Another Ng 9-5 joins the forum

[carrera]

Some more work done today

Following Friday's fix to the brake pipe, today was the time to test it. I chose not to do so Friday, in case of diappointment. I'm dlighted to report that the flanges put on the steel brake lines were good enough to allow a proper seal and I have a good brake pedal once again.

Before starting the car I did a half service. New plugs are in, replacing Denso iridium with gaps of 0.9mm vs 0.7 on new NGK. The worst part was undoing the old ones which were overtight. Three of them succumbed to a 1/2" drive ratchet, the the final one needed a bit more force using the torque wrench. I put some spray down the hole to try and ensure there was no pickup on the plug threads. The new ones were fitted with the usual 3/8" equipment.

A new idler puley was fitted, along with a new belt. You can see the difference between old & new in the picture, I'm thinking I really should get a new tensioner as well, as I suspect it's the original from new. Filters & oil change will happen when the parts arrive

In the picture below you can see the bit of pipe that had failed. Curiously, upon coser examination it looks like what I thought was rust on the steel pipe looks like brazing. Most strange as the protective plastic wasn't missing, except where the blake fluid was leaking. Defect from new ??

However, the car being up in the air, with wheels off & drive engaged has upset the electronics. The headlamp system sorted itself out, but I now have warnings from the stability system, suspension system (which clears & returns) to add to the airbag warnings & now a low fuel light.

Fingers crossed I think I have just got the VXdiag kit set up on the laptop, so perhaps I will be able to look into this in more detail tomorrow

[carrera]

A brief update of good news:

I have good brakes again. The replacement m/c didn't have the seal to the servo on it & I didn't realise, cue variable brake effort   . Now I know what I'm doing it wasn't too difficult to withdraw the m/c far enough to slip one into place. More bleeding required, but front's only, The pedal now feels more progressive, better than before.

Service completed, with oil, cabin & air filter changes. 6 litres at a time.

Managed to get the diagnostic kit working, so was able to clear the many error codes that were triggered by running the car with the wheels off the ground

I drove the NG round to the MOT place yesterday, to see how much notice was needed as I'm getting into the 13 month window. One of the guys shouted "you like your Saabs don't you" as a blue 9-5 NG was being driven into one of the test lanes. What a coincidence.

[carrera]

I put 500 miles on the car last week, largely trouble free but it kept telling me I needed to service it. I have reset the oil life again, lets's see if that works properly this time.

The non cartridge type filter has proven to be a bit of a pain. The car has been making rainbows due to a small leak from the seal on the filter & I used about a litre of oil. Having found the source I refitted the filter, but it was weeping again, so I decided to fit the cap without the seal, which is how it was when I serviced it. It has sealed without the seal 

[carrera]

Today I took her for an MOT and she passed, clean & with a ticket to March next year 

That doesn't mean there aren't jobs to do. I sometimes get "Service due soon" messages. That's misleading, what it really means is "I've just chucked an error code, but it's not so bad a to bother with the check engine light"

In this case it's a P0244, which is to do with the boost control. It seems it could be a simple vac hose issue or something more complex, but as it resets almost immediately, it's lower down the priority list than the TTid rescue

Front parking sensors seem to be playing up too    There's definitely an argument against having too much tech.

[carrera]

I believe I may have got to the bottom of the P0244 fault, which has been getting progressively worse. WIS talks about electrical problems on the wastegate solenoid relief valve, or pipe leaks.

Took a look today and it's an "unusual" arrangement for the inlet onto the turbo. A plastic pipe, with a separate rubber ring which is shaped to slide onto the inside & outside of the turbo inlet, which is then clamped.

It's very inaccesible, and I noticed that the rubber ring had an apparent lip on it, which was a sign that part of the inner section can ripped & become detatched, which could lead to an inlet air leak.

As a temporary / diagnostic repair I have utilised some black sikaflex type adhesive sealant to make it good again. It looks like the plastic inlet is also damaged, so I'll need to source one from somewhere, though this could very well turn into one of those those permanent temporary repairs 

It's not really clear to me how having a leak on the fresh air inlet on a turbo could cause this problem, but I'll at least be eliminating this from the equation.

