general problems of the 2008 Saturn Outlook

Engine power reduced- this has happened on several occasions, where the engine just stopped running while driving, in town. Main wiring harness was repaired the first time because insulation was deteriorated and wiring was stuck together. Less than two weeks later, engine stops again while driving in town, was able to coast to the side of road, car restarted, trying to get home, car died again, would not restart, towed to auto shop again. Auto repair is unable to diagnose the problem, it will run great and just randomly stop running while driving, car has been in the shop for almost 2 weeks now. Nothing is coding when they run diagnostics. They have checked everything possible! I am having them keep the car until problem is resolved because I am scared to drive it and end up in a wreck. I have been fortunate that I was in town when this has happened, that I was in town and my grandkids were not in the car with me! this is a very serious safety risk!!! thank goodness I didn't go on a planned 12 hour trip to colorado! note: I have already put $6500. 00 in repairs within the last year because of random issues with the vehicle.

My Saturn 2008 engine light is flashing and my SUV is running bad, my airbag service light is on and my traction light is also on.

11/17/2016 replaced 2 transmission in two years within a few weeks after getting the car back from repair shop wife was driving to work on 12/16/16 the car stop running on the expressway. Dealer states throttle body was freezing do to condensation building up within throttle body stated this is common in these cars. Again got the car back after spending a ton more money getting it fixed had to take it right back engine light came back on within 20mi of driving. Don't waste you time buying these lemon cars.

During transit on interstate the engine stop providing power to the transmission and rpm decreased to 1,000 while decelerating the vehicle from 70mph to 45mph making it difficult to change lanes to pull off the road almost resulting in a fatal motor vehicle accident. After about 30-45 seconds the engin reengaged. 30 minutes later the vehicles system alerted that the transmission is overheating and recommended that we place the vehicle in nutral. This is the second time this has happened.

"takata recall" having problems with stabilitrak affecting the brakes,transmission,and engine while driving on city street car now will not start.

The contact owns a 2008 Saturn Outlook. While driving approximately 50 mph, the vehicle lost power without warning. The vehicle was coasted to a fuel station and was later towed to an independent mechanic who diagnosed that the timing chain was loose and needed to be replaced. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure and stated that there was no recall. The vehicle was not repaired. The failure mileage was approximately 86,000.

Driving on a small highway and the stabili rak light blinked and a chime rang. Error message came on to service stabilitrak while car began to buck and lose power. Had trouble getting car to accelerate - car kept bucking and it was very dangerous and I was afraid of getting hit from behind since I couldn't maintain speed. After a few minutes, the error light went off and everything seemed fine. In the years I have had the car, I had three incidents where the light would go on and the chime would ring with the same error message. However, in those cases, the car hesitated briefly but maintained a more normal speed. I brought my car to a gm dealer and it was a timing chain problem. The Saturn Outlook for 2007 and 2009 have special warranties for this problem but not the 2008 model. Gm doesn't want to acknowledge the issue exists on this model year - but I have found other complaints here on your site. This needs to be addressed and gm needs to take responsibility.

The contact owns a 2008 Saturn Outlook. While driving 15 mph, the contact's vehicle lost power. An independent mechanic diagnosed that the timing chain failed and needed to be replaced. The vehicle was repaired, but the failure recurred. The vehicle was taken to another independent mechanic who diagnosed that a new engine was needed. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The failure mileage was not available.

Timing chain for 2008 Saturn Outlook not covered under special coverage for replacement but they are covering the 2007 and 2009 models which have the same part numbers and were all produced the same way for 3 years they are not covering known defects in there products look it up on the internet see all the complaints for yourself thanks for your time fyi recall # is 10287 for your reference.

After a night of sub-zero temperatures, I turned my car on in the garage to warm up prior to loading my children in the vehicle. When we were all set, I pull out of the garage and continue to leave the driveway down the street when all the sudden my car begins to shake and my dashboard panel starts communicating multiple errors, including "engine powered down", "service stabilitrack", "traction control off" as well as the engine light going on. While all this is going on, my car stops excelling and literally stops me on the road only allowing me to accelerate to 1 rpm and maybe going 5 miles at most. After slowly maneuvering out of traffic, I turned my car on and off a few times without any luck. After talking to a service technician, I was going to get it towed for them to look at it. I turned the car off while I was talking to then, and then randomly turned it back on since it was cold, and all the errors went away and the car was moving properly. After another day of driving it, I was driving on the highway, and as I exited on the ramp and came to a stop light, the whole processed happened again. I had to take it in at this point, since I felt extremely unsafe in the vehicle, knowing it could stop operating randomly when driving. It turns out that it generated an engine power down code because the throttle was affected. Code p1516. There is a technical service bulletin (TSB) out for this apparent issue, but I am uncertain how this isn't a recall for this vehicle and other models who are experiencing it, considering it literally stops your car in the middle of traffic. With my two children in the car, I was extremely scared and didn't know what to do. If you car stops operating properly when driving that is definitely a safety hazard for you and your passengers as well as other drivers.

