotors every 50,000 miles or so. The rotors that Saturn (GM) provide are pieces of junk and you should not invest your money in them. I purchased high performance racing rotors (slotted rotors, zinc plated) on the Internet a year ago for my Vue and installed them myself and installed high performance racing brake pads. These rotors and brake pads are excellent and show no visible signs of wear after 20,000 miles. The OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) rotors and pads that are provided by Saturn (GM) are very poor and much more expensive than high quality after market parts. Find a close male friend who knows how to replace the rotors and brake pads and ask him to do the brake job for you. I have 109,000 miles on my Vue and I am on my third set of rotors. The original rotors lasted quite a long time and they were actually in good shape but....it cost more to "turn" them (shave them down) than it cost me to buy new ones from an auto parts store (NOT SATURN OR GM). So I always replace the rotors when I replace the brake pads. Anyway, the rotors I have now are very nice, slotted, racing rotors from an auto parts store in California (I don't remember the company name). I paid $104 plus $30 shipping to get these high performance rotors and they are well worth it! The brake pads I bought from Advance Auto Parts and they are the high end racing pads. Cost of pads was around $60. So, I installed the rotors and pads in under an hour myself for all of $190 and my Vue brakes like it never did before. Oh, one more VERY IMPORTANT item: NEVER use an air wrench on your wheels! One of the reasons the rotors warp is because the mechanic who installed your wheels used an air wrench. Air wrench's notoriously apply too much torque to the wheel nut which causes the rotor to warp (hence it is ruined). Look in your Saturn Vue owner manual and you will find the torque specification for the wheel nuts. Make sure that whoever does your brake job installs the wheels correctly using a torque wrench and not an air wrench and that they follow the "star" pattern when installing the lug nuts. If you don't want to spend the amount I did for high performance rotors and pads you can lower your total cost to less than $100 for two front rotors and brake pads from any reputable auto parts company. Just do the work yourself or ask a friend who is savy in this department and don't take it to a dealership. Dealerships are there to rip people off and make money from their deceptions. I have done ALL the maintenance on my Vue which I bought new in February 2002 and I have never had any problems with it. NONE. Oh, one more thing. The rear brakes on most cars never need replacing (if they are drums). I have a 1993 Saturn SL2 with 360,000 miles on it and it has the ORIGINAL rear drum brakes which have never been replaced. I have checked them several times over the years and they are still in great shape. My SL2 runs perfectly and gets just over 40 mpg on the highway. I also use only synthetic oil in the engine and transmission on all my vehicles which is why they last so long. Hope this helps!
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Replying to: rcawdor57 (Mar 22, 2008 3:44 pm) |
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I guess I can consider myself lucky. I have not had to replace my brakes, but I just found out I need them replaced now (37,700.) The mechanic advised me the rotors were warped and could not be turned. Has anyone had any luck going to GM and seeing if they would cover any of the cost of replacing the rotors? I would think if there are this many complaints they would have done something to assist their customers. I am going to try the dealership and if that fails, GM has a customer hotline. Spinning my wheels? (No pun intended) 
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Replying to: shadow925 (Mar 29, 2008 8:03 pm) That being said, its certainly worth a try, you may be spinning your wheels but why not try? One recommendation though - the one reason that it might not be worth your time getting the dealer to replace the rotors is that you'll get new versions of the same lousy rotors and in 37K miles you'll be in the same position. Might be better to just put on a good quality set of rotors & pads and be done with it...just a thought |
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I had to replace my rotors 4 times under 50,000 miles. Finally the dealership put the top of the line Rotors and a new set of pads on together and so far nock on wood they have been doing pretty good. I have heard that the dealships put on the crappy set and get paid good money for the after market ones. Demand for the top of the line, I did.
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Replying to: doreenr (Apr 01, 2008 2:57 pm) Same thing though...knock on wood. Cheers. |
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