2004 Saturn VUE AWD V6 has a harsh grinding sound in front wheels

power steering is low on fluid or going bad.

I would suggest inpsecting the brakes. If there grinding when you step on the bedal they are worn out. Let me know if you have any questions and I'll do my best to answer them. Thank you for using FixYa.com!

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Thats a vague problem description.
could be brakes, suspension, drive train.

If it's a scary sound get some body to check it out, because a failed suspension or brake problem is dangerous

thats AWD, is your vehicle normally front wheel drive, theres no easy way for the transfer case to jump into AWD, mine does it to although mines a Expedition an its the front that kicks in.....The only thing you can do is keep a eye on fluid inside axle....

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...

The RDM or Rear Differential Module on these GM vehicles (Vue, Torrent, Equinox) is a known weak point. It is most likely shot as the trans outputs power to the front and rear equally; gearotor pump(s) in the RDM then assign traction to each rear wheel if the wheel is turning slower than the input. So if it is still turning it must not be transmitting that torque to either "braked" rear wheel... There was a recall for the RDM in which GM quietly increased the slippage at which it engauged the rear wheels due to high failure rates...

How do i check the transmission fluid in 04 awd v6 auto

we have a 2003 saturn vue which we installed new tires on and we noticed a noise about 6 months afterwards. it sounded to my wife and i to be loud road noise from the tires. the car was driven for 6 months and we decided the noise was annoing. had the tires checked only to find it was the left front wheel bearing which was replaced and stopped the noise.

I would suspect the wheel bearing, as these start to fail they tend to make more noise in one direction of load than the other.

The vibration is caused by the rotors being warped. Remove the front tires and check the front brake pads. Replace if needed. This is a pretty straight forward job. The rotors are "fall off" rotors and you won't need anything special tool wise.