2008 Vue Hybrid Stalling/Shaking, and making Popcorn noises at startup.

[HalifaxHybrid]

Thats about it,
For the past week the car got worse and worse. It appears to only occur when the car is left for 5 plus hours. In my case, it was every morning. I turn the key, the engine starts, it starts the sound of popcorn popping. the vehicle starts to shake, and pesterday for the first time in actually stalled while still in park. Even the next ten minutes of driving were wierd. It would't give gas when I was hitting the gas, the weird noises kept going. After all that, it was fine for day!!!!!
Anybody else have this problem?
Thanks
Erik

[jlalill]

just noticed some service bulletins for 07-08 hybrids...'replace all 4 fuel injectors'

http://www.mycarstats.com/auto_TSBs/SATURN_VUE_TSBs.asp

just click on your year...and 'recent'....item number 10025185

but there's no specfici mention of hybrid..so i'm not sure..

[HalifaxHybrid]

Saturn Just called,
The problem is as you have described. All the Injectors are garbage. They tried to start the car this morning and it wouldnt even start. This is a very common problem as they describe it in your above link perfectly.

Now, the big question is,
I have about 5000KM of driving with garbage injectors and 1 week driving/starting the vehicle (barely) poorly as result of the garbage injectors.
Feeling the car shake as violently as it did, and the car drive as broken as it did for the past week, would this have any long term affects on the engine itself?

Thanks
Erik

[jlalill]

the other question is.....should this be a total recall? as it covers two years...

i haven't any problems..though...so just wondering if it was a bad batch of fuel injectors.....37k..no symptoms like you 've had yet...

[Kooler King]

Originally Posted by HalifaxHybrid

... Now, the big question is,
I have about 5000KM of driving with garbage injectors and 1 week driving/starting the vehicle (barely) poorly as result of the garbage injectors.
Feeling the car shake as violently as it did, and the car drive as broken as it did for the past week, would this have any long term affects on the engine itself?

Thanks
Erik

One risk I foresee is if the injectors were dumping excessive gas into the cylinders, that would wash the oil off the piston rings, possible scoring the cylinder walls, or worse. Alternately, if the engine were running, or barely running, with too lean a mixture, under load, it may be possible to burn the pistons.

I would contact your dealer's service manager on this, as well as, the Saturn corporate people. Perhaps they need to inspect the cylinders, pistons, etc. if there is a chance there was any damage ... probably check the oil too in case gas were dumped into it, thinning it out ... the gas will evaporate out of the oil eventually, but could cause obvious problems before hand.

If the Saturn folks cannot give you definitive reassurance that nothing was harmed, then press them into providing you with an extended engine warranty to cover any possible problem that could arise as a result of the injector failure.

[HalifaxHybrid]

I am going to formally request extended warranty as result of the possible damage incurred by my vehicle. If they laugh, I will just have to pass the word that saturn does not stand behind their vehicles.
No man/woman should have to go three days without his/her $40 000 car that has just been pushed into the Saturn Dealerships garage under human strenght.

[HalifaxHybrid]

Just picked up the car from Saturn.
It turns out that the OEM Fuel injectors weren't up for the road test. As for the service guy at Saturn, when I asked if there would be any long term affects on the engine, he hesitantly said that "there shouldn't be" I told him that is was not good enough.
I asked him if he could inspect the pistons and piston wall to confirm that no damage had taken place, and he said that this would be too much work. I think I now know why the common GM last only a couple years. They are "too much work" for the dealers to properly maintain!



I dont know what else to say......

[HalifaxHybrid]

Bad news folks,
Picked up the car last night from the service man who stood behind his work. I jumped in my $40000 hybrid this morning (in preparation for my vacation) and it didnt even start. Tried repeatedly and after about two minutes it finally started with all the same crackling/stalling symptoms.
The Saturn dealership hung their heads in shame but were nice enough to get me a rental car for my vacation while they try to iron out the bugs for a week. Paying for gas is going to be pain.
New York, here I come!!!!
Talk to you all in a bit!
Erik

[HalifaxHybrid]

Guess its not the fuel injectors after all!!!

