I understand the campaign, but so far, there are several people who HAVE noticed a difference in hybrid operation. Read back through the posts on this thread, and you'll notice that several (who never had the original problem described in the letter) have noticed improved assist in acceleration, as well as a change in the way the charge/assist gauge reads--so it sounds as if hybrid operation does in fact have the potential to change. And for those of us who are satisfied, that's a concern.

 

What I've noticed in the thread is that people who have had the change have noticed a change in what the gauges read, not necessarily a physical change in how the vehicle operates. There may also be an improvement in the way the alternator regens the batteries. If there was a problem in terms of how much boost they were getting pre-change, the change will fix / improve that. If there was no issue with when an how much boost was being applied, there will be no change. In any event, there will not be a degradation in operation. Worst case scenario with the harness swap is.....no change. Best case scenario is that a problem that may have ocurred somewhere in time will not and unnoticed issues with level of boost will be improved.

Peace,

Martin

 

Mine is in the shop (2 days so far) after the "T/C and Check Engine Lights" came on. Also the Tach quit working. They told me they were replacing the harness. I'll keep you updated.

It basically "just happened".........the car ran fine and then it started with the "clunking transmission" shifting and the other lights comming on. I made it to the dealer with no problems......so the car did not "die" as others have reported.

 

Put mine in this morning for the harness, sticking ignition switch and front end alignment. I've got my fingers crossed the dealership knows what they are doing!!!

 

UPDATE: Had my GL almost go down. I would not avoid the recall thinking they are going to cause a problem with your car. From what I can tell there is no perceptible difference and I've only run a half a tank of fuel, but it seems to be getting slightly better milage (I've averaged about 29 MPG over 20K so far since March).

Problem is if you are more than a few miles from a dealer when it takes a dump you will be in trouble and have to have the car towed. Best I can tell is that you have 20-60 miles once the problem starts before your batteries will die.

Took about 2 days for the change out and reprogram on my car.

Just my 2 cents.

 

we had ours done last week, and I just got a chance to drive it today. What a huge difference! the hybrid assist actually seems to come on in our Vue now! Before, taking off in the car was a hit or miss thing. also, trying to accelerate from say 40-45 miles per hour up to 60 was silly. the car simply had NO take off, unless you slammed the pedal to the metal, then the tranny would kick down, and the car would take off.

Driving it today was like driving the car when we first bought it. smooth power, and for the first time ever, we actually saw the assist gauge move to the right more than a hair!

I cant wait till we go through our next tank of gas to see if we get any improvement (our last tank was 22mpg, it's been steadily declining since we bought it)

I'm thinking that if the problem was this harness issue not charging or running the electrical system properly, we might also have fouled spark plugs, so I'm going to check that ASAP as well.

we havnt even made it to our first oil change in this thing yet!

 

I have my appointment tomorrow. Dealer said it should take two hours for the harness, tire rotation and my 3rd oil change. I have about 500 miles of driving over the weekend planned so I will be able to get the MPG results back for all by Monday.

I have my fingers crossed as the Hybrid has been rock solid for me since mid January.

 

I had the job done last week which took 2 hours to do. From watching the ScanGauge, it does seem that there is an improvement with city driving FE. Will see when I fill up next, but so far this first post recall tank is looking very good.

 

Got mine back today with the new harness and on the ride home The Vue GL seemed to run and shift much smoother (maybe it was because I just got out of a Cobalt rental). I'll check mileage with the ScanGuage on my commute tomorrow and see if there is any mileage improvement. On the downside, I had the sticky switch problem and told the service rep at the dealer I wanted the switch replaced, not lubed. Guess what...they lubed and cleaned it. I went to the service manager and told them the old switches were junk and he agreed but said he had to lube them first per Saturn. So I told him if it stuck they would be paying a wrecker fee as I wasn't about to lose another days pay when they should have just replaced the thing.

 

John, your situation with the ignition key is EXACTLY the same as mine. I asked repeatedly that they replace the switch, but to no avail. According to corporate, they are obliged to first lube it with white lithium grease, and if it fails later, to replace it. Kind of silly if you ask me, since failure usually leads to a tow. I was miffed that they had done just the lube on ours, but since the dealer was VERY quick with the repair, explained everything fully, and lent us a loaner, I was still pleased. To be honest, ever since, the ignition switch has been fine. Hopefully yours will be too.

As for the harness, I guess we must be one of the last to get it done! The mileage has been quite good recently--in the last 4,000 miles we have averaged 28.9 with hardly any highway, and the last 2 tanks near 30--so I didn't want to mess with a good thing. However, it sounds like if anything, most of you are seeing improvements, so perhaps we'll get it done soon. I'll at least have it done before our long-haul trips (18 hours each way) around Christmas.

Keep reporting MPG changes post-harness!