What I Did To My Saab Today.

[TomPaine]

Absolutely agreed. When faced with that annual quandary I always remember sgould's mantra: "the cheapest car is invariably the one you've got" ...

[Audax]

Absolutely agreed. When faced with that annual quandary I always remember sgould's mantra: "the cheapest car is invariably the one you've got" ...

Totally, I just looked it up and bought this one 27th January 2016 with an view to replacing it in around 4 years! With the way I now work from home, covid and the price of newer cars it's just ticking along nicely.

[welshwizard]

Booked into Ian Allan for annual service and MOT.

Although I have had good service from Joe's in Epsom, and the cafe round the corner was excellent, Epsom was a right royal pain to get to (3 trains) which Virginia Water is on my way to work (but the old 9-5s Nav did used to say it was on the M3..) and I've used IA satisfactorily for 13-14 years now.

My other go to option was Now Vauxhall in Kingston, which became Robins & Day, then Stellantis & You so became concerned that the Insignia/GM expertise was becoming diluted, even if I distrusted the 'Saab Expert' massively the equivalent VX parts were always cheaper.

Let's see what Ian Allan say, winter check gave it a clean bill of health.  Now had the car 7 years!, 2 more months and I will have had the car longer than I owned Dame Edna and already 15 months longer than I owned Sabine.  By the time I come to make the choice to sell, there will have to be a low mileage 9-3 for sale or I will have to succumbed to a Neckarsulm made car.

[sgould]

I replaced the top hoses from the header tank.  There has been a slow coolant leak and there were signs of staining on the tanlk and the heat shields.  I used the cheaper option replacements from Saabits, mainly to see how they fare. The metal pipe end on the turbo/engine ends are a bit pitted, but a bit of rubbing down got rid of most of it.

[welshwizard]

Got an invitation from Stellantis and You Wimbledon.  Guess they have taken on the Vauxhall business from Kingston (which I believe were part of different groups before Saab went bust).

Anyway completely ignored it.

I have previous with them.

In 2009 when I was returning to the UK with my red 9-3SS Aero I needed an MOT to get the V5C and UK reg plates.   Because the car was mostly being used in NL the headlamp beams were flat - I bought a RHD UK-spec car in Germany in 2004.  A 2003 9-3 with Xenons had little tabs behind the units that allowed you to deflect the beams if you drove on the continent.  This meant arguments at the Dutch Saab dealer I used for servicing as these tabs were not a well-known feature...  Anyway, I explain to the receptionist that the technicians had  to be aware that the headlights had been modified for right hand driving (Sabine was still on dutch plates at the time) and she started saying it was illegal, you won't get passed it's not compliant with VOSA which is a part of the MINISTRY OF DEFENCE... Well!  I went into full Ian Paisley/Alex Ferguson/Karen hairdryer mode telling her I won't talk to someone as clueless bring me the manager.  The car did pass but the technicians did not know how to adjust the lamps for left-hand running or change the fog lights (2 days later I had to change them back!!).

Rant over!

[sgould]

A saga...

I've been buying tyres from Costco as they are the closest and much cheaper than others.  But they refused to sell and fit two all-season tyres, like Michelin Cross Climate, to the Carlsson, saying that I had to have either two summer tyres to match the ones that are still OK, or four all-season.   I planned to go to all season, they have been fine on my 9-5 for the last two years, and I'm getting too old to keep swapping wheels from summer to winter.  But I wanted to swap the Carlsson in stages.

I decided to put two of the winter tyres on the Carlsson as a temporary measure (not to be driven on) while I took two loose wheels in to get two new tyres.  Then things got out of hand.

Yesterday I got everything ready, but it's her car and the wheel lock wasn't in the usual place.  SWMBO looked everywhere, she said, and it wasn't found.  So we packed up and I went to order a new key.  I had one last look, and the locking key was there.  I don't know how she missed it...

So, today we started again.  I decided to use the trolley jack.  Took it out and a couple of joints looked a bit rusty, so I went to service the jack. All went well until I came to grease the main pivot.  The grease gun was solid with old grease, so that was cleaned and got working.  Then I put it on the grease nipple which wobbled and fell out.  The nipple was clearly something cheap as there was hardly any thread on it.  But in the way of having a stash of "things that might be useful one day", I found a proper nipple which fitted.  It was in a box with a Mercedes logo on it.  It was brand new and unused. So now I am, I hope, all ready to change the wheels.