[4littlemonkeys]

Originally Posted by HalifaxHybrid

I am going to formally request extended warranty as result of the possible damage incurred by my vehicle. If they laugh, I will just have to pass the word that saturn does not stand behind their vehicles.

Ah I can tell you that Saturn doesn't really stand behind their vehicles. My first Saturn was a nightmare and corporate didn't care. The dealership wanted it bought back but corporate wasn't listening.

Now I did buy another Saturn for a few reasons. I'm hoping this time I have a good experience and so far it has been good.

But Saturn doesn't seem to care what you think, what you do (I had a lemon sticker ON my Saturn to get the word out) or what is wrong with the vehicle.

So don't get your hopes up when it comes to dealing with corporate.

I hope your vehicles gets fixed and things work out.

[kae]

Not sure what the lemon laws are in your area, but if they are available to you then you might want to check into that as an option...especially if your car gets worked on several times for the same issue and no resolution is made. It's true (in my experience) that Saturn Corporation won't bend over backwards to resolve an issue unless pushed to do so...despite being told during initial conversations that they will work to do so. In my situation I was initially told that they would not do anything despite me doing what I was supposed to on my part. When I made a complaint to both the local Better Business Bureau and the National one (against both the dealership and Corporation) I was immediately contacted by the same people that refused to help me less than 48 hours later. I wasn't as lucky the first time I had a bad experience with a lemon...because I was not truly aware of my options until it was too late. I guess I should point out that my successful resolution was not exactly a lemon issue, but more so an issue with Saturn Corp and the dealership not wanting to honor the 30 day/1500 mile exchange policy...for something that I was concerned could be a continous problem.

Anyway...hope everything works out for you. And by all means, check into ALL possible options you may have available to you in your area.

[HalifaxHybrid]

Thanks for the advice.
Like I said earlier, the Saturn dealership is doing what it can. I was packing my car for a 3000KM/5 day trip to NY, when it broke down for the second time. They got me a rental car for the whole thing, and they have an entire week to sort out the car, even if it means replacing engine, which I doubt.

(Its actually quite crazy, because all the malfunctions happen only once per day, firtst thing in the morning. So they will have no idea if what they are doing will actually work until they wait the next whole day.)

I also hope that this time around, they do not use "Too Much Work" as an excuse to not guarantee damage inside the engine.

My only fear is that some will consider the car a rebuild if too much work is done under the hood. I only had the vehicle for a month, its not ready for that label just yet.

So Yeah, before I get too nuts, I will give all involved a fair chance to make things right.

Erik

[HalifaxHybrid]

Oh, wait, wait, it gets better.
I just went to pick up my rental (that was all taken care of), and it turns out that Saturn never arranged payment, so, if I want the rental, I have to pay for it. Its Sunday, I was supposed to be on vacation as of yesterday, the dealership is closed and left me with no numbers for a Sunday Contact.
This could either go really good, or really bad.

[Ken Baker]

Has anyone thought of checking the valve timing? Any popping noises I have heard have had to do with fuel/air mixture getting into the exhaust manifold and being ignited there. Since this is a VVT engine it may be possible that the exhaust valve(s) is not closing as it should on the compression stroke and the fuel is igniting in the cylinder and the exhaust manifold simultaneously. There is no reason they can't bore scope the engine and inspect the valves, cylinder walls and piston. The VVT is another complex computer controlled, hydraulically actuated mechanical component just waiting to go haywire.

[saturnd00d]

Sorry to hear about the problems your having with your Hybrid. Hope they find and fix the problems with it.

[HalifaxHybrid]

Well guys, just thought I would keep you up to date,
Its now been a month, I still dont have my car from the dealership and they have yet to find the problem. This is the best $600/month ever.
Erik

[depend]

Sorry to hear that. Hopefully they can fix it or resolve the issue somehow...

[Kooler King]

Originally Posted by HalifaxHybrid

Well guys, just thought I would keep you up to date,
Its now been a month, I still dont have my car from the dealership and they have yet to find the problem. This is the best $600/month ever.
Erik

Not sure about car lemon laws in NS, but if that route won't work and you've exhausted all normal options dealing with Saturn's 800# customer service, give them an ultimatum to either replace the vehicle, refund your money, or you will go see your attorney.

[justVUEit]

it's been a while.. what happened? what was the resolution, if any?