20 Most Recent 2004 Saturn VUE - Page 5 Questions & Answers

your serpentine belt broke

Either on the fire wall with other relays or in the fuse box under hood or it could be near the wirring of fans or around radiator area

Manual transmission? Clutch is shot. auto transmission? would make a lot of noise, especially changing gears. Input or output shaft is broken.

remove lower ball joint and remove axle nut in the center of spindle. then move the spindle out of the way separating the axle from the spindle.

change alternator and maybe battery. Since the battery is pretty new, draining it like you say only took a year or two off its lifespan. Remember how your car acted this time, as most newer cars do the same exact thing when the charging system or battery needs service. In the future, you will recognize the symptom and know where to look before you get stranded.

the dipstick is located behind the front transmission mount and its held in by a 12mm bolt. you may need to remove the transmission mount to check the fluid. the color of the dipstick is yellow, make sure the car is in park and fully warmed up to operating temerature and on a level surface before checking the fluid.

You have to bleed the whole system in sequence. It is a two man job. you have air in the system. You must bleed each wheel starting with the wheel farthest from the master cylinder. then the next wheel that shares the same circuit then the next and the next. Each car has its own sequence to follow. front wheel drive cars bleed differently than rear wheel cars . You must keep the master cylinder full as you do this, as to not allow any more air to enter the system. If air has entered the ABS system it will have to be bleed as well .. You have to refer to a manual for your car.

WHEN THE BATTERY LITE COMES ON THE DASH IT IS TELLING YOU THE VOLTAGE FROM THE ALTERNATOR IS WORKING, TO CHECK THE ALTERNATOR WITH A VOLT METER ON DC WITH THE ENGINE RUNNING YOU SHOULD GET A READING OF 13.5 TO 14.5 VOLT WHEN YOU TEST THE BATTERY TERMINALS IF THE VOLTAGE IS LOWER THEN 13.5 VO0LTS YOU ALTERNATOR IS BAD

what transmission auto or stick trans? a/t or m/t? did you follow the instruction in the FSM for adjusting them.?

I have a 2002 saturn vue. Same thing..sounded like a jet engine ...loud humming as I accelerated . It got increasingly worse. It turned out to be the front wheel bearings. Replace them, now the noise is half as loud...have to do the rears also! 93,000 miles on it. Also, don't forget to replace the timing belt. It it goes too long and breaks, it will trash the engine...

it is a bad l/f hub bearing...bring this to a repair shop an have replaced...there r special tools required to do this job...the job takes around 2 to 3 hours an can cost up to 500 dollars

You should probably check the shifter cable. I had the same thing happen and then I couldn't shift into 2nd, 4th, and reverse gears. Then the cable snapped and I had to replace it. Be careful "man-handling" the shifter. If you break the shift linkage at the base of the shifter it's about $45 from the dealership. It's cheap plastic and doesn't take much to break. If you really want to know if it's the shift cable and not the gearbox crank the engine, have someone hold the clutch, disconnect the shift cables from the box, and manually shift the gears. If they move smooth, it's probably your cable which would mean there's a kink in it somewhere. You can't fix that. Depending on the VIN you're looking at anywhere from $189 (what mine cost with tax) to a little over $200 (from the dealership brand new). Talk to the parts desk at a Saturn dealership and they can tell you which one you need. Hope this helps

Make sure the master cylinder is full and that the vacuum line going to it is is secure wit no air leaks. If as you state the brakes not being applied only at the drivers front and passengers rear wheels, but the other two wheels are working fine you will either have a leaking/blocked master cylinder, leaking/blocked brake lines feeding each of those wheels, or a bad proportioning valve. To trouble shoot raise the bad wheel and crack open the bleeder valve, have an assistant apply the brakes if a nice clean steady stream of fluid comes out, MC is OK, and valve is OK, any bubbles of poor flow indicates leak in system. Very little flow bad MC or blocked lines/valve, etc.Do the same for the rear wheel and you should be able to determine the fault.

If you are getting a lot of white smoke it would indicate antifreeze is getting into the cylinders. Overheating would indicate that you may have a thermostat problem, check your radiator for fluid level and how the fluid looks. If the car has been severely overheated them likely the head gaskets are bad.

Do you mean the Brake lights showing at the rear of the vehicle? If so this is the brake light switch located at the brake pedal....either broken or needs adjusting!

Remove drums and inspect the resurfacing job. If it looks like a record they resurfaced them on too fast of a cut , or out of round . If there isn't enough metal on drum to resurface again time for new drums.

The transmition is not the problem. The cables that run from the shifter to the transmition are the culpret. I recently rescued my wife from the road when the linkage broke on our VUE. I purchased new connectors and cables from the dealership and replaced them. For those that have the proper knowledge and skill set, you can replace them yourself. Others are better off having it done at a shop. The following is my personal experience and is not meant to be a guide, repair manual or procedure for those who lack formal automotive repair training! The new shifter cables come as a set. The cable with the white housing does not seem to be a problem. The cable with the black housing controls the push forward-pull back and the cable with the white housing controls the side to side movement. I found that the new cable with the black housing had the same sort of stiffness when I pushed and pulled the cable by hand. Then I noticed that the cable end was bent, causing it to bind in the housing. I straightened the end by bending it with my hands untill I felt the least amount of binding or resistance when pushing and pulling it. When I installed it the difference was amazing! I kept the old cable set for emergencies. The only tools you need to replace the cables and couplings are a 7mm socket on a screwdriver handle, a phillips head screwdriver and a pair of needle nose plyers. Remove the center console, (4, 7mm screws) and electrical connections. Then remove the plastic panels around the shifter, (7, phillips head screws and 2 plastic push pins) associated snap together panel fasteners and electrical connections. Pop each cable end off it's shifter joint/ball and push the collar back on each cable housing anchor. Pull the carpet back and push the rubber grommet through the firewall in the passenger footwell. Then pop the cable ends off at the transmition. Pull the old cable set out and reverse the procedure to install the new cables. There is an adjustment of the cable length. This should be done before replacing the plastic panels and center console. The new cable ends that attach to the shifter can be positioned/adjusted. Looking at the old cable pair you will see where the old clips were positioned and can start with that. Then run the shifter through all the gears to make sure they all engage. If you run out of travel on the shifter handle re-position the clips on the cable ends, as needed, to get full gear engagement without running out of travel.

Perhaps this can give you some ideas and steer you in the right direction. Do a Google search: 2004 Saturn VUE park light diagram I came up with schematic diagrams which may help you trace out the circuits. I hope this helps.

Well it depends how bad it is,,,,,I have seen ones totally destroyed and ready to snap the u joint in half and they didnt make a noise. Go under the car and at the center support bearing grab the driveshatf and push it up and down,,if its firm your ok, if it has alot of up and down and bangs around you need to replace it asap,,,most likely is not that bad,I have done about 50 of them and only about 4 were that bad....hope this helps