On Thursday night my battery light came on and so I headed over to Auto Zone to have it tested. Their tester was broken so I took it to O'Reillys where they took their tester and told me that my battery was bad. I went back to Autozone where I bought my previous battery to get a new one. They replaced it. When I left there the oil and battery light came on then flashed off. I turned around and they replaced the battery again. On the way home my engine stopped running and I had to pull off to the side of the road. My car started right up with no problem. I started my car yesterday and it sounded normal but I didn't drive it. Today, I went to the store and my car drove fine to there. On the way home the engine just cut out after the battery light came on. Again it started right up but wanted to stall at each stop sign or light. What is the problem?

 

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Almost sounds like a bad ground or your alternator going out.
Derf knows a bit more about the Vue though, maybe he can chime in?

 

Sounds like your alternator is not consistently charging your battery, either due to a loose/poor connection at battery or at the alternator, OR the alternator is defective.

CHECK THE CABLES FIRST. Your situation screams intermittent connection to me.

Check the NEG(-) battery to frame ground for corrosion. You may want to take it off and clean up the connection. If you do so , remove the - terminal FIRST, then the pos + terminal from the battery so the battery is disconnected and you won't risk shorting anything out by accident.

Check the alternator ground as well.

If the cables check out,

As to the fact that you can restart the car immediately tells me that the battery is sufficiently charged , which means the alternator was recently charging the battery

Put a voltmeter across the battery terminals in DC V mode
should be WITH ALL ACCESSORIES OFF
approx 12V car not running
approx 14.4V car idling

If your alternator is bad I suspect you will read something like 13.7 (something below 14.4ish) at idle in which case it's time for a new alternator.

In any event

>>>>>>>>Take it to autozone or similar and have them run a complete charging system load test. It's free.<<<<<<<

A charging system related dead stall usually only happens with a dead alternator (or one that behaves as though it is dead due to wiring issues) attached to a battery that is sufficiently discharged such that it cannot supply the needed current at 12+ V to keep the PCM and other things happy.


The only other thing I can think of right now would be the voltage regulator, which regulates the system V. Don't know if it is inside the alt or if it is a discrete component under the hood for the vue, but if it is acting up it may be inappropriately throttling back the charging current from the alt to the batt OR letting the system V drop below the threshold needed to run the car.

 

Good morning and thank you both for your responses. Derf, I will print out your response and will ask my dad to let his mechanic know what it might be. Again thank you.

 

No problem. That's why we're here. Just be sure to come back n let us know what it was.

 

My dad had my car towed to a mechanic yesterday. I tried starting it on Sunday and it would just stall. The mechanic started my car and it ran for him just fine. He's going to check into it further for me. I miss my Saturn!

 

that's the way it goes don't ya know

 

Got my car back this past Tuesday. The mechanic ran all of the tests and no codes came up. He cleaned a hose out, checked the plugs and blah blah. He test drove it and nothing. I drove it to and from work since I got the car on Tuesday and it seemed fine. Today I took my son shopping and when we were leaving the store parking lot the battery/alternator light came on and stayed on until we got home. The car ran fine but now on Monday, I'm taking it back to the mechanic. Ugh!

 

Take some video on your phone so he can see that it's real.

I don't see any reported voltages for the tests I suggested you do ---battery voltage running and not running.

NOW

go buy a cheap multimeter, and when the light goes on, pull over (safely), pop the hood, and measure the V across the battery terminals. (red lead on red pos + post and black lead on black neg post. Voltage setting to DC Volts. Make sure the red lead is plugged into the meter where the V symbol is located, and likewise the black lead where the ground or common is indicated.

IF you catch it at less than 14.4 ish while running, VIDEO IT with your phone on the spot, while continuously panning around to the dash to show the dash idiot lights are on. The only way this will get resolved is if you prove that the problem exists in the first place.

Did you ever get a load test on your charging system like we suggested?
_________________________________
We're trying to help, snd specifically help you to help yourself and maybe save some $, but if you aren't interested in following up on the advice we're providing, then this discussion isn't really two way---it's one way and one way.

If you're not technically oriented, just say so -- it's ok--that'll change the way we recommend things to you.

We want to help--but it's only going to be successful if we're on the same page.

 

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