Twins...another project

[carrera]

You really do have a picture of everything don't you, and the ability to find them.

Yep, it's the same towbar. When I bought the car the towbar was in place, keys in the boot, but the shield was fixed in place and the lock would not rotate at all.

The shield now slides out of the way as it should when the key is inserted and there is some movement when I move the key

I haven't yet got to the point of desperation to see what it says in the manual 

[Audax]

I have the same towbar, it's a lump of c**p! the lock can get stuck and required a fubar last time to undo it, last time I fitted the thing it refused to lock in place properly until I hit with the fubar. I have just left the tow bar in place now as even if the receiver is perfectly clean and the lock turns when the tow bar is off the car it can stick.

[carrera]

Ah well, a bit of success this morning

After resorting to trying to find some Bosal instructions (unsuccessfully) I found this video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbfS3VYKE5Y

I realised that the knob needed to be turned clockwise and then encouraged the lock with a pair of pliers on the key. The key rotated 

Then a bit of encouragement with a lump hammer on the ball and she became loose & free for the first time in I don't know how many years. The retaining pin was naturally rusted in place, but some oil & heat got that free too.

The receiver had lots or rusty crud inside, so that's been cleaned out, so as of now, it should be working correctly

The car is off the ramp now & I can confirm that the engine is working properly. Yay !

[carrera]

It's taken some time, but the younger twin is now ready for an MOT - it has graphite grey finish wheels, not necessarily in the best condition

Time for some gratuitous pictures

[sgould]

Good luck!  I had a Bosal towbar fitted when I bought the car.  It had only been on a short time as the car was only 10 months old when i bought it.  It was flaking with rust.  Removing/cleaning/painting it was one of the early jobs.  The triangle that bolted to the bumper bar was lifting off.  There's a Saab tech bulletin recommending lots of white grease.  the two bolts through the body for the reinforcing brackets were not sleeved in plasic and they sheared off when undone...  I'm assumong that the towbar was fitted by the Saab dealer before first registration.  All the rest of the car was fully specced.  If so, it was a shoddy job.

I found a link to the fitting instructions

[welshwizard]

Got excited when I saw a Carbon Grey 9-5 Aero FE58 MFF going through Bracknell, it passed my in my old Carbon Grey 9-5 Aero FE58MLF....

MFF is still alive!

[carrera]

Well, today was MOT day, and she wasn't ready to pass

Brakes binding, despite being new all round, which seems to be down to friction on the slide pins
Xenon level pots not connected.  Front had been cleaned up for a replacement rod, which i hadn't put back. The rear was broken & tie wrapped
Quite a lot of corrosion advisories, but I don't think the tester recognises what Hydrate 80 does. Painting over with Hammerite should keep him happy, & I will treat the rear suspension arms, because he was happy with that on the 9000

There's a minor defect on one of the headlamp lenses. Do you need to refurb them on the DE like the earlier ones ?

Major issue is that it's failing on emissions, high CO. I'm wondering if this is a hangover from the original problem, the cat is poisoned, or one on the lambda sensors is not working correcly. Net step I suppose is to look at the live data through OBD/Tech II, before reading up on what the voltage ranges should be.

I might need to put Opensid onto the car, if I haven't already

[carrera]

Some Heath Robinson thinking this morning, alongside some calibration...

I remembered I have a Gunson CO meter, which is mainly used on classics (pre cat). The instructions say you calibrate it to 2% CO in the atmosphere, and measure from there, but as atmospheric CO is only 0.1%, there's clearly some range compensation wizardy going on.

So, as I don't have a MOT standard emissions analyser, I had a look at the voltage ranges on the O2 sensors, they seem to be functioning very well in the range of 0.16 to 0.79 volts, which is just where the graphs indicate is a lambda range of 0.99 to 1.01. Slow & fast idle were measured at 1.01 yesterday. Tick

Then I did the cat test on the Tech II. It failed with a message "Low O2S reserve"

With some trepidation I repeated the test on the original twin... she passed.

