Help on my car problems?

I have been having some issues with my vehicle and posted the question on some brand specific boards. I have not had much luck in any advice but would love to get some help or suggestions. I know someone on here has to be a car nut. I can't afford to trade it in or buy a new car so I am stuck at this point otherwise I would. But anyways this is the message I posted on a few saturn forums. If anyone can help me out I would appreciate it. Hell if you can pinpoint my problem I will ship you something special.

I have a 2006 Saturn Vue Redline that I purchased last fall. It currently has around 60k miles.

When I first bought it it ran great, super quick was a blast drive. As time has gone on I have noticed a handful of weird problems that seem to be getting worse.

The first quirk I noticed was a weird whistling, high pitched noise when I would get on the accelerator. It usually only kicks in at around 4500 rpm, I thought maybe it was happening when the v-tech kicked in but was never sure.

The next thing that has declines noticeably is the transmission performance. Luckily I had a short warranty period and was able to get the dealer to fix a pressure switch that had gone faulty. But after (of course) my warranty period expired things seemed to get worse. First off it does not seem to want to down shift all the time. Sometimes I slam the accelerator only to get the vehicle to go as hard as it can in the current gear. This has actually made highway on ramps dangerous. As sometimes I can accelerate, and sometimes not.

Secondly there has been some eratic hesitation when it does downshift. It will pause, down shift, then sluggishly start to take off. This also was coming and going.

I can also tap the gas and notice the car engage different with each flick of my foot. Sometimes smoothly, sometimes its jerky.

I also had a weird sensation this past week, I floored it and noticed the engine seemed robbed of power then it kind of freed it self up and took off. Didn't feel like it was the tranny in this instance as you could hear the engine almost choked up.

My questions are what to do next? What to replace, is there anything on the engine that can be easily looked at that can rob the power? Do you guys recommend getting the tranny flushed? Any advice on things to check, replace would be great as I really want it running like It use too.

Have you had your fuel filter looked at yet? That would be my first (read least expensive) choice. If that has been recently replaced I would look at the fuel pump or the trans. Now take this with a grain of salt, I by no means am a mechanic.

Fuel filter would be great, however since 2004 / 2005 (I think) saturn stopped putting solo filters in the engines. They are now built into the fuel pump itself and cannot be changed. I was thinking it would be an easy thing to try until I found that out!

I also wanted to note, no engine check lights. I guess there could be codes that don't trip the light. Wouldn't something like a bad spark plug cause the engine to misfire / trip a light? That was something else I was gonna do since its fairly cheap.

Aleforge said:

however since 2004 / 2005 (I think) saturn stopped putting solo filters in the engines. They are now built into the fuel pump itself

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That is f-ing stupid. I don't think you are missing spark, sounds like fuel delivery to me.

It is possible you threw some codes without a CEL.

I am sure its possible, I guess I can go rent one of those scanners and try it out. Crappy thing is they want the full deposit for rental (200 bucks). Last time I did that it took them 3 weeks to refund it... ugh.

I'm no car doctor, but I think AutoZone will read the codes for free.

O'Reillys use to, I will call auto zone. They don't anymore because of liability, they told me someone sued them and said they fried his computer. So now they only rent (with deposit to cover actual cost). Which makes it a huge pain.

Ryan_PA said:

...sounds like fuel delivery to me.

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I totally agree with Ryan. Fuel filter was what I thought of as well when I read your post. Make sure your air filter is not clogged also.

I don't know much about Saturns (I am an Audi guy) but does your car have a Mass Air Flow sensor? A faulty MAF will cause similar symptoms in my A4.

Definitely have Autozone scan for codes.

1) Check oil and water for a mix of the one in the other where it shouldn't be.

2) Pull the plugs and analyze them for a specific cylinder issue. If fine reinstall.

3) Start it, warm it up to temp, and spray some WD-40 around the intake to head area, while idling, and around the throttle body, to find a possible leak. The RPM's will change if it ingests something different than air, which is what you are checking for-an air leak.

Then come back for more.

brrman said:

I totally agree with Ryan. Fuel filter was what I thought of as well when I read your post. Make sure your air filter is not clogged also.

I don't know much about Saturns (I am an Audi guy) but does your car have a Mass Air Flow sensor? A faulty MAF will cause similar symptoms in my A4.

Definitely have Autozone scan for codes.

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+1 on this. The MAF or MAP could cause these, as well as a vacuum leak to these.

I had a broken nipple on my MAP, and the car ran like crap. Fixed that and presto it was fine. No code on that btw...

I think I came across the MAF thing, someone mentioned it would be located "under" the air intake? And you clean them by spraying something all over it.... not sure what though.

Guess I will replace airfilter / spark plugs and try to find the MAF and clean it. I will also use the WD40 trick.

Thanks for the advice guys!

The MAF should be just after the air filter inline with the intake.

Sometimes the MAF is located inside the airbox. It can be cleaned (it is just a small wire sensor) with electronics cleaner spray. I do believe you can buy actual MAF cleaner also. Do not touch the wire - just spray it.