And we sold the Mercedes in 1978  

[Geoff1951]

Brilliant punchline Will!

[carrera]

Spring is in the air and the sap is rising... which is when the fun on fixing cars can commence again. It'll get easier from here Will 

I've got the toolkit from a Bentley which somebody gave me a couple of decades ago. It includes a quite useful pair of adjustable grips. Not quite 1978 though

[welshwizard]

Got an invitation from Stellantis and You Wimbledon.  Guess they have taken on the Vauxhall business from Kingston (which I believe were part of different groups before Saab went bust).

Anyway completely ignored it.

I have previous with them.

In 2009 when I was returning to the UK with my red 9-3SS Aero I needed an MOT to get the V5C and UK reg plates.   Because the car was mostly being used in NL the headlamp beams were flat - I bought a RHD UK-spec car in Germany in 2004.  A 2003 9-3 with Xenons had little tabs behind the units that allowed you to deflect the beams if you drove on the continent.  This meant arguments at the Dutch Saab dealer I used for servicing as these tabs were not a well-known feature...  Anyway, I explain to the receptionist that the technicians had  to be aware that the headlights had been modified for right hand driving (Sabine was still on dutch plates at the time) and she started saying it was illegal, you won't get passed it's not compliant with VOSA which is a part of the MINISTRY OF DEFENCE... Well!  I went into full Ian Paisley/Alex Ferguson/Karen hairdryer mode telling her I won't talk to someone as clueless bring me the manager.  The car did pass but the technicians did not know how to adjust the lamps for left-hand running or change the fog lights (2 days later I had to change them back!!).

Rant over!

Well, bit late but better than never.  Clean bill of health.  No advisories either - interesting considering Joe Pugh gave me a long list last year and I have done nothing to the car, including the exhaust, since..

Car goes as well as ever, looking forward to the long drive from Bracknell to North Wales tonight.  Did see a forlorn looking NG in the car park at the back - let's hope that one can be resurrected.

[TomPaine]

Well, bit late but better than never.  Clean bill of health.  No advisories either - interesting considering Joe Pugh gave me a long list last year and I have done nothing to the car, including the exhaust, since..

Happy days. And yes, the MOT advisory hokey-cokey is always interesting. I've also had some items appear as advisories one year and then disappear the next without them being attended to, which does underline that tester discretion must be fairly wide.

[welshwizard]

Well, bit late but better than never.  Clean bill of health.  No advisories either - interesting considering Joe Pugh gave me a long list last year and I have done nothing to the car, including the exhaust, since..

Happy days. And yes, the MOT advisory hokey-cokey is always interesting. I've also had some items appear as advisories one year and then disappear the next without them being attended to, which does underline that tester discretion must be fairly wide.

Robins and Day Kingston (local 'Saab Service Centre') 2 years ago said my front sub-frame was severely corroded.  Perhaps it's because we've had some mild winters the condition hasn't deteriorated..It's the exhaust that surprised me this time.

[sgould]

I've ordered the new tyres from Costco.  They will be here on Monday.  In the meantime, as she needed her car, I fitted all four of the 18 inch winter tyres.  I think they have been stored in covers in the shed for at least two years.  The tyres were all fully inflated before storage.  The rear pair are Nokian A4, dated 2016, and they had retained almost all the pressure.  The fronts are Nokian A3, dated 2014, and the pressure in both had reduced to under 10psi.  Both the same.  They were pumped up to pressure and have held all the pressure overnight.

[sgould]

New tyres from Costco fitted.  A good price on a pair of Bridgestone WeatherControl tyres.

I will have to get around to fitting them back on the car at some point.  The 18 inch winter tyres seem to be holding up well at the moment.

[carrera]

Given the nice warm temperatures experienced today, it's time for me to swap back onto Summer tyres I think...

[welshwizard]

Carves with GoodYear Vector 4 seasons off and cleaned and stored.

Turbines with GoodYear Eagle F1, all clean, back on.