What I Did To My Saab Today.

[fka]

Replaced my centre box mounts today. I'd used the standard offerings from ECP about 2 years ago and they'd completely perished, leading to a fair amount of clanging around down below 
I've actually refit the original GM mounts I took off, that were in good shape and appear to be much better quality.

Noticed the centre box was very close to the corner of the heat shield were the handbrake cable runs. So readjusted the exhaust position slightly and bent the heat shield a little to give a good amount of clearance.

[Kev_Mc]

Winter wheels are off the car - "summer" wheels back on. Car looks so much better with the 17's...

[Audax]

Fitted a new pollen filter this morning as apparently Saab main dealers don't replace them even when you asked for a fixed price service club annual service (and they overcharge for this service too...!) and then replaced the seal on the power steering pump for my B207 Saab 9-3 all before going in to work this morning.

Doing the power steering pump seal is not a fun thing to do either, Saab instructions tell you to simply pop the old seal out with a screwdriver taking great care to not scratch the surfaces of the pump shaft. Of course the seal has lost elasticity over time so it comes out in little bits making it impossible to not cause some scratches to the surfaces. I've put in a new Viton based seal and will hope that the pump is OK. If anyone has to do this job I would suggest drilling a very small hole in the seal and screwing in a self tapping screw and pulling that out with pliers and not trying to prise the old seal out.

Of course the little puddle of what appeared to be oil that led me to discover the power steering problem has turned out to be a small washer bottle leak but I think that will wait until I'm back from my holiday.

[sgould]

Today this arrived!  Off on our travels soon.

[Norfolk Jim]

Not sure how long before I need one for Scotland when we go in the camper............... 

[Audax]

Today I did a couple more flushes of the power steering fluid after replacing the seal the other day, the steering fluid is now looking a lot more like the right colour than before. I also fitted a couple of new wiper blades and hoovered out the interior of the car.

Then curiosity got the better of me so I thought I would investigate the washer bottle leak. After quickly pulling it all apart I could see where the leak was from, it's from where I fitted the new headlight washer pump in a hurry for the MOT in January. As it was wet and cold on that day and with the in laws visiting I rushed the job and as a result it looks like the pump and or seal were not seated properly, all I have done for now is given the pump a good push and it looks like it is now sealed however I will keep an eye on it, I didn't fancy dismantling it in case I damaged the seal and made it worse, especially given an impending holiday to Scotland. If it continues to leak I think I will get a replacement seal before pulling it apart as they are only a couple of quid and this time will do the job on a warm and sunny day instead!

[Norfolk Jim]

Had the new tyres fitted yesterday - Nokian WDR4 's. First impressions driving away from tyre place was they seemed quite hard but very quiet compared to the GY F1 Eagles that came off. Up the road I decided, as you do, to check the pressures........................now I see why they seemed hard; they were - 40 psi all round!!!!!!! Having then reduced them to the correct 35 all round the difference was quite dramatic. Comfort was better than previous and handling was excellent considering winter tyre but good reviews to keep on all year round. I called tyre place as I had said 35 all round; they checked their equipment and found the gauge was well out of calibration and sincerely apologized - they'll give me some extra discount when I go in next week to have new rubber fitted to the california!

SO far so good with tyres and yesterday was pretty warm and they handled fine; no sponginess - will report back after a few more miles

[collywobble]

I am now running Nokian Line's all round and they are much better tyre than the Falken Ziex 914's. Quieter, and the car seems to be more firmly planted on the road, although that could be the fact that today I've had the tracking checked and adjusted!

[Audax]

I am now running Nokian Line's all round and they are much better tyre than the Falken Ziex 914's.

Those Falken Ziex 914 were fairly poor on both my 9-5 and my 9-3.

[collywobble]

The previous version, the Ziex 912 gave a much better ride but I have 914's on my Astra G estate which I use for my business and they are fine on that - perhaps the Saab is too heavy for them.  I could only buy the 914's in 97W load/speed rating but I have neen able to buy the Nokians in 97V load/speed rating. Perhaps the combination of an XL load rated tyre and the higher than specified speed rating was the problem.

[Audax]

I don't think the 914 are necessarily bad tyres, just that for the money they are not worth it. The 912 was basically a premium tyre with mid-range pricing, the 914 is an average mid range tyre but priced at the higher end of mid range.

[Petemate]

Fitted a new pair of rear shock absorbers. Planned this move after the last trip out with the caravan on last year; I had noticed a bit of pitching and thought as the car had done 90k miles or so they would possibly be due for replcements.
Yesterday I checked with Eurocarparts, and they had some in stock. These are Sachs the same as original on the car, which is now at 96k miles. They came at 97.15 GBP, down from 139.98 after entering the on-line promo code - 42.83 discount. Result. Interestingly, these for the 9-3 Tid with Sport suspension were slightly less cost than the standard suspension items they listed.
The upper mounting bolts were a bit tight, and one of the nearside ones was rusty and a right s*d to remove. Both lower bolts were very tight, threads a bit rusty, but all the bolts and both upper mounts came up like new after a dry blast in my lad's machine.

[Norfolk Jim]

Did you check price for originals from your dealer using the Saab Service Club discount? I'm pretty sure mine were less than that on my TTiD Aero Estate.

[Audax]

Did you check price for originals from your dealer using the Saab Service Club discount? I'm pretty sure mine were less than that on my TTiD Aero Estate.

I think (hope!) that was £97.15 for the pair. Saab wanted about £82 each for the genuine item for my 9-3, I managed to get the Sachs dampers for £32.02 for the pair from Amazon in September last year, but didn't get around to fitting them yet however I think I'm going to buy some new front dampers, Eibach springs and some new genuine top mounts and bearings and replace the lot soon and then get it fully aligned.

[Petemate]

I read my owner's manual.
(for the significance of this statement, please see my post in the 9-3 workshop)