Dashboard information center warnings of stabilitrack and service brakes with audible chims during driving. Went to dealership and found out that the master cylinder was leaking into brake booster. No evidence of brake leak ever. Seems to be ongoing failure with this model of all of gm product lines and a very expensive repair.

Every since I have had a recall fixed. . . My lights flicker on the dash and I have been having problems with the transmission seeming to stay in one gear. It was told to me that it may be a timing chain issue but it is not a recall. I have read numerous complaints in regards to this issue from other Outlook owners.

Approximately April of 2014 we had the first incident: while driving on the highway, at speed, the transmission seemed to "pop" into neutral (no change of gearshift lever, just engine revved). As the truck no longer had power, we managed (thank goodness) to get the truck to the shoulder avoiding highway traffic. Moved gearshift lever to park and then back to drive with no change - engine just revved as in neutral. Turned the truck off and called for a tow. While waiting for same, we turned the truck back on, and transmission seemed to function normally. Brought the truck to both wind gap Chevrolet (place of purchase) as well as an independent aamco - verdict was the same: broken "wave plate" and a new transmission was needed at a cost of over $3000. 00. Problem continues to this date. When we referenced the endless online complaints of same, gm was unmoved, although the power train warranty was still in effect. Very dangerous - lose power at highway speed with multiple close calls!!!! headlights: headlights, both low and high beam, continually burn anywhere from minutes to days after being replaced. Switch assemblies have been replaced, cannot get low beams to illuminate at times, then no headlights at times. Very dangerous. Again, endless online complaints of the same issue. Sunroof: endless issues with the sunroof leaking and soaking the floorboards on both drivers and passenger sides. Taken to wind gap Chevrolet, told we need to have sunroof replaced. Again, endless online complaints of the same issue. Based online and on this NHTSA site: it seems that these are serious and dangerous issues with this vehicle!!!!! recent headlight recall on similar vehicles for the same issue. Why is this vehicle not recalled for transmission/power train and headlight issues!?!?.

I was driving on the freeway at 65 miles per hour when my transmission failed on a vehicle that had only 65,000 miles and was well maintained in accordance with dealer recommendations. The vehicle was towed to my mechanic and required replacement. I was informed that by the transmission repair facility that they had been receiving Saturn suvs on a regular basis. Exact quote was we have been getting "a ton" of these vehicles with very low miles.

Was driving my in-laws 2008 Saturn Outlook at about 40 mph and then engine revved and would not shift. Was on busy highway and had to pull over. Turned car off and back on and tried to drive and engine would not shift past 30 mph and then starting going in and out of shifting and not moving at all. Had to pull back over and then get a tow. This happened with no warning.

Vehicle has not been shifting correctly for the past year or so. Took it to a gm dealership last week and was told the wave plate in the transmission was cracked. Began researching this problem and found a forum where hundreds of other gm owners have experienced this problem. After reading, it appears that when my car would not shift into reverse two years ago, it was the beginning of the problem. I didn't recognize that as a transmission problem and when I mentioned it to the dealership (which is no longer a gm dealership since they no longer have Saturn), it was dismissed because it only happened one time. I continued to have issues with the shifting but didn't take to authorized gm dealership so they don't have record of it. Recently, rpm's were randomly jumping above 4 on the highway every 10 minutes and I felt lucky to make it home from a recent trip in the mountains. Of course, gm is not willing to take any responsibility and will not provide any financial assistance to repair car but I don't understand how so many people can be experiencing these problems and it not be a recall issue? really upset that my two children were in the car and scared to death we were going to wreck or get stranded!.

