What I Did To My Saab Today.

[carrera]

Oh dear, that's somewhat of a disappointment.

I would suggest pulling the SRS module out before that becomes a casualty of the heater matrix bursting.

At least it happened when the car was at home, a slight positive

[sgould]

That's messy.  I had a bad leak on the heater in the Carlsson a couple of years back.  Fortunately the workshop manual was written for LHD and the nightmare I was expecting did not materialise.

[phoenix]

Slightly worried now about the lack of antifreeze in the car- when it happened I ran a load of water from the hose through the header tank to cool the engine so the antifreeze will be very diluted and there's cold weather on the way this week.

[carrera]

Obvious alternative, you could always simply drain it off, but then you lose the anti-corrosion properties

[sgould]

I got lucky. When the car boiled in France in July I filled with plain water, and it got us home.  I planned to renew the antifreeze when I changed the thermostat but family matters got in the way and it wasn’t done.  I bought an antifreeze tester which showed it was OK to -10°C.  We were away over the weekend in balmy Devon.  Fortunately the temperature only went down to -6°C while we were away.  It will all be sorted at the garage tomorrow.

[phoenix]

Obvious alternative, you could always simply drain it off, but then you lose the anti-corrosion properties

Yes, I did contemplate that but feared the same about corrosion. I chucked 2l of neat antifreeze in (cue more water coming out of matrix) last night. Hopefully that might have reached the parts it needs to.

[phoenix]

Well not mine, but hers. Failed MOT on a broken rear coil spring (Eibach, only a couple of years old too) and upper rear control arm play.

Springs are not too bad provided you take more off than the manual suggests- I take the upper and lower control arms off, and move the brake a caliper out of the way to allow access to the spring compressor.

Upper control arm was rather less fun. Nearside so there was very little room over the top the the exhaust and hard against the wheel well. 250mm extension on a ratchet and luckily it moved without needed a breaker bar. Still took around 30 mins of moving the ratchet just one notch at a time and it was stiff all the way. That was some work out!

[carrera]

This is not the time of year to be enjoying that type of work

Personally, as we have had some snow for the past few days, two of the cars have had rim changes, so now on winter tyres

Have you sorted the 9000, or is that on the slow burner pile ?

[phoenix]

The 9000 is still sitting under a cover until I get round to it- possibly over the Xmas break if it's warm enough. I want to do a bit of work researching which is the best heater matrix. I put the current one on about 8 years ago: it shouldn't really have failed in the time.

[welshwizard]

Not today as my logon details are on my work computer....

Last week, discovered the battery in NG was completely flat, could not open doors without the proper key... Waited until Saturday to boost it courtesy of the Golf so I could take it up and down the A316 to charge it.  Deduced that the resident Poltergeist opened the boot and that resulted in a drain of charge...car asks me to open and close each window in turn so it must have been an anti-theft issue....  after two day I started the car this morning without issue...

But I did do my twice yearly wheel and tyre swap.  The 19" turbines with Eagle F1 have now been replaced by my 18" Carves with GoodYear 4Seasons AW tyres.  Car is so much more settled on the 18"s....  They do look small in the NG arches (would hate to see one with optional 16") but I think I chose well with the Carves.

[welshwizard]

Annual winter check at Ian Allan Motors...see if they tell me anything...

[Audax]

Yesterday was service and MOT time at Indysaab in Rushden. MOT was passed with the expected advisories (headlamp is cloudy, I have the repair kit just not had the right weather or the round tuits to do the job) and front numberplate is getting a bit worn. Service time was just an intermediate and aux belt and plugs. They also quoted me for a new aircon compressor as the old one is rattling and attended to a few other little bits and bobs, front tyre was losing pressure so they resealed it, refitted a heat shield or engine cover, found a slightly worn engine mount (there's a clunk from the front of the car sometimes which they had a look at).

Again, have to highly recommend Indysaab as they know their stuff and did all of that for just over £300 which seems like a very keen price to me, I just hope they are charging enough as I would hate to lose them.

[TomPaine]

That is very good indeed. I know what you mean about the ambivalence, with a good small company like that, of being simultaneously relieved at the low cost and worrying that they aren't charging enough to stay in business.

[carrera]

Sounds like good news: another year of use & not too much to do to keep her in tip top condition 

[Audax]

Sounds like good news: another year of use & not too much to do to keep her in tip top condition 

Totally agree with that, I was looking recently at what I could replace the 9-3 with that would be objectively better and an upgrade and it was looking like I needed to spend a big chunk of cash in excess of £10k+ really. That's a lot of maintenance and repairs for the Aero even with paying £700 a year in VED.