I have a 2003 Saturn vue with 138,000 miles. the machanic says the cam shafts are not turning and the timing belt is broken . How expensive is this to do, can I do it myself ?

check the crank shaft sensor ,check the timing belt . check the coil , check the fuel pump pressure

find a phone book, look in the yellow pages for transmission repair. call around and see who is cheapest. going to be expensive no matter who does it.

I have a 2002 saturn vue. Same thing..sounded like a jet engine ...loud humming as I accelerated . It got increasingly worse. It turned out to be the front wheel bearings. Replace them, now the noise is half as loud...have to do the rears also! 93,000 miles on it. Also, don't forget to replace the timing belt. It it goes too long and breaks, it will trash the engine...

needs to be replaced every 100,000 Miles

Both the 3.0 & 3.5 V6 engines in the Vue use a cam driven by a belt. Both are interference engines and the belt must be replaced at 100,000 miles. Warning: If the belt breaks serious engine damage will occur. The water pump is driven by the same belt so I highly recommend you replace it at the same time to save labor cost later on.

i am a saturn tech and ive never heard of this concern,the columns do go bad but they just set a ses light and cut out power,the column could be bad,it could also be the intermediate shaft u joint binding,,,i rec take to dealer, could be serious

I would take it in and have them do a diagnostic on it, sounds like the cam shaft sensor to me.

I work at a dodge chrysler jeep dealer, so I honestly don't know that you have a honda engine inside of a saturn vehicle, but I do know that dealerships are expensive. The belt itself isn't that expensive, but the labor is. A dealership would empty an ordinary person's bank account if they bough all the reccommended services. Transmission services or flushes would be helpful if you havent had one in a while, the timing belt is definitely needed, because if it breaks from old age, you could possibly damage your engine. I'm sure you keep your oil changed already. Spark plugs would be beneficial, maybe plug wires if you have them for your model. Maybe a regular fan belt and belt tensioner too, if you havent had that replaced yet. If He's offering the labor and parts all for 600, I would possibly consider that offer

if the engine jumps time (most likely at start up) it will bend several valves in cyl head. when this happens the engine will not start or run. the effected cyl head or heads need to be removed and reconditioned or replaced. cyl heads probebly ok but valves will be bent.

This is a pretty tough timing belt job to do if you have never done one before. There is also a kit of tools that are essential to getting the timing right on this engine. The cams are numbered 1-2-3-4 from left to right if you are facing the cam sprockets. If the tensioner was broken and the engine came out of time you are probably looking at at least a few bent valves. Could be time well spent to perform a leakdown test before you spend too much time on installing a timing belt.