Then I did the CO measurement at idle, using the recommended 2.00% calibration. Both cars showed negative CO, which isn't possible, so there's a calibration issue. I decided to reverse the calibration and assume the original twin was at 0.2% (limit is 0.3%), made the adjustment so that it read 0.2% from the exhaust, and then see what the ambient air settled at. The answer was 2.7%.

The 2.7% is irrelevant, it's just a reading that gets the wizardry to read 0.2%

Moved cars, repeated the test and SD08 showed 0.22%. But when settled it gave an ambient reading of 2.38%, these are very sensitive to being moved, so adjusted the ambient to 2.70% and retested.... which gave a reading of 0.59%. Allowing it to return to ambient saw 2.67%, so I think that's a good test.

I don't have the MOT readings for original twin, but f the real reading is 0.1%, rather than 0.2%, the the measurement is 0.49%, whereas the very expensive MOT testing equipment declared 0.45% yesterday

I'm happy that I now have a method for identifying when the problem is fixed

So, I can of course throw another cat at the problem, but want to be sure before I do, even if it's second hand.

Remember when the car was bought it was running very rich, and had done for some time. I know there's an OBD code for "Catalyst Damaging misfire", and I think that is because rich running means unburnt fuel gets onto the cat bed, which then burns and forces some of the platinum to react to platinum oxide, at which point it is no longer a catalyst.

Any further insight would be appreciated 
 

[sgould]

Is the fuel fresh?  When emissions were marginal, it was always suggested that you tried to run the tank to empty and fill with some new fuel, preferably one of the "brand" ones that claim to have more engine cleaning additives.

[carrera]

Most of the fuel is fresh, I tipped in 5 litres or so, on top of about 5 litres I did a few months ago, BP E10. The needles at the top of reserve without the light on, so perhaps 15 litres in total

The problem is that i can't do an Italian tune up as the car isn't insured for the road, and the MOT place is only a mile away

Mind you, the cat test with "hold at 4000 rpm" will be generating some exhaust temperatures

High CO is indicative of rich running / unburnt fuel... is that the angle you are coming from ?

[sgould]

Yes, I was thinking of an Italian Tune.  At least the engine should be really warm at time of test.

I had a work colleague get an MOT fail on emissions with his car, twice.  Even after fitting new parts.  In the end he got a pass at a "drive trough' MOT place in N. London.  It turned out that the first testing station had the car all day, as it was within walking distance of his office.  So the car stood all day in their yard and was just driven a few metres onto the test ramp when they had a quiet period.

[carrera]

I found a downpipe / cat lying around, so thought it might be an idea to put that on to see if that solved the emission problem. (it's from a 2.0 LPT, but should be better than a knackered one from an Aero, especially at idle).

Don't you just hate it when people use the wrong grade bolts

One of the three downpipe to manifold bolts snapped, so I'm not going to attemp to drill it out in situ. Wish me luck

[sgould]

The down pipes and cats are the same on all the 9-5's.  The Aero one is no different from the 2.0 one.  When I had the Hirsch 3 inch downpipe fitted, the old one went to a man who needed one for a 2.0t and it bolted straight on.

[carrera]

Hmm, interesting. I thought that but Saab EPC has different part numbers for different engines , at least that's my reading.

I'm do longer doing the job in situ. Decide that the hole I was drilling was going off centre so I would be better off removing the turbo. I know the extra 10bhp is nice, but I really wish they had done something to allow the fat cobra pipe to be withdrawn easily.

Whoever has worked on this car before hasn't been a Saab specialist (at best). I discovered that one of the bolt holes on the exhaust side had been problematic in the past. So a cutting disc was utilised to free off the rusted bolt by cutting into the flange 

As the turbo is now off I can also see that the wastegate operating rod is almost rusted through, and that the cobra pipe had been sealed using what looks like silicone sealant

Photo's perhaps later, coffee break over, I'm about to start drilling again

[sgould]

The cat and downpipe went from my 2007 Aero estate onto a 2000 2.0t

I still have a picture of it!!