Whereabouts in Jersey? I drive east every once in a while.
Lived there for 18 yrs (north of Princeton)

 

Bound Brook at the moment. Be moving to the Union area soon though.

My Aunt stopped by yesterday, so I took a little time to reverse the flow of the catch can to where I had it. I'm wondering if I can find one of these Vue's with a 3.6 at the junkyard to pull the intake off of. Then I can figure out the port sizes for the pcv and such to make my own lines for. Then I can run dual catch cans if possible. That's long term though; I have to contend with her upcoming inspection; and I know at least one of her cats has a leak. I got both replacements sitting in the basement waiting for installation. Also got the pads and rotors today; which will be installed as well.

 

Yikes.

I I'll never forget the flooding in Manville and bound Brook when I lived there. Seeing a flood line of mud 4 ft high on a utility pole was somewhat surreal to me but all too real for the people that lived there. Hopefully you did not lose too much in all of that.

 

I've only been here for a few years. My Aunt lived on the same street that I am on; and she said during Irene, the water came up to her backyard neighbor's front yard. Since my job (actually my department) relocated up north; I want to be closer to the faster route; and also a more centralized location in case they've had enough of me.

 

So, I will not be doing her brakes this weekend; I will be replacing her alternator instead. I had to fish her out of Morris Plains yesterday afternoon. At first, it acted like a bad battery; so I replaced it when we got back to her place. Her Vue cranked and fired right up. All was good until I smelt something burning; which was the alternator. Long story short, after much running around, we got a new alternator. It looks like I have to remove the passenger side front tire to get at the pulley tensioner. I watched a few YouTube videos where the engine mount was removed to do this task. I hope I can get by without having to do that.

 

Spent most of the weekend replacing the alternator. On Saturday afternoon, I started by removing the front wheel to get at the pulley tensioner and the alternator pulley bolt. That took a good 15-20 minutes to get those items loose. Discovered later that I didn't need to do that. What I should have done is remove the airbox assembly to get access to the tensioner and alternator pulley bolt; it's easier that way. After doing that I removed the 2 side bolts on the alternator; disconnected the regulator wiring and the charge cable; then removed the alternator from the side of the engine. Removing the alternator and replacing it with the new unit took 4 hours; yes, it took me that long to figure out how to squeeze the old one out and cram the new alternator back into the engine compartment. What I learned is that I needed to remove the upper radiator hose and unbolt the radiator from its mounts. I did this to push the radiator forward so I could have a little more space to take out and put in the alternator. Otherwise, I would have to remove the engine mount like a lot of the YouTube vids suggested I do. Doing these things made it possible to remove the alternator without having to mess with the engine mounts.

With that said; when we attempted to fire up the Vue; it wouldn't start. Somebody hooked the battery back up after I disconnected it on Wednesday night. I think this drained the battery because the old alternator was shorting out. After going home and coming back with my car (borrowed the Explorer to bring all of the tools, jacks, and stuff), I tested the battery and jumped the Vue. It fired right up and ran good. After running it around the block, my Aunt said her door chime went off a bunch of times during that trip. She said it did this a couple years ago after she first got the Vue; and she shut the car off for a few minutes and restarted it; and the door chimes haven't gone off (whilst driving) since. I will look this up in the meanwhile to figure out what is going on. Otherwise, the Vue runs smooth and she no longer has a CEL. I managed to kill the front airbox bolt (the one that is at an angle) when I tried to put it back in. I will have to remove the headlight, drill those threads out, and stick a bolt and nut to hold the front of the airbox in place. So yeah, that was the weekend. Next time she's over, I will change her oil and see about getting the new rotors and pads installed.

 

Changed the oil yesterday; had just over 5k on it. Put Royal Purple in there with the intent to change it out in 1k miles. Discovered with my Merc that Royal Purple has a lot of detergent and will clean the engine a bit. So I have been using it once a year for all of the vehicles. I took the lower valance off this time to get at the filter. I was able to get the punch in there to put a hole on the bottom of the filter; which was a bit less messy than last time; but still made a little mess. Also managed to get a little oil on the filter casing; which made it very difficult to tighten. Took 20 minutes just to almost get 3/4 turn on it. Next time, I might get the K&N oil filter and not deal with that.

 

I just use a rag or shop towel when installing an oil filter. Never had a problem getting the 3/4 after snug that way.

 

^^^^^^^Thank you Rubehayseed I will definitely try that next time. This is the first vehicle that I've had trouble doing simple tasks with.^^^^^^^^

 

Welp, this car is no more. Chucked a head gasket and trashed its timing chain; or perhaps the gear(s); my Aunt tried to recall exactly what the mechanic told her.

A friend of her's hooked my Aunt up with a 2007 Kia Sedona. Went down to south Jersey to take a look at it yesterday. 130k on the odometer and had most of its recalls replaced except the lower control arms as they look to be in good shape. Her friend's boyfriend had it at his shop; so we had it up on the lift and looked everything over. It seems to run smooth and it has little rust. So I have a new potential project. I'm annoyed that the Saturn let go like that after all of the work that I done to it; but happy that she seems to have a better vehicle.