03 VUE Shuddering with A/C on

[frankule]

I have an 03 VUE, 4 cylinder, FWD, 83k miles.. If the air is running and its idling (at a stop light for instance) it will begin to randomly shudder like it wants to stall. It has completely died on my wife twice so far. Theres no problems with the air off, it runs fine. She mentioned to me that it did this last summer but seemed to quit when i replaced the battery. Was possibly thinking alternator.. any other suggestions to look at?

thanks..

[VTchemist]

Is the check engine light on? More into to the group would help alot.

[Bigdaddy94sc2]

Serpentine belt tensioner or alternator. More than likely the tensioner.

[frankule]

Im thinking youre right now that this morning she tells me that its started shuddering wothout the AC on.. like its beginning to totally die... any idea what the general life expectancy of the alternator is? just curious..
Thanks..

[VTchemist]

Most alternators I've replaced on my vehicles had at least 100K on them. I ran a Chevy Astro for 265k on the OEM alternator.

Going at 83k seems early, but it is possible.

Did you check the belts + the tensioner? A loose belt will definitely affect the output of your alternator.

You can go to your local auto store & have the check the charging system.Have them take a peek at your belts.

[EditEd4TV]

I think the others are right regarding the serpentine belt/tensioner, and boy, lemme tell ya, you don't want that to go out on you. That's what ultimately killed my 1993 Saturn SL2. It already had a number of problems that I fixed, but one day on a long trip I suddenly noticed that the A/C went out, muggy and warm air blowing out. Then a few minutes later the battery light came on. At that point I knew something was wrong. Because I was driving down a primarily straight freeway, I didn't notice the power steering was out until I began to head off the freeway to figure out what was wrong. Sitting at a red light I dug through the manual and realized that one more thing that was part of the serpentine belt pathway was the water pump. I looked up and saw my heat gauge maxed out. Oh no. I quickly pulled into a parking lot and turned off the car. Long story short, that was probably the day that it began it's slow nosedive. It was the tensioner that broke, so the whole belt was floppy, doing nothing. About 5 months later, it wouldn't pass a smog test, gross polluter, so that was that... then I bought my 2004 AWD V6 Vue, love it.