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Saturn Vue Transmission Problems
this is my 3rd saturn vehicle and I always swore up and down about Saturns. I have now officially changed my thoughts. I have a 2003 Saturn Vue cylinder and thank god I had the extended warrenty for 100,000....Cause my transmission went at 97,000. They replaced it, with a bad transmission...the new warrentty they give you is only 12,000 or 1 year. .I am an outside sales rep...so I did 12,000 in like 4 months. I was away on a tradeshow , and it started slipping at 11,989. So by the time I got home It was 12,200 or close enough to that. and they fought me about replacing it, becasuse it was over the 12,000. that is ridiculous. I did win that battle ,and they then claimed they did something wrong in the install, and then said they would use a New one this time....and to find out they dont make this "new" anymore...cause this transmission is not made by saturn anymore, since it is faulty. I am now at 146,000 and my transmission went again...I am in a new battle and they will replace it.....The dealer told me they dont make that type of transmission anymore since it is faulty...so why wasnt this re-called ....and why do they keep putting a bad one in my car....I am not stopping this battle until they replace it as many times as I want them to , since they sold me a faulty transmission...and keep putting bad ones in.
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Having trouble with tranny not staying in gear,while in Drive,coming to a complete stop,vehicle will shift out of gear,drop shifter into 2 gear will then shift into gear,then vehicle can be shifted back into DRIVE ok.
I have hear of problems with the 4 cylnder trannys and the bad VTI, but does tis sound like my transmission is going out or could it be something simple
it has 75 000 miles on it, the dealer said 6 months ago that it was a bad fule injector. I don t think a injector would cause this? HELP _PLEASE
:lemon:
tidester, host
SUVs and Smart Shopper
I really hate to bury this almost new car but it has no parts value or use on the island, so the manual trans conversion was my minds last gasp. Would appreciate some knowledgeable imput. Thanks, Dwight C.
Jeremy
I have an 06 Vue AWD V-6 (Honda 3.5L) and it is doing the exact same thing. I suspected the torque converter because it is only happening in high gear where the converter is "clutching" or locking and unlocking. This occurs primarily around 30-45mph depending on the load conditions. As soon as you put enough load on the motor it will downshift to 4th gear (where the converter has no need to slip or clutch)and the problem goes away. I took it to the dealer (I have 63k miles - my bumper to bumper warranty ran out @ 60K) and there was a service tech standing next to the service writer with a smile on his face while I described the problem. He said they see this a lot. It is the torque converter clutches. They told me around $1700 to pull the tranning and converter and replace the clutch pack (can you check this with your Saturn dealer to make sure I am not getting rippied off). I asked them if they could reprogramm the ECM to make the vehicle wait a little longer to shift to high (5th) gear. The said they could and it may make the problem go away (I didn't ask about MPG, I suspect it will suffer). Either way, they said that they have never had one that did this (left as is) come back with a failure. They followed one all the way to 135k miles before they lost touch with the owner. The told me it is more of a nuisance than anything. I wonder about an additive to the tranny fluid? Any insite/thoughts would be greatly appreciated.
However, the dealer called her back the next day and Saturn/GM/Penske (whoever) said they'd replace it with no cost to her. :shades:
tidester, host
SUVs and Smart Shopper
tidester, host
SUVs and Smart Shopper
Thanks!
I again turned it off, waited a bit, put it into reverse and backed down my driveway to see if it made any difference if the car was moving. The engine was revving a bit.while I was in reverse. I couldn't change from 1st to 2nd gear even when the car was moving. It's now back in my driveway.
It has always been a little hard to get the car into 1st gear, but I've had no other trouble shifting. Yesterday when I drove it there were no problems at all.
I welcome any thoughts, opinions and suggestions. Thanks!
My question is will draining and re-filling the fluid help this?
Is the trans failing?
I have had my share of normal items on this car. (wheel bearings, alternator, intermediate shaft, etc)
Any thoughts would be helpful.
Thanks.
First, know that there was a class action lawsuit against GM regarding these transmissions. GM came to terms with the law firm who was prosecuting the case, LakinChapman, and then declared bankruptcy right before it would have all been official thereby attempting to circumvent their responsibility in the matter.
