My 2007 vue is having strange electrical issues.... sometimes it is fine...and in all cases, the engine runs fine (I can keep driving when it happens)...but when it happens, various electrical things shut off...I lose auto-headlights (thought I can turn them on manually and that works)...I sometimes lose my radio, and/or my dash lights and/or my speedometer/tachometer, etc.. When this happens, the manual headlights often seem to brighten (and the blower motor gets faster)...when it goes back to "normal" with everything on, the lights go back to normal level and the blower returns to normal.

Sometimes it flips back and forth between an abnormal state and a normal state quickly...sometimes it stays either normal or abnormal for a while.

I also often lose the electrical power-steering when this happens... but not always... Thats a real strange part of this...the symptoms vary (which items shut off--which combinations)... but it all seems to be only electrical issues.

Again...I can keep driving the car ok.. (though steering is much harder when the power assist goes out, and its hard with not seeing my gages or seeing how fast I am going etc).

Please help...I don't know if this is an easy fix or a hard one and I fear that if I just take it to a garage, they are gonna spend many many hours running in circles trying to trace a weird electrical issue. I've never seen a car act like this before.

Other than that, my car runs great, with around 268,000 miles on it...so I'd love to keep her running.

Thank you so much!
-Bob

 

Take your car to AutoZone or similar and have them run a load test on the charging system. This should detect any issues with your battery or alternator.
It's free

 

Do these symptoms sound like battery or alternator trouble in a saturn Vue?

 

That's what the load test will reveal.

Keeps you from throwing parts at it and it's free.
Kind of sounds like voltage regulation problem. The voltage regulator is inside the alternator on these vehicles so I guess that would make it an alternator problem.

Get the test done and we shall see

 

This can be a problem on the V6 Vue's with the Honda engine when the alternator voltage regulator starts going wonky, as poster derf mentioned. This was especially a problem with aftermarket alternators that didn't incorporate the proper voltage control part/regulator, and would cause all sorts of wonky issues especially when the vehicle was cold because the thing would pump out 19v-20v when it was cold outside (and the cars electronics go haywire with that much voltage). When my OEM alternator died earlier this year I also began experiencing similar problem like yours (radio and lights mostly) until my alternator finally died and I replaced it.

What year/model of Vue do you have?

 

It’s a 2007 redline. How do you get an alternator that is less likely to have those problems…. Your issue sounds a lot like mine.. I didn’t even mention the temperature thing but while the behavior was quite random, it seemed to happen a lot more when it was cold out.

 

This was really a problem a number of years ago, there was a very long thread on it on Saturnfans forums (which is no longer with us sadly). I'm not sure if it was totally fixed, but presumably the aftermarket suppliers caught on to the problems and fixed them by now. When I replaced my alternator I went with a TYC 211062 from RockAuto, brand new and looks exactly like the OEM one I replaced. Works great so far, but the real test will be in January and February when it's -20 out here, lol. I'll update my alternator replacement thread if there are any hiccups.

Denso was the OEM supplier for the Vue V6 alternator, so if you want to be sure than best bet is to go with either a new or remanned Denso unit, or get one from a scrapyard. DENSO 210-0546

Before you jump the gun though, hopefully you can test your alternator to make sure that it is the culprit. Is your alternator original?

EDIT: I found this thread from 10 years ago that describes the alternator issues folks were having then: https://www.cargurus.com/Cars/Discussion-t9941_ds635564