saab 9-3SE 2.0t ecopower 2003 cold starting problem

[thema1970]

I've driven saab for years 9-5 and 9-3 never a problem but my 9-3 ecopower 2.0t is breaking my heart despite New battery, sump drop and clean, new plugs every morning car cranks and cranks but no start,  eventually after much time and attempts it fires and is perfect all day starting no problem. Car otherwise is mint and runs fine with 101,000miles. Any help appreciated.UR

Mechanic hooked up computer and coil problem showed, got new coil and no start. Should I insist he try cps?  He thinks it would play up with hot starts, this Car had first cold start of the day problem. Now it's cranking but not starting at all.
All ideas and help appreciated thanks.

[sgould]

Welcome!

It could be a lot of things, not many that you can diagnose yourself without some technical help.  All you can really do is swap things out and that can get a bit expensive if you don't guess correctly.

One thing to look at is the crankshaft position sensor.  It's down on the front of the engine and reads the engine position and speed.  If the sensor isn't working correctly, the car management won't know that the engine is turning and so no sparks will happen.  The CPS is normally more likely to be faulty when warm, but the whole thing is a bit temperature sensitive it seems.

You can read the resistance of the sensor.  If it's way out of spec, it would point to a fault, but a good reading doesn't mean that it is guaranteed to be good.  The sensor wire comes round the side of the engine to a block of three connectors behind the top of the engine under the big inlet pipe.  It's the blue connector with three pins.  Check the resistance between two of the three in turn.  Only one pair should read, the other two pairings will be null.  Reading should be between 770 ohms and 950 ohms.

[mikeloadsasaabs]

The CPS failed on my 9-5 with none of the usual symptoms. It might be worth your while finding someone with an OBD-II code reader, as there is a specific code for CPS failure. It may show up other pending codes as well.

[thema1970]

Many thanks for the help, it's greatly appreciated. I love saab cars and have done from a child drooling over 900 turbo in car magazines. Never had trouble before now. Had 9-5 Griffin and an aero 9-5 but love the old shape 9-3 ,it has a hint of the original.
on roads where every car looks the same saab look different and do bad weather better than anything else. Thanks again.

[ade wilkins]

As s gould says, crank position sensor is probably the culprit

[mikeloadsasaabs]

I'm guessing that, 9 months on, he's either fixed it or sold the car 

[ade wilkins]

Lol, just noticed the date