What I Did To My Saab Today.

[welshwizard]

Cleaned it ready for tomorrrow's BBH meet at Ace Cafe.  Gave the Hydro stuff a go, with the Karcher  - still some persistent bits of grime that won't let go of the bodywork...

[welshwizard]

Drove to work yesterday - noticed the driver's side windscreen wiper was smearing and upon inspection that the blade was perishing.

One think I have noticed that in the short production run of the NG there were two types of windscreen wiper, the flat blade and the older suspended blade.  There was no logic as to which type was fitted to each car because:

I have come across older NG's (earlier build) with flat blade while my NG has the older type.

And the last of the OG's IIRC were all fitted with flat blades.

So cut a long story short I travelled to Ian Allan to get a replacement pair (right part numbers), right fitment, at considerable cost.  They agreed there was no logic as to why the cars have different wiper blades....

Anyway, new blades fitted there and then, no more smears.  All good.

[sgould]

Changed the thermostat on the 9-5.  Quite fiddly.  I did it once before, but that was ages ago.  The one I removed is less than two years old and looks exactly like the replacement.  The old one is definitely not closing when cold.  Lets hope that the new  "Saab Part" is better than the old one.,

[welshwizard]

MOT day today....

As my regular garage, Ian Allan in Virginia Water, is no more I have gone back to Joe's in Epsom.  He's aware that I had gone to IA simply because Epson Down (only 9-10 miles as crow flies) takes best part of 45-50 minutes to reach and an absolute nightmare by public transport.  Joe kindly took me to Epson station in his own Aero TTID 9-3 SW.

Hopefully get through with few advisories.  Full service too.

[welshwizard]

Got a call..

It's going to be expensive...  new springs needed at rear, new mounts at the front...

[carrera]

Is this the NG 9-5 ?

Rear springs were not expensive, I think they cost me less that £20 each, not that hard to do either, on a ramp with the right tools

[sgould]

I went out today in the 9-5. Opened the tailgate and realised that the rear wiper rubber had split.  Nothing specific in Halford, so I got a refill.  I will try and fit it later.

[carrera]

Champion AP37 if you are going top buy another

They're quite difficult to find, I think I have a few in stock...

[sgould]

I'll see how i get on.  It's raining at the moment...

[sgould]

It seems that the rear wiper blade changed for the DAme edna in 2006. None in stock at the main suppliers, so a replacement rubber seems the best try.

[carrera]

Oh, well as I don't have a DE estate I didn't know that.

Hopefully the rear wiper washer doesn't rust up & stop working like the earlier ones

[sgould]

No, it can't.  It's plastic and above the window!!

[Audax]

Today was service and MOT day, took it to the (as always) excellent Indysaab in Rushden. I also asked them to look at replacing the spark plugs as when I got coil packs a few months ago I was struggling to get the plugs out but as it was 2 days before I went to Thailand I left them in... Anyway, got a message saying car was done this afternoon but that they'd not done the plugs and would explain in person... turns out they couldn't get the plugs out either and they didn't want to risk stripping a thread or breaking a plug as they wanted to give me the car back so it will need to go back for that at some point and it also picked up 2 advisories on MOT (inner tie rod ends have a bit of play and a split driveshaft gaiter at the back). Other than that service and MOT all done for a very good price and I'm waiting for some estimates on the other work.

Can't fault them though for the service, they did exactly what I would have done in those circumstances! I wouldn't take my Saab anywhere else as they are so trustworthy and have a very good eye for detail.

[carrera]

That's good to hear, both on service quality & MOT

Obvious question, who put that tight set of plugs in ?

Also, did you try with an hot engine ?

[Audax]

Well, it's unknown who put the plugs in as I had a failing ignition coil in December so I got a set from Neo brothers and while doing this I went through the service history that I have and found that it never mentions the plugs being done so I figured I'd drop a set in at the same time. There is a bit of a gap in the history from around 70k-90k where some work was done including a set of timing chains but apparently there was an issue with the balance chain so the owner before me had the chains done again after he got the car.

I just didn't have the time or inclination to tackle the job myself and needed the car hence giving it to indysaab, they did get it hot and managed to remove 1 plug and they said it was in OK condition hence why we think there's no rush on this.