What I Did To My Saab Today.

[TomPaine]

(I would have done the same thing with Ian @ Saabtech / Cartech, he's honest as the day is long. My car is at Welwyn now having the rust on the dog-legs and sills attended to, which reminds me to try and upload some pics to my previous thread on this.)

[Audax]

I'm back in a Saab, I agreed a value with the insurance yesterday of £2004 for the old 9-3, 2007 2.0T Auto Aero Anniversary at 145k... today I put that money towards buying the new one which is a 2009 2.0T Auto Aero XWD with 105k on it... Spent £3900 on it and got it home this evening!

[sgould]

Well done! Sounds like fun.  Our 2.8 XWD has been pretty reliable.  The only major expense was a replacement oil seal on the rear diff which popped out.

The Haldex diff is now recommended for a service - fluid and filter change - every 35,000 miles.  When the car was sold, it was "sealed for life" ...

[Audax]

Yes, this car has a spotty history and quite a few owners, the guy I bought it off had it just over 3 years and had done a lot of sensible maintenance, it seems to go well (apparently it is hirsched, I need to check this). I will get it into indysaab for a checkover at some point but to be honest I had a look at how many 2.0T Aero XWD were sold and it seems that only 6 exist so I didn't have much choice!

[sgould]

Yes, I heard that there were very few 2.0T XWD compared to the sales of the TurboX and Carlsson.  Almost as rare as the non-turbo 9-3 1.8.  I know of one of those in Oxfordshire.

The only other 2.0T XWD i know of is a Laser Red one owned by a guy who lives near Ipswich.  I haven't seen it for a while.

[Audax]

I used to service and have driven a non turbo 1.8 9-3... there was a lot of space in the engine bay 

[carrera]

Great to have you back, it's almost like you never left 

Looking forward to your comments on the XWD difference

[Audax]

The XWD is exceptionally good, I was driving cautiously as I don't want to have another claim so soon but going around a couple of roundabouts last night this new car is noticeably faster at moving around them... Changing lane at high speed too is also quick.

The most intimidating part of the drive yesterday though was driving to the same friends house to pick up all my stuff from the old car... as I was going around the same roundabout where the accident happened there was a large lorry approaching the same way as the previous accident and I was just thinking "oh ****"

[sgould]

I used to service and have driven a non turbo 1.8 9-3... there was a lot of space in the engine bay 

That is the one thing I recall about it!

[Audax]

I have heard that the 1.8 was popular in markets that still pay vehicle taxes based on displacement? howmanyleft said about 100 were sold here.

[Geoff1951]

I used to service and have driven a non turbo 1.8 9-3... there was a lot of space in the engine bay 

That is the one thing I recall about it!

The (lack of) acceleration was the most noticeable thing in the one I had as a courtesy car for a day.

[sgould]

Today I decided to put the summer tyres back on.  Well the rear ones are all-weather.  I was going to run the set of Nokian winter tyres until they were worn right down, but the front ones are a bit frayed and now one has a puncture.  All set up and I set to.  Then the issues started to build up...

I was hoping to just splash a bit of Bilt Hamber underseal around the wheel arches where I could see, and I managed that.  But it's thrown up two issues...

One is the rear self-levelling shock absorbers is leaking.  They were £500 each at the last time of asking

And the the oil seal on the other side in the rear differential has failed.

We plan to take the car to Germany in four weeks...

[sgould]

Has anyone got any experience, first or seondhand of this kit?  £450.    A single self levelling shock absorber is £564 

https://www.partsforsaabs.com/product_info.php?products_id=5669


I'm tempted. 

[carrera]

No direct experience, but I'm confused.

Surely the purpose of self levelling dampers is to maintain the ride height when loaded, but the description says otherwise

Bilstein are generally good, though I found with my blue 9-5 that the rear dampers were only lasting 20-30k, until I replaced them with the Sachs self levelling & 280k miles later they are still in place

I have a set on the shelf that I did a bit of negotiating with the former main dealer to procure - I gave £300 for the set

Good luck with the oil seal

[sgould]

I'm going to discuss the whole lot with Joe tomorrow, unless he's gone to Denmark for the Saab International.  I'm really tempted by the conversion.  It's popular in the states.  It's the second self-leveller that has failed on this car.

Sadly changing the wheels has brought home to me that I'm really getting too old to attempt any really heavy work.  So, I won't be attempting the suspension change, or the oil seal, which involves removing the whole rear suspension on one side.