Our vue has the check engine light on because of a thermostat. Now anyone who knows a little about cars knows that you could pull 2 bolts off where the upper radiator hose meets the engine, remove the gasket and thermostat, then replace everything and you are done. Not with the nifty 2003 Saturn vue!!! you have to remove the upper intake manifold just to get to the damn thing! PLUS the thermostat on a car usually runs about $5 max, well this one is $25 for the thermostat, then between $60 and $85 for the housing for the thermostat! More good news, you have to replace the gasket(s) on the upper intake manifold because of taking it apart. Well they have 3 styles and there is no way to know which style you have until you rip it apart. These gaskets cost $40, $80, or $160 depending on what gasket you need. Of course you have to drain the entire cooling system to do this, plus replace the gaskets at the thermostat, etc. Replacing a frickin thermostat can cost close to $800!!!! Of course while you have the upper intake of, you might as well replace the $10 a piece spark plugs, because if you dont, you would have to pay the labor to remove the manifold again and replace the gaskets, when you wanted to replace the spark plugs! Also need to check the coil packs while you are in there, since a simple crack in the ceramic boot and you will have to replace it. What, a boot cant cost that much, you say. Well, you can not buy the boots, you have to replace the whole coil pack for each cylinder that is cracked at a cost of $100-$150 a piece.
THIS IS LUDICROUS!!! All of the moronic engineers/designers who thought of this should be lined up and shot! No, skip that, they should be shot in each kneecap, then each elbow, then the shoulders, until they bleed out while saying they are sorry to the millions of people that will get sticker shock when they try and replace a simple thermostat!
Mike
Oh and the thermostat probably isnt even bad enough to replace, it just doesnt reach the 198 degree threshold fast enough for the computer during the winter, so it flags the code and sends the check engine light on, which will go away when it gets warmer outside. Of course in Pennsylvania we have the dumbest emissions laws, where ANY code on the car will FAIL the emissions, even if it has NOTHING to do with the damn emissions itself!
I guess placing the thermostat and plugs into a hard to get area has increased gas mileage by .8mpg and maybe given me 2 extra hp, so it was all worth it
my friend and I were going to throw in a 400sb, but someone ran me over before that happened.
