What I Did To My Saab Today.

[Steve McF]

Well that didn't end well!!!! I have previously tried to remove the centre vent on my dash with the intention to remove the ICM2 audio unit and try to fit an ICM3 unit I have had waiting in the wings for a while. But each time I have tried to do it, I could never release the vent from the fascia.

I was watching a youtube video where the guy used a number of old store cards wedged in around the vent to release the various clips, so I thought I'd give that a go. The three clips at the top of the vent released relatively easily. Then the two on the bottom seemed to free up - bingo!!

However, as I gently pulled the vent forward, the front part broke away from the rear, and the various grille parts inside disintegrated, and fell onto the centre console and footwells!!!!!

Not sure what happened, but it looks like some clips have snapped off the front section (presumeably where it clips to the rear section). Either way, I'm now going to need another vent!!!!

On the bright side, at least I should now be able to try to fit the ICM3 unit and see if it works!!!!!!

[sgould]

The grilles can come apart, and be put back together..  But it does looks as if one clip has broken off the frame that holds the two halves of the frame together.

[Steve McF]

Well as I am bereft of a centre vent at the moment, I thought I'd finally fit that ICM3 head unit I've had in the garage for 2 or 3 years, but never seen working.

It went in very easily, and I was worried the screen might be knackered or missing loads of pixels, but no, it works and all looks good.

At first when I turned the ignition on  there was no display on the SiD, but soon after it appeared as normal.

Someone else who had put an ICM3 head unit in their car to replace an ICM1 unit, said it worked but then the radio would cut out every 10 minutes or so, and he needed Tech2 to tell the car/audio system what features were/were not on the car, and then it worked without any issues.

So I went out for a run to see if I had the same issue, and I don't. The radio behaved itself throughout. However, if I select CD (screen says CDX), it says no CD is present, even though it is.
The aux input does work though, thankfully.
When I got back I noticed the rear park assist didn't seem to be working, so I looked through the menus on the SiD but it isn't there at all.

So it seems I will need a little bit of Tech2 intervention after all.

The rear parking sensors were one of the first upgrades I did on the car after I got it 5 years back, and I got a specialist to fit it for me and do all the Tech2 stuff.

I was wondering whether it was worth getting the 6 CD changer as another simple upgrade (are the changers less reliable than the single CD?), and would the ICM3 recognise it without Tech2?

[phoenix]

Yup, you will need a Tech2 session to get everything married up and recognised.

[sgould]

Today I stripped the front bumper on the Carlsson.  The grey trim needs repainting.  Tomorrow I will find out if I can still operate a spray can.  It's been years since I did anything like that.

[sgould]

And now they are painted.  Land Rover Corris Grey Code: 873.   A bit more sparkle than the original, but the sparkles are green & purple which is much the same as the Jet Black body.

[sgould]

And in a fit of enthusiasm, I managed to refit it all this evening...

[carrera]

How frequently do these need to be done?

My DE glasses are very much second hand. I could go full drug dealer look by painting them Jet Black, but are there alternatives

Never looked into the plastidip option

[sgould]

My Dame is coming up to 17 years old and 182.000 miles.  I haven't bothered to do anything to the chrome trim, and it looks OK after a polish. The picture is from the Carlsson and the trims on that are painted plastic.  The paint has been bubbling and flaking off for a while, but I waited for a spell of warm weather to do the repaint.  The car was built in 2010 and spent the first three years of its life around Lancashire.  Owner in Wigan, but it has a North East registration.

The other issue with painting the 9-3 Carlsson/TurboX is that Saab have never released the colour code. So I had to guess and the LandRover colour looked OK, so I bought the spray can.  It matches quite well and is a bit more sparkly than original, but not by much.  And SWMBO thinks it looks nice, which is all that matters!!

[carrera]

Perhaps too late now, but you can take something over to a local motor factor that does paint & get an aerosol to match anything

I was doing some work on a Kymco moped, the carrier on the back was scratched/damaged. Took it to the local factor & they declared it was a Mazda colour & made one up for me

[sgould]

I know that paint can be matched, and it would have worked in this case.  However, I have seen matched paint, and the suppliers seem to use their standard paint as a base, but over time the fade differs when the substrate is not the same, but it's OK for a whole job rather than just a panel.  But having made the effort to find a close match, i just went for it!

[Audax]

Today I decided to finally take a look at the mirror cover which I had to duct tape so it stayed mostly in place on the 9-3 after she had an "incident" in a car park. I pulled the glass off and confirmed all the tabs which hold the mirror cover in place were broken , however there is conveniently 2 small holes in the plastic which you can screw into through the frame, so after 20 minutes of searching in the spare screws box I have now reattached the mirror cover without having to fork out ?50 for a cover and paint.

[sgould]

I have changed the covers a few times.  Almost all of the legs have broken to some extent.  The screw holes were added to replacement  covers at an early stage.  Our 2002/3 launch model cracked a cover.  It had no holes for fixing screws, but the one i got from Saab in 2005 had holes.

[Steve McF]

It's the little things!! I finally got round to fitting the replacement centre dash vent to replace the one that disintegrated when I tried to remove it a few weeks back!!!!

[weetabixface]

Finally managed to repair tilt/turn actuator in the passenger side mirror. The wee nylon linear gears had worn down so mirror would tilt down for reverse parking but not come back up without a shove. Have a car with memory function so didn't fancy dropping ?120+ on a replacement unit, bought the standard actuator and dismantled it to get the bits & bobs I needed and swapped them with the ones fitted to the mirror on the car.

W