Our transmission trouble started in February 2009; the car had 92,000 miles on it. This was during the class action lawsuit. GM paid for the entire repair of the transmission. It seemed they were taking responsibility for their poorly engineered vehicle. The warranty on the repaired transmission was 12 months/12,000 miles.
Fast forward to June 2010, the car was past the 12 months and past the 12,000 mile mark with 111,000 miles. I brought the car to Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet as they are authorized by GM to service Saturns (btw, I have no complaints about how Jimmie Johnson handled the situation from their end). I was told the next day that the part that failed was the same part of the transmission that failed and was “repaired” a little over a year ago.
Thus began a two week odyssey in which I was attempting to hold GM responsible the their admittedly faulty transmission. Meanwhile the Saturn Vue sat at the Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet, and GM passed the phone around until one week later it got to the “district specialist” who confirmed what the other GM people were saying: they would probably not do anything about this because the car had over 100,000 miles on it. Of course, when the car was supposedly repaired the first time it had 8,000 fewer miles than that, but that made no difference to GM. It then took the “specialist” one week to “explore her avenues” to “help me out.”
Now we have had only one car for two weeks. The “specialist” calls and reports that she thinks I’m going to be happy with GM’s offer. If you’ve read this far then you know that I was not happy with the offer which was to pay for half of the repairs (estimated at $2,500) of the transmission.
Why would I pay GM this amount of money (or any amount) to “fix” a transmission that has already proven to be unfixable? Proven unfixable through the physical evidence of my twice broken car and admitted to by GM in the class action suit.
This car was paid for in full to GM. We were the original owners, and all my wife and I ever bought were GM vehicles. GM has proven beyond any shadow of a doubt that they do not care about their customers. That they would rather squeeze their customers for more money to cover expenses for which they are responsible.
As I wrote in the beginning, GM will never get another cent from me. We bought a Honda Civic instead. Research tells me they are very well made.
Saturn completely replaced the transmission at 27,000 miles. Now it's at 98k and the transmission is going out again, thusly:
At highway speeds, it started making a low, whiny noise.When I slowed down it would stop. Then the check engine light came on and now it's shifting poorly at all speeds. Took it to Autozone, they pulled up the code p0962 - Pressure Control Solenoid "A" Control Circuit Low. I have an appointment tomorrow morning at the GM dealership that took over for my wonderful Saturn service department.
Any idea how much this is going to cost me? If it's another new transmission then I'm done with this car.
Recently aquired my 2004 Vue w/VTi...and while I was in dealership last week for repairs, the service advisor asked if I would like out a printout of remaining warranties (if any) there were two one expiring at 160,000kms and one at 180,000. My car had 157000. Anyway, after i got copies of the Special Reimbursement Policies, I cornered the service manager and asked him to Contact and deal with GM rather than me being on the phone...They deal with them all the time, I dont and it would also give more weight to the claim...I had just had my transmission rebuilt to the tune of $4200 two months ago so paperwork was still in glove box...while other work was being done to the car,(fuel pump)(dont go there),,lol.he sent in required paperwork...picked up my car today and he said the cheque for the Tranny reimbursement went out in the mail (to my home address) yesterday..$2100...so, I am a happier camper
Lost clutch slave cylinder in my 2003 Vue also. Had it taken to Saturn of worchester in massachusetts. the slave cylinder is not bolted to the external of the transmission but is inside. so the transmission had to be pulled to replace it. cost was 1300 dollars. parts and labor
We are now paying over $2,000 to fix a dead transmission in our 2003 Saturn Vue. It has 68,000 miles and it is the GM dealer that is repairing it at the settled 50% off rate. We just bought this car used, about 4 months ago.
My question is: How reliable is a replaced transmission, in this case, with the history of problems that exists for this car?
Thanks very much.
Liat
If you have a 4 cylinder with the "automatic" VTi transmission, sell it as soon as its fixed as the new one might not even last as long as the old one. The VTi transmission is a disaster. It has a long history of catastrophic issues.
If its a 4 cyl manual - I'm surprised you had to replace it, but if you did it should last much longer than 68000 miles