'97 9000 Aero
I saw my dad at the weekend and it appeared that he has a slow coolant leak and an oil leak as his engine made it's mark on my drive. Time was limited, but I jacked her up and had a nosey around.
There were no signs of coolant leaks, except perhaps a small leak from the bottom n/s of the rad. On the oil side the underside of the car was covered in oil down where the brake / fuel pipes go. The front of the engine was dry, so not the turbo, but the rear of the engine was oily. I had a look to see of there was a breather pipe problem, but nothing obvious. Being more used to 9-5's I also checked the oil pressure sender. What I wanted to do was put it up in the air and clean the oil off then run the engine to see where the oil was coming from, but there was not the opportunity, dad said he would take the car to his local garage, a Saab specialist (he trusts them 100% , I have more varied views)
They've had a look. On the coolant side noting could be found, so they flushed the system out, changed a couple of hoses and put some sealant in.
I'm fine with changing a suspect aged hose, not so with just chucking K-seal or similar in. I have no idea if they did a coolant sniff test. Apparently it isn't losing coolant any more.
On the oil leak they've done the cleaning, he was asked to take it for a 5 minute run, came back and after putting on the ramp the diagnosis is a leaky sump.
Sump to be replaced, description from my dad being "it's a big job, things off the top and the bottom"
From what has been said I don't think it's a cracked sump plug, because that wasn't mentioned and when I looked the only oil around the sump plug was what you would expect to see from oil migrating down from above.
So, do B234 engines suffer from "leaky sumps" and based on what I have read around a sump off job on the 9000 is pretty much the same as a 9-5, and I found it very easy to do: Exhaust downpipe off, undo top engine mount, raise engine slightly and wedge, undo all bolts and sump is ready to come off.
I would be grateful for your thoughts / experience on the possibility of leaky sumps.