Timing chain, belt or tensioner failure on the 2003 Saturn Vue
4 fires 4 of the 27 reports for this failure mention a crash, a fire, an injury or a death. Those are the owner's words on the complaint form, not a verified finding, and one report can mention more than one.
When timing chain, belt or tensioner failure gets reported
Owners of the 2003 Saturn Vue report timing chain, belt or tensioner failure at a median of 50,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 20,000 miles and a quarter after 82,500 miles, from 27 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 120,000 miles. It is the 5th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 1 miles at the tenth percentile to 127,500 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 127,599 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
When the reports scatter this far, the mileage is telling you about how these cars were driven more than about the part itself.
33% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 miles | 20,000 miles | 49,765 miles | 81,610 miles | 127,600 miles |
Read the 10th percentile as “one report in ten arrived this early”. Exact figures are shown in this table because it is the table of record; everywhere else on the site they are rounded to the precision the sample can carry.
What a percentile can and cannot tell you here
These five numbers describe the readings owners gave, in order. The median is the middle one: half the reports arrived below it. The 10th and 90th are the edges of the bulk of the distribution, and the distance between them is the part worth reading. A tight spread — say 70,000 to 95,000 miles — points at something that wears out on a schedule, and the schedule is knowable. A wide one, 20,000 to 190,000, points at a fault that hits some cars and never troubles others, which means the mileage on the listing in front of you tells you very little about your odds.
What these figures are not is a survival curve. Every reading here comes from a car whose owner filed a complaint, so the sample contains only failures: it cannot say what share of the fleet made it past 150,000 miles untouched, because those owners had nothing to report. Nor is the mileage the moment of failure — it is the odometer reading as recalled at the time of filing, which may be weeks later and is sometimes rounded to the nearest ten thousand by the person typing it.
Percentiles are shown at all only once 8 readings exist for the vehicle and mode. Below that the middle of a handful of numbers is noise wearing a decimal point, so the figures are withheld rather than dressed up.
What happens, and what it costs
Of these reports, 4 a fire is mentioned. Owners write their own complaints and the agency does not verify them, so read this as what the reports say happened rather than as a confirmed count.
Putting it right typically runs $1,200–$4,500 at an independent US shop. That range is an editorial estimate held in this site's failure-mode catalogue, not a figure from NHTSA, and it is a repair cost rather than a diagnosis cost.
This mode is classified as critical, which means a failure can leave the car unable to stop, steer, or stay out of the way of traffic. It is weighted accordingly in the risk score.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 6 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2006, at a median of 1,500 miles, and latest on the 2004 at 90,000 miles.
By volume the 2002 carries the most reports, with 38; the 2003 has 27. A mode that appears across most years of a model is usually a design choice rather than a bad batch.
If one year stands out to the left, that is the year to avoid; if the whole line sits at a similar mileage, this is wear rather than a defect in one production run.
Tick median reported mileage Solid middle half of reports Faint 10th to 90th percentile Colour how bad the failure is when it happens
What owners wrote
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint narratives, trimmed for length. The mileage is the one the owner gave.
The morning after the blizzard I started my 2003 saturn vue with 20,000 miles on it, I noticed a ticking sound from engine,I continued to shovel my vue out thinking the car is cold and it will be ok . Well the sound did not go away. Concerned I shut off car and called saturn. Today I am told it might be a timing belt tension thing . They are making the warranty repair and will call me tomorrow with test drive info. ? Is this damaged my engine or not. *nm
I went out to start my car. It made a sound like it was a diesel truck engine. I had it towed to saturn in norwood ma on rt 1. It was my timing chain. It was covered under warranty. I am just reporting this now because I saw you were investigating the belts on other saturn's. I read that it hadn't effected the vue but I wanted you to know it does. I am looking up problems with this car because I have had so many. The incident date is estimated. I pick my vue up(again) today from the dealer I will get a print out of the exact date this occurred. *jb
Cv joints were replaced at 22000 now againat 37000 I need to replace them. Front rotors were replaced at 22000 and again at 33000 timing belt at 20000 needed replacement I replaced the main computer controller in aug 2006. This car is a piece of crap and I will never buy a saturn again I bought this brand new off the lot in jan 2003 and have had major things go wrong. I also need to now replace the tires ( dullers) at 37000 because I am hydroplanng all over the place.I had a loud sound from my passenger window that took 2 years to diagnosis and repair and the rear end was recalled and the cooling fan replaced at 24000. *nm
Also reported on the 2003 Saturn Vue
Other powertrain problem
Complete transmission failure
Other electrical problem
Other engine problem
No-start or intermittent start failure
Other steering problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 27 is a floor and not a count of affected cars. Mileages are typed in by owners and cluster on round numbers. And the mode itself is assigned by software reading the complaint text, which is reliable in bulk and fallible one report at a time.
Questions this page answers
At what mileage does timing chain, belt or tensioner failure happen on the 2003 Saturn Vue?
Across 27 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 50,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 20,000 miles and a quarter after 82,500 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is timing chain, belt or tensioner failure on the 2003 Saturn Vue?
27 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.4 per 1,000 vehicles. Complaints are voluntary, so this is a floor rather than a count of affected cars.
What this is and is not. These are the mileages at which owners chose to complain to a federal agency, which is not the same as the mileage at which the part fails on every car. It skews toward failures that happened outside warranty, cost real money, or frightened someone. It is still the only public dataset that carries failure mileage at all, and the shape of a few hundred readings is informative even when a single one is not. Methodology · JSON · this failure on other cars
Source Owner complaints and recall records published by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, model years 1996–2027 Figures rebuilt Published by AtWhatMileage How every figure is computed