[sgould]

I not at all familiar with the NG9-5, but an air leak on the turbo inlet would be downstream of the MAF, surely?  It would be on the OG 9-5.

[carrera]

It is pretty much the same as the OG, so they the MAF is prior to the turbo inlet, with a MAP sensor as well (I haven't tried running without a MAF yet).

The solenoid relief vale layout seems to be similar to the OG, except that the dump valve is above the inlet while the bypass valve is on the front of the engine

I've driven about 10 miles, but the problem is not solved, yet it seems less frequent. About the worst outcome from a diagnostic perspective.

More thinking & inspection to be done. The various hoses look in good condition, secured with spring clips and are more robust than those on the OG 9-5

What happens is that it throws the code, backs off the boost to about 0.4 bar, indicates "Service due Soon" = DTC on the dash and then after either a clearing the code by pressing a button on the stalk, a lift / reapplication on the throttle or simply doing nothing full power returns

It didn't do it when I drove it home after buying the car, only after disassembly to do the master cylinder, so it's probably something I did 

EDIT: better description of the components

[carrera]

I cleared all the codes & then started to start to get to grips with the data provision through GDS2

When a DTC is generated, a snapshot is stored to assist diagnosis

This is the stored data, I didn't think I was pushing that hard 

Not much to help here, from what I can see, except that the alternator voltage looks a bit high - I have seen 15.2v quite frequently, lowest 14.1V

[carrera]

These NG's are modern/complicated, I've been reading....

Direct injection from high pressure pump, no fuel pressure regulator as such, alternators with PWM controlled output meaning 15.5v is in the normal range of outputs with multiple charge modes, load shedding.

A bump start due to a flat battery is going to be an interesting concept, especially as garage start/chargers as indicated as a bad idea

[Geoff1951]

...

A bump start due to a flat battery is going to be an interesting concept,

...

Ar least you stand a chance with it being manual!

I remember reading somewhere that you have to get up to 30mph with an automatic.  Quite possibly apocryphal.

[carrera]

My understanding was always that you should never tow an automatic, let alone try to bump start one.

However I did read the many and varied parameters for the NG, where you can apparently tow an auto, provided it is in neutral with a speed limitation, manual 2wd isn't a problem, but when it comes to the AWD, yet again there's a speed restriction, depending on if the front wheels are off the ground

I would have posted the details, but I can't find it now. An omen for the future...

[carrera]

I found the reference, pages 193-194 of the 2010 UK English owners manual

The online US manuals do not contain the same information. Hard copy books are good sometimes 

[carrera]

Did I mention bump starts ?

Yesterday lunchtime, the car was a bit lazy on the starter, but it started, got me to the supermarket & back, & then I parked her up, unlocked.

Come 6pm I went to start the car, I got about half a turn & then blank dashboard, which then came to ife & wouldn't switch off.

I tried jumping off from a running car, which made no difference, so I whipped the earth off & used the garage charger to put some amps in for 20 minutes. She started & was showing 15.5v on the dash, so definitely in the charge mode.

This lunchtime, started the car for the first time, which I wasn't confident about as the battery was only showing 12.17v (neary flat), left her running for 2 minutes. 3 hours later I went to go out in her, but again, only half a turn and an unironic 9.99v on the battery. 20 minutes on the small garage charger I have at home & all was good.

I had a spare 096 battery on the shelf, so I have swapped batteries over. The original has been charged up, so I'll check it at the end of the week to see if it's an internal fault. I hope it is, Bosch S5008 which are sold with a 5 year warranty. Meanwhille I'll probably be using the DE for business for a couple of days, though I will monitor battery state tomorrow.

[carrera]

I did some on car battery voltage testing earlier today

10:00: 12.3V, Oh, that's less than I would have expected, is there something puling the battery down. I'll unplug the USB & phone charger, even though they should be off
11:00: 12.35V, Ah, it's warmed up a bit
12:00: 12.35V, That's encouraging

I'm away until Friday, so we'll see what Friday brings, which will include an opportunity to see if the original Bosch battery has held charge for 4 days

[aerojon]

the ultimate test for a battery is when put under load..