In an effort to save some money, my husband replaced the worn front brake pads and rotors on our 2009 Pontiac Vibe. He had a lot of trouble removing the old parts and did use force. Now with the new rotors and brake pads installed, the steering wheel is misaligned when the wheels are straight. There is no pull to either side when driving. What happened and what should we do?
View 18 RepliesI have a 2003 Pontiac vibe fwd base model with the 5 speed manual transmission and I recently replaced the clutch, half axles, ball joints, etc. It drove wonderfully for around 50 miles or so but now it can't get going.
The engine starts just fine, but when you put it into gear its like the whole engine starts stuttering. It shakes and clunks and the wheels get no power, just this horrible and violent noise.
I checked the clutch fit with the alignment tool, used a new flywheel, torqued all the bolts, but I just don't know what I missed. What I could have done wrong? If there's a possible fix that doesn't involve taking the transmission off again?
Here's a video I took or what it's doing ....
My electric power steering went out and simultaneously the red power steering light illuminated on the dash. I pulled off the road and turned the car completely off and restarted. Normal steering resumed. I took the to the dealership and they got a code for "Steering Angle Sensor". The mechanic said replacing that would probably not fix the problem and said the whole steering column would need replacing. He said the steering checked out fine and passed all tests while in the shop and did not recommend doing any repair. He said it may never fail again.
A month later I had the same power steering problem happened again and was again able to fix by turning the car off then back on again. I took it to a different dealership for troubleshooting and they said they were not able to communicate with the "power steering control module." They recommended changing the module. I have checked for recalls and contacted GM and they said it is out of warranty. The car has 58000 miles.
The ignition locks up continually. the manual says to turn the steering wheel which is impossible! It has a floor transmission so I try pushing the button in with no success. After 2 or 3 minutes of trying to turn the key(s), cussing and building panic it finally starts. He tried spraying WD40 in it and that didn't work at all. I'm about to trade this thing off for this simple problem!
View 12 RepliesIs there any quick fix for this? My steering wheel is slightly turned when the wheels are pointing straight. I thought a wheel alignment would fix this, but it didn't.
View 3 RepliesMy car has a little bit of a shimmy between 65 and 80, can feel it more when changing lanes slowly, after 80 slows down to almost nothing and by 100 is gone. Road force and high speed balanced, new set of tires (Mich. PS2) still does it. One more detail, the steering wheels is slightly tilted to the left when driving straight, anything to do with this? I'm suspecting the rotors too, but I only have 3,400 miles on my car.
View 8 RepliesI have a 2003 Pontiac Vibe GT - same car as a Toyota Matrix. It's a 6 speed standard. When driving in heavy rain where the street is flooded by an inch or more of water the car makes a noise like the bottom is going to drop out. It comes from underneath and makes a womp-a-womp-a-wompa sound that shakes the car. I initially thought it was one of the plastic panels below the car that was loose and catching water that would make it slap back and forth. But my mechanic couldn't find any loose panels.
Someone told me they had something similar with a Dodge Caravan and it was the timing belt getting wet - only I have a timing chain. I can't tell if it is related to the revs of the engine - it might be. It's such a scary sound I take my foot off the gas and it does seem to go away as the car slows. Seems like keeping under 30mph and out of the puddles works. This is only in heavy rain, street flooded conditions.
We have a 2006 Pontiac with no problems, except all of the sudden the hood won't open! We pull on the latch inside the car and nothing! No, the cable isn't broken ...
View 2 RepliesI drive a 2005 Pontiac Vibe that occasionally will not start on the first try. It seems to only happen when I drive it, let it sit for a short amount of time (5min-1hr) and try to start it again. When this happens, it has always started on the second or third try. It always starts fine when it sits overnight. Is this something I need to be worried about or costly to fix?
View 3 RepliesI recently got another blower motor for my vibe. Got it installed but nothing happened. I replaced the resistor as well. Once I found the secret hidden fuse panel I found that the 40a fuse was blown. I replaced it and it blew instantly upon turning the ignition on, the resistor was unplugged at the time. I am wondering if there could be a short in the wire harness.
The blower went bad a while ago and blew a resistor, I replaced it and it ran for a while until some smoke came out of the dash and then nothing.
My '06 Pontiac Vibe sometimes has one headlight out. When it's on as a daytime light, or on normally, the right headlight is not working. As a high-beam, it comes back on. It did this for a few days, then came back to normal after I hit a hard bump. Now it's back out again. It sure sounds like a loose wire to me, but I can't find it by jiggling wires behind the light assembly.
View 5 RepliesI have a 2006 Pontiac Vibe. Yesterday my Check Engine light came on while driving. It's done this before and randomly gone away. My car has been in the shop twice in the past month for routine maintenance.
The light annoys me, so I disconnected the battery and reconnected it a few minutes later. The car wouldn't start. I jumped it. It started, I let it idle, turned it off, and it's dead again. I did the same once more. Still dead.
So, my family "mechanic" says I probably didn't connect the terminals well enough, and that it might just need to be adjusted (in all fairness, I'm playing the stupid girl card here). He said worst case scenario is that I randomly need a new alternator (I doubt this based on the circumstances), and it's possible I might need a new battery (I think I replaced it three years ago, but maybe I didn't).