Might also want to check your throttle body for gunk. Is your car drive-by-cable or is it drive-by-wire (electronic throttle)?

yermej said:

"Some scientists claim that hydrogen, because it is so plentiful, is the basic building block of the universe. I dispute that. I say there is more stupidity than hydrogen, and that is the basic building block of the universe." -- Frank Zappa

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What the F is this and what does it have to do with this guys car porblems?



Definitely have the Zone run your codes. it's free. Good luck. I hate cars. It's always something. I wish I could bypass the highway towork. i'd have a moped for sure. Worst case scenario, it's +$200 to repair, throw it out but another one at a junkyard


My old roomate showed me this Mopar cleaner that is like god in a can. It's combustion Chamber Cleaner and you can pick it up at Chrysler/Dogde/Jeep Dealers. Take off you intake, spray into your throttlebody until can is empty easing up on the spray when it starts to bog. Let it run for 10 minutes. shut car off, let sit for 15-20, start car back up reassembled. Watch smoke POUR out of exhaust. All this smoked is the buildup that was clogging your system. I first did my neon I had in college the thing smoked for like 30 minutes while driving. Ran like a dream after that. I do this now on my cars once a year to clean them out.

TYVM IP!

I will try to hunt that stuff down, sounds like a good thing to do regardless!

I would start by trying to clean the engine out. Fuel injectors can get pretty clogged after 60K. At Autozone/O'Reileys/whatever pick up a couple of cans of Seafoam. It's in a white can with red lettering. That stuff is magic! Follow the directions and put it in your oil, gas, and if you feel up to it run it through your intake lines as well.

As for the MAF, you can get the generic electornics cleaner at Radioshack. As others have said, don't touch the MAF, just spray it.

If after all that, it may not be a bad idea to flush the tranny if you are still having shifting issues. Find a mechanic or friend that will do it for home brews

As for the whine, don't the Redlines have a super- or turbocharger? If so, that will be your whine and is normal.

I will do the injector cleaner thing, I did run one tank of Lucas fuel injector cleaner a few months ago. Is that the same thing?

This year Redline has a Honda Vtec in it that pushes around 260hp. No turbo / super charger. It has some pick up when all things were right, fairly fun and gets 25mpg HWY.

At 60k once I fix whatever it is I hope to get a few years out of it at least.

IrregularPulse said:

What the F is this and what does it have to do with this guys car porblems?

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That was a response to him saying that O'Reilly won't read scan codes for free anymore because some knob sued them for being helpful. I'll go delete it now so nobody else gets confused.

yermej said:

That was a response to him saying that O'Reilly won't read scan codes for free anymore because some knob sued them for being helpful. I'll go delete it now so nobody else gets confused.

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I just saw random pictures making some larger picture.....?

Aleforge said:

I will do the injector cleaner thing, I did run one tank of Lucas fuel injector cleaner a few months ago. Is that the same thing?

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Kind of, only Seafoam is far, far, far, far better

What about the catalytic converter?... could be clogged/damaged. Or your timing belt could have slipped a notch.

I don't know much about Saturns, but is it possible to read the codes yourself? I've had several Hondas where there is a way to read the codes yourself, then interpret them online or in a Hanes manual. On my '89 Civic, there was a small LED under the carpet on the passenger side floor. When the check engine light was on, this LED would blink a number of times, then pause, then blink the same number of times, an so on. These blinks translated to specific problems.

On my 2000 Civic, there was a couple electrical connectors to jump inside the paneling near the floor of the passenger side, then the check engine light would perform the same type of blinks as above. That helped me trade it in last year... my check engine light was coming on and off. So I checked the codes... catalytic converter ($2000 fix on that car)... it was about time for a trade-in anyway.

I went out and changed the air filter and looked for this sensor that needs to be cleaned and didn't see anything. Is it way up in the tube out of view? Below my air filter is just an empty box with an outgoing hole. I didn't notice anything inside of it!

I will get some seafoam and give that a shot.

I have no idea if there is a way to read the codes? I had a cat go out in my old car and I hear you on the problems it causes. I wouldn't think unless I am having a misfire that it would of went bad in only 60k. I know when it did I got a check engine light last time.

I think if the catalytic converter goes out, you tpically won't be able to go over 20-30 miles an hour at all because the exhaust system won't be able to take the exhaust away fast enough.

My initial thought is that it's the transmission system. I think it's typically recommended to have the transmission flushed or changed at about 60K. I think it's around $100 to have it flushed and should probably be done regardless. Cleaning the fuel injectors and the such, couldn't hurt and would fairly easy and inexpensive to do.

My first thought is a leak in a vacuum line between the TB and trans. Most of my experience is with older or other models, so I am not sure if it is applicable for your vehicle.

I doubt you have a MAF, it is probably a Speed/Density system where it uses manifold vacuum and speed and rpm's and looks up the proper spark and fuel settings from those inputs.

Leave the trans alone until it even runs correctly.

The 'whistling' noise you mentioned leads me to think it is a cut vacuum line/broken vacuum port or a vacuum leak from a gasket.