Traction Control caption and small drama...

[Max Headroom]

2006 TiD Vector Convertible

Lift-shared back from Uxbridge to Witney where I picked up my car from a colleagues house at 22:30ish

Car started normally, warmed up for a few moments with blower and rearscreen heater on to let screens demist adequately before moving off.

I'm barely out of Witney (blower and rear screen heat still on) and have travelled about half a mile or more, and the car without warning, came to an abrupt stop. No ignition, no powered steering etc etc, I managed to get it into the kerbside - just.

A "Traction Control Failure - Contact Service" caption came on, and would not clear. I couldn't get the car to restart and it was all a bit 'dead'.

I'm now sitting in the dark and not in the best place, so rang the AA for the first time in over 20 years! They pitched up within 30 mins so it wasn't all bad 

AA man looked at a whole bunch of stuff and pointed out that the fuel guage was also reading zero - I knew there was plenty of fuel, but it surprised me.
He jacked up the car and was looking at a connection with the fuel pump (I think) from some information that he had of a similar symptom of Traction Control caption and zero fuel but all connections there were good.

No Codes were recorded

He finally tracked it down to fuse No4 ("Engine Control Module;Battery Disconnector". 10amp I think), but he 'popped' three fuses before one stayed good. (He did think that the fuses they carried which are the ones that look like a letter 'M' were inferior quality and had a habit of blowing easily).

The car is now running again and he followed me home without any further incident.

I was able to clear the Traction caption on the SID, but the Traction warning symbol on the main instruments remains on, and the clock will need to be reset by the look of it as its just reading dashes now.

Is this a known fault and/or are there any pointers of information that I might need to know about?

The reason I ask is, that although still under warranty with a (non SAAB) garage, if they dont want to sanction me taking it to Oxford SAAB, I fear they will just reset the Traction caption, and I may find it doing this again at a later date. At least with some ideas from the knowledgeable and experienced SAAB community here, I could go pre-armed with some information on what/where they might look for a possible problem.

Many thanks,

Mark

EDIT:
As I drove off with the nice man from the AA following me, I became aware of the sound of an actuator or pump of some sort (relay?), running. It lasted for a minute or so and seemed to be coming from behind the dash,  or possibly the passenger footwell area. I think I have heard this sound before after starting but have never paid it much attention. Whatever it was I have never heard it run for that long - its usually been just a few seconds

[Max Headroom]

Well, very weird - I went and started the car this morning (10:30), just to see what would happen  ...and no Traction Control warning caption at all.
All was okay as if nothing happened.
Intermittent electrical faults - my worst nightmare 

[Saabman]

Traction faults on most cars require the car to be driven after curing the fault so the traction control ecu can monitor the wheel speed sensors over a certain distance to check for regularity before the lght will switch itself off, just wait untill we get snow/ice and see how many posts we get about traction control failures! the systems get confused through wheelspin then after a few miles of driving the fault goes 

Sorry this doesn't help with the original problem but it will put your mind at rest about you traction control as a break in power to the ecu will have forced a self calibration.

[Max Headroom]

Thanks Saabman. Putting my mind at rest is important here! 

What I don't understand though, is why this particular fuse blowing would totally shut the engine down and not allow me to restart it! This could have happened anywhere, (I could have just as easily been broken down on a blind bend, and unable to restart/move the car)

It does indeed, seem that driving the car, then switching it off and restarting it (albeit the following morning) has seemingly cleared any indications.

[Petemate]

Intermittent electrical faults - my worst nightmare 

Indeed! (see my thread 'no charging'!!!)

Also other intermittent faults - nightmare too......(see my thread DMF!!)

Glad it is now all OK.
Pete

[Max Headroom]

Well it is okay - but the cause of the problem is still very much a mystery, The garage are going to take a look at it under warranty tomorrow, but to be honest with it having reset itself, I cant imagine they will find much wrong.
I'm just staggered that little 10A fuse blowing, could shut the car down completely. The question remains why did it blow? And why did it blow three more fuses on fitment and not the fourth which is still good?

[Kev_Mc]

I'd be worried if my car kept blowing fuses as there must be some reason why.

At least your car's working for now without huge expense - just hope it stays that way! 

[Petemate]

Well it is okay - but the cause of the problem is still very much a mystery, The garage are going to take a look at it under warranty tomorrow, but to be honest with it having reset itself, I cant imagine they will find much wrong.
I'm just staggered that little 10A fuse blowing, could shut the car down completely. The question remains why did it blow? And why did it blow three more fuses on fitment and not the fourth which is still good?

So I take it that it was the ECU fuse? As you say, strange that three blew before he got one to work. From my days in the trade, yes, intermittent electrical faults are the worst, even on the old simple cars. When I was at BL years ago, the new cars threw up some strange faults I can tell you - whereas on a car already in service, one knows that at least everything has worked but off the line we had some right devils to find.
Not sure what could cause the original fuse to blow - I take it that he was using AA fuses from his stock? Possibly there may be a fault code in there which would show why the original fuse blew? Worth checking out with a code reader.....
Pete

[philmots]

Very strange!

May keep a supply of fuses in the car - just incase!

[Petemate]

Very strange!

May keep a supply of fuses in the car - just incase!

Me too - during my episode after I fitted the new alternator, I checked every fuse in there - all original to the car, nice and tight but so small......

[Audax]

I've had a quick look at the wiring diagram and fuse 4 (I presume you mean fuse 4 in the UEC and not fuse 4 somewhere else in the car!) and it provides power to the electro hydraulic power steering, part of the main engine ecu and the traction control module, the diesel fuel filter and the mass airflow sensor, it also powers the battery disconnect switch if you have one fitted (small box with a switch on top of the battery, not all models have it).

Now, the reason the fuse blew I can't tell you but there would have been a short or massive current draw somewhere for some reason, the reason you got the traction warning was because car couldn't gather data from all the modules it needs for the traction to work properly. All you can do is have any fault codes read, cleared and then read again but you really want someone with a Tech-II doing this as not many code readers (if any at all!) will read any Saab specific codes which may give you some more hints for diagnosis of the original fault.

[Max Headroom]

Many thanks for that Audax. I really appreciate your thoughts here.

Yes - sorry the fuse is No4 (10 amp) under the bonnet, and is the one you took it to be.

No fault codes showed, but I do not know what tool the AA used - I doubt it was a Tech-II.

If the garage don't find anything obvious I'll run her over to Oxford SAAB and see if there is anything specific - though I know that's going to cost me  .

It kind of knocked my confidence a bit, the car has run without so much as a glitch since I've owned it, and to have it shut down totally on me came as a shock

[Petemate]

Cumnor should be able to read any errors, not sure how much cost but they are really good guys there (not just saying that because I bought the car there) and speaking as someone in the trade in the past I reckon they are genuine.
Audax - very useful info all that, many thanks.
Pete

[sgould]

Electro Hydraulic power steering.  Any problems with that?  I think I heard that some of these overheated.  Maybe wrong.

[Max Headroom]

No - nothing at all Will. As I said it's been smooth and glitch-free until that fuse blew