I have a 2003 Pontiac Vibe and recently have had problems...after I drive 15-20 minutes the car will begin to slow down...even if I give it more gas the car will stay a constant speed...say 30 mph and will not go faster...if I down shift..(manual trans)... I can get the car back to normal speed...and sometimes it smells hot when I get out...like brakes....on the highway the car will begin to slow as well and stay at 45...then come back after downshift..
View 16 RepliesMy Vibe (manual trans) started making a weird chattering/fluttering noise in 4th gear a couple of weeks ago, so I took it in (mileage around 160k). The noise was similar to the one it was making two years ago when the transmission tore itself to shreds and the shop did a full rebuild, so I was somewhat concerned about taking it in before I was stranded on the road somewhere. It took several days to find the problem, but apparently a balance shaft moved and chipped some teeth, and that somehow affected the trans in 3rd and 4th gears.
Now when they were explaining this I was trying to calm a screaming baby, so I wasn't really paying attention to the explanation, but I wanted to verify that this could happen and that I really do need yet another rebuild, this time with a new balance shaft. He's cutting me a break (this rebuild is significantly cheaper than the last one).
All this said, I really do trust my mechanic, but am really considering letting go of this curse of a car. I've now paid for it's value 1.5 times over the last two years. While the mechanic assures me this trans is bulletproof, two incidents in as many years makes me think otherwise. A quick google search doesn't allay my fears either...
I've got a 2009 Pontiac Vibe GT. A few days ago, my battery went dead when parked and listening to the radio. The terminals looked corroded but we jumped it and it was fine. Monday, my friend removed the connections and cleaned the terminals. The next day, I noticed that upon starting it, there was a noticeable rattle coming from the rear area of the car. Once I hit the gas, it's fine, and after a 50 min interstate drive it seemed fine. However, leaving work today it happened again-- a rattling when stopped at red lights or stop signs. Once I hit the gas it goes away, but starts on again as I slow to a crawl. Is the battery issue a red herring? What could be the cause of this?
View 15 RepliesOwn a 2007 Pontiac Vibe (Toyota Matrix). Anyway, do a lot of driving on gravel roads, and the rear window is always covered in mud or dust. Any type of deflector available to alleviate this ?
View 9 RepliesI just purchased a 2009 Pontiac Vibe, I love it, but I didn't notice that the radio knob was broken, I can't control the volume. Actually if I turn it just right it will catch but it's very difficult to do and I have to be parked to play with it. Is there a way to fix the knob?
View 4 RepliesLast winter, I noticed the engine was surging intermittently after start-up, until the engine warmed up. No issues on warmer days, spring/summer, etc.. Recently, the check engine light came on, so I took it into the shop. The shop did not feel the problem was the throttle body, and replaced the mass air flow sensor. The engine is still doing the surging thing after starting up.
View 17 RepliesMy 2005 Pontiac Vibe started spontaneously making a strange ticking noise after a grocery run. It's loud, and doesn't accelerate in time with the engine, so we have ruled out fan for now. It sounds like it's coming from almost directly behind the radio console and has the speed and timbre of a fast, old-fashioned tick tock metronome. My dad took a look at it and thought it might have to do with the air filter--a lot of awful junk fell out of it, and I have a new filter, but the ticking noise still persists. He found out that if I switch to recirculate / inside air, the ticking goes away, but as soon as I switch it off, it comes back.
Dad thinks it's a door trying to close, but he's not sure which one or where. Since it goes away with the inside air button, if it costs a fortune to fix, I might just stick with inside air from now on.
I have a 2003 Pontiac Vibe that was new to me in 2011. Pushing 180k+ miles. It was subject to the airbag recall last summer and has been repaired by the GM guys. But last fall I was driving at around 70mph with the cruise on and came up to a speed change so I tapped the brakes to end the cruise and EVERYTHING went dark in the car- radio, dashboard, a/c, the electrical charging plug- EVERYTHING for about 5-7 seconds. Then everything came back on and I continued as normal. My mechanic was dumbfounded. Figured one time freak thing so no worries.
No issues since until this morning. On the drive to work I had the high beams on as it was 5:15 in the morning on a state highway in the country. Came up on a red light so flipped high beams off. EVERYTHING goes dark for 5-7 seconds, comes back on, and I continue as normal. Obviously I'm getting a little concerned at the randomness, not to mention that losing power at 70mph is a little disconcerting. Mechanic is dumbfounded but willing to tear up the dash and steering column and see if he can't recreate the issue.
I have an issue with my cruise control that only occurs when there is warm/hot weather, or if my car has been sitting in the sun for an extended period of time. The issue does not happen in the Fall or Winter, and generally not in the morning after my car has been sitting in the garage overnight. The issue that occurs is that sometimes I can turn on my cruise, set the speed, and then seconds or minutes later it'll just cancel the cruise speed without me doing so or hitting a pedal. Other times I cannot even turn on my cruise control, or the cruise light keeps flashing on and off. I've checked the fuse box and everything looks fine there, but I couldn't specifically find a fuse labeled for cruise control.
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