Traction control fault message?

[Steve McF]

Finally got round to trying to remove that battery tray again to check for corroded earth terminals underneath. A screw extractor set failed to shift the stubborn torx bolt/screw, and I ended up tryint to drill it out. Even that wasn't going too well, until I was able to wedge a wide flat head screwdriver into the hole and physically start turning the bolt. So I got it out, and took the battery box out to find that actually, things seems to look OK under there. No notable corrosion that I could see, but I still undid what I could, wire brushed it and used contact cleaner, and then put back together. There is an earth point on the top of the longitudinal/chassis leg, another on the inner side of it pointing into the engine bay, and another on the gearbox mount.

The one on the top of the chassis leg and the gearbox mount were easy to access and clean up, but the one on the inside edge of the chassis leg was not easy to get to because of a very stiff harness that passes over the top of it (and which I still stuggled to move very far, even with the clip holding it doen removed. So I left that one for now - that said, there was no sign of corrosion on it.

I took the opportunity to also unclip the big connector into the ABS module and clean that with contact cleaner too. By that time, it was nearly 8pm, so I called it a day. However, the beauty of having a proper water tight garage is that I can leave the car in there, open, and tools all out for when I come back to it!!!!!!

[carrera]

All back together now, any different ?

[Steve McF]

Not back together yet. I left it mid job on Friday and not been back to it since, but hope to put it together maybe tomorrow night, and then need to give it a blast. It's been parked in our garage for about 5 weeks!! Problem is the TCS fault could appear after 10 miles, or not till over 200 miles!! Or if I've been successful, might not come back at all 😉😉😉 We'll see.....

[Steve McF]

All back together now, any different ?

Well, took a half day off and got back to it. Got a replacement M8 bolt for the battery tray, and greased the 3 earth connections I'd previously cleaned up and refitted. Refitted the battery tray and just sprayed the fixing heads with a bit of grease to prevent them corroding like the one I had to butcher.

Battery back in, scuttle panel on (after sealing around the pollen filter housing a couple of weeks back), bonnet closed, tyres pumped up .... and......start the car!!

Check OK, which is what we like to see!!!

So thought I'd brave taking the car out on the road for the first time since the no-start AA incident a few weeks ago. Did some dual carriageway driving, country road driving, and town driving in traffic etc. Got a bit of fuel (Tesco Momentum), and then a bit more stop start rush hour traffic, before heading back home.

Not a murmur, not a bing bong, no error message, and no stuttering/momentary loss of power. So that's good so far.

I might start chancing taking the car to work again and live with it a bit. It might not have thrown the traction control fault today, but there's always next time. We'll see........

[Steve McF]

Then again.....

Took the car out again today for a bit of a spin with high hopes. But then suddenly at 50mph cruising in the outside lane of the A46 with an HGV behind me doing the same (through some road works, 50mph limit), I got the dreaded bing bong, momentary loss of power and 'Traction Control' message on the SiD. As before, I was able to keep driving with no further symptoms.

Got home and did another Op-Com scan, and tried to start the car on and off, and had a couple of dodgy starts where the traction control message came up immediately.

This time I now got:
U2103-00 No Communication with CAN-Bus (High Speed)
U2105-00 CAN-Bus No Communication with ECM

I don't think I've previously got both of these codes together (got one or the other).

So, it's not the battery (fairly new battery fitted earlier this year), and it's not those earth points that I have just cleaned up.

I got a few other DTCs in different modules that are probably the same ones I got previously:
B1023-57 Unknown DTC
B3057-48 Unknown DTC
U2155-71 Unknown DTC

U2100-00 Unknown DTC

B0195-02 Unknown DTC

So definitely going to get onto Bagnal now to get the car booked in asap (which will be January now anyway).

[sgould]

There's a full list of codes here, but be careful, some of the codes you show are not on the Saab list.  So I think you need a proper Saab Tech2 read. 

https://saabwisonline.com/9-3-9440/2007/dtcs/

This is the second one:  https://saabwisonline.com/9-3-9440/2007/dtcs/bcm/b3057-48

[Steve McF]

Thanks, Will.

Absolutely, this year has been a funny one. If I was using the 9-3 as my only car I'd have had it with the specialist much much sooner. Although the one time I did have it in for investigation with Bagnall, the car would not show the fault!!!! So Fraser couldn't actually diagnose it.

It didn't really change much until the day I had to get the AA out, and because I couldn't risk that happening again, the 9-3 got parked up for weeks (during which time I also had an eye operation, so everything got pushed back again!!).

I'll try and get the car booked in asap now, and hopefully it'll make it to Birmingham OK. But otherwise, I just don't trust it enough to use regularly until this is diagnosed and fixed onced and for all.

Interestingly, one of the unknown DTCs is B3057-48, which in the WIS relates to a BCM "control module not programmed" that causes the car not to start. I had a couple of incidences this afternoon where it didn't want to start.

B1016-00 seems to relate to VIN not programmed into CIM control module.

U2155 seems to relate to the DVD/navigation system, that I don't have, although I do have an ICM3 head unit (but no sat nav etc). B1023 57 also relates to the ICM3, but there doesn't seem to be any problem with the ICM3.

B0195-02 relates to the interior fan rotor 'blocked'. It does sound like it might be catching as it starts up. I did grease the upper bearing, and it got better, but it may be the fan needs replacing.

[carrera]

A few words of advice from my experience with the 9-5 NG's

Don't worry about all the codes. When running diagnostics you need to start with a clean sheet so that only the new ones show up.

These modern cars seem to like throwing ghost codes for fun

I also remember using a generic code reader on an OG which gave one gearbox error code. Tech 2 showed a different one...

[Steve McF]

I won't be clearing any DTCs before I can get the car in for a proper Tech2 scan. Often the case that there is the one main DTC that triggers other ones, but they all disappear when the root cause is fixed.

Will see!!!

[Steve McF]

Car now booked in, but earliest they could get it in was 28th January!!!

[Steve McF]

Just out of interest, pre-empting my visit to Bagnals later this month, are ABS modules and CIM units out of later cars compatible with earlier cars such as my 2006? I've seen a few post facelift breakers being advertised and wondered!!

And are the parts the same regardless of power unit?

[sgould]

Not sure, but I seem to remember someone saying that petrol and diesel are different.

[carrera]

Can't see why the ABS modules would be different, but I can see the CIM module needing to talk to the ignition system on a petrol for immobilisation

[Audax]

I would be careful as I vaguely recall that CIM modules for ESP are different to those for TCS, and early CIM units won't work with later cars but later units work with earlier cars. Also, ABS modules can be service programmed and the earlier ones can put a spurious code about the ABS pump in if they've not been updated and basically no specialist knows about this and will suggest you replace the module as the steps to reprogram it are fairly obscure and not clearly laid out in WIS.

[sgould]

It's a 096 that you need.  I don't know why the search engines come up with 027.  All the Saabs that we have owned were new enough to still have the factory fitted battery when purchased and they were all 096.

The Tayna battery site gives the dimensions of all the batteries they sell.