While accelerating in speed after being stopped at a red light the vehicle went to shift and the engine rpms went up excessively, and the jerked hard when shifting. It progressively got worse as we tried to make it home. We added transmission fluid because it looked low. The next day the engine light came on. I took it to a transmission repair shop who put it on the diagnostic machine. The said that it showed a solenoid stuck open, but was concerned that the fail safe didn't work properly. They said I should have had reverse, and second to get me off the road safely. However, the reverse didn't kick in unless the vehicle was rolling backwards. They are telling me that the whole transmission will need to be replaced. The car has less than 60000 miles on it.

I have an issue with my 2008 Saturn Outlook. All of the sudden one day I went to leave my driveway, put the car in reverse and it would not go into gear. It also barley goes forward. I had previously had problems with slower than normal acceleration and rough gear change. After doing extensive research on what the problem could be I have found numerous complaints of the similar kind all over the internet. It seems there is a $25 part called a wave plate that is defective in these cars which causes the transmission to cease resulting in thousands of dollars of repairs. After finding this out I called gm customer service and was bounced around quite a bit. They are aware of the problem and discussed helping financially to fix the issue. They asked us to have it towed to a gm dealership so we did just that. After doing that they renigged their offer to help us so the car just sat there for quite a while. I bought this car used in 2011 with 98,000 and owned it 2 years then had this problem, now at 126,000. After I bought it and had this happen I have found out there have already been transmission issues with this car. I love the car but it is a complete headache. I am a single mother of three kids and do not have $3500 to shell out to get this problem fixed and believe that it is such a huge issue that something should be done and these cars need to be recalled. Meanwhile I make a car payment every month for a broken down car in my driveway. My car has been sitting for almost a year because I can't and also feel like I should shell out that kind of $ when gm is clearly at fault. I also am afraid if I do fix it the same problem will happen again. This is very unsafe. They are a terrible company who does not stand behind their products and leaves so many americans out in the cold. What horrible customer service.

Delayed shifting when pressing down accelerator to increase speed to change lanes while on freeway. Took car in for service and was told transmission wave plate was inoperative.

When it is really cold outside and the wind is blowing, when I accerlate the traction control light comes and the it says power will be reduced. The power is reduced down to about 10 miles a hour. The first time it happened I called onstar and they told me to turn the vehicle off about 8 times giving time in between to reset something. At the time of this I was accerlating on to a dual highway with a infant in the car. So at appoint I took it to poage's in quincy ill, they flushed out something and then proceeded to tell me that they could probably fix it with a cost around $800. 00. I asked them if there was any others that had the same problem they said no. Come to find out a friend of mine has a 2007 Outlook and hers is doing the same thing. It only occurs when it is very cold outside and wind could be blowing. Poage said when it is really cold outthe air intake, air seems to be sucking up air under the fender, what they were going to try fixing it so the air would come off of the engine, it was like a vapor lock. The last time it occurred was the first week of January I was passing a car, once I accerated the power was reduced down to about 10 miles, same thing traction control comes on then it staes power will be reduced. There has to be a defect somewhere, I called GMC all the could say that there were no complaints, but in looking on the internet there have been others with the same complaints. Then they further said will it is a salvage title, I have had my Outlook since 02/09 had no complaints up until January 2013 when the weather relly got cold. I told GMC I was going to contact you and nothing was said. Also stated to them that if anything happens to me or anyone else in my vehicle. There will be a law suit.

I had transmission problems on my 2008 Saturn Outlook. While driving the car one morning it just stopped accelerating and then locked up and wouldn't move.

While on vacation, noticed the engine light come on, no apparent problems at the time but the next morning (after sitting in the parking ramp all night) I come out to find a dead car battery. Apparently, after turning the car off and removing the key, the car did not shut off. Jumped the battery, took it right to a repair shop. Due to a major water leak of the sunroof, my whole electrical system was affected. The car had to be dried out, I continue to have more and more things go wrong with this vehicle. It continues to leak water on the passenger side floor, roof (comes down like a waterfall), etc. Now I have noticed my car battery running higher and my front head lamp turns on and off. Could make this car very dangerous!.

The contact owns a 2008 Saturn Outlook. The contact started the ignition and the "check engine" warning light indicator illuminated on the instrument panel. The warning indicator remained illuminated until the engine was turned off. In addition, the fuel gauge indicator displayed " empty fuel" at any given fuel level capacity. The vehicle was taken to an authorized dealer for inspection on two separate occasions. The failures were contributed to the cam shaft sensor and fuel level sensor. The vehicle has not been repaired for the malfunction. The contact had concerns of the safety risk involved. The failure mileage was 11,000 and the current mileage was 25,000.