What I Did To My Saab Today.

[mikeloadsasaabs]

Got stopped by the police last night in a random check, and he spotted that a number plate bulb was out but wasn't too worried about it. So first job today was to replace that. Second job was to replace the control unit for the passenger side xenon headlamp, which I've had for a couple of months waiting for the right weather, and time to do it. The headlight had been flickering for a while, and a week or so ago it was doing it like a good 'un - luckily it was behaving itself yesterday evening  For the first time I got the angle of the lamp just right as I slid it in and out, so the job didn't take long. Just a slightly rusted screw holding the control unit in to contend with.

Lastly, the time came to rip this off:



It's the outer skin from the top of the rear silencer, it had been rattling and was becoming loose so I decided to rip it off. Still on the original exhaust at 224,000 miles so can't grumble. There's just a small bit of outer skin left underneath now!

The headlights are looking a bit sad, so come the summer I might need to refurb the faces of them. Might even get a bit more light out of them!

[mikeloadsasaabs]

Didn't actually do anything to the car today, except drive it to the the nearest dealer to have them take a look at the front subframe bushes and an oil leak from the front of the engine. They confirmed that the front subframe rear bushes are shot (quite obvious from underneath), and that the oil leak is from the head gasket.

The subframe bushes are going to cost around €800, including the cost of the bushes at around €50 each. They were quite upfront and said that if I was just pottering around town, it probably wasn't worth doing them, but given the long fast drives we indulge in on the German autobahns they felt that we should have the work done.

They gave me a definite no-no on having the head gasket sorted, on the basis that given the age of the car, there were a number of things that in their experience could go wrong, or need replacing in addition while the work was being done, that would make the job uneconomical. They also felt that, as long as the oil loss wasn't too great (which it isn't, at less than a quarter of a litre in 6000 miles), I should just run it as it is, and that it was unlikely to fail. I have to say that she's running well atm, with no sign of loss of performance.

Any comments on the head gasket situation?

[sgould]

If the leak is from the back corner on the LH side of the car (passenger side in UK) then it is likely to be just a leak and not allowing water and oil to mix, or the combustion chambers to lose compression and blow the gasket.

[Audax]

Any comments on the head gasket situation?

Depends how bad the leak is as to see if it's worth it. I just had to have all the subframe bushes replaced as an oil leak had destroyed them (to be fair they were also going to be fairly worn by 160k) but they were replaced with cheap poly-bushes and I had the sump dropped and resealed, a new crankshaft oil seal fitted and new track rod ends and new track rod and a second-hand steering rack fitted and some decent second-hand front wishbone bushes (also destroyed by the oil leak) for £480, although I was a bit disappointed with the specialist that did the work as it had to go back the day after as someone had forgotten to do up a wishbone bolt properly... I also had to have the tracking done after that which was another £40.

Anyhow, after all that I still have a small oil leak, next step is it's either the dipstick tube where it fits on the engine *or* head gasket leaks which means at 160k I should have the engine taken out and stripped down and a new timing chain kit, head gasket, the other crankshaft seal etc. etc. and that's going to be around £800 which is pushing it a bit as I keep thinking about buying a late reg (08 onwards) 9-5 or 9-3 Aero as they are pretty cheap now and running that to destruction.

I'm doing a wait and see from here but having the suspension sorted and an attempt at the worst oil leaks was worth it, I'd suggest you get everything cleaned up properly and see how bad that oil leak is, if the oil is destroying the rubber then just having the bushes done might not be worth it as the oil leak might make the job need doing again before too long.

[mikeloadsasaabs]

The oil leak is from around the front of the engine, perhaps a little towards the rear, but I don't think it was specifically from the LH rear. The worst of it was towards the front, as I first noticed it on the plastic undertray under the rad. It's a bit annoying as the car was remarkably oil tight until relatively recently. It doesn't seem to be the oil that's done for the subframe bushes anyway, they seem dry - I think it's just old age (nearly 12 years). Might be worth getting them to clean it up to see if there is a more specific cause.

It's a delicate balancing act at the moment - with 224,00 on the clock, I'm trying not to incrementally spend more than it would cost to replace the car. If I can get away with just the bushes, I'm (sort of ) happy! 

[sgould]

Unless you are buying a new car with a warranty, you need to add a hefty sum to deal with any problems on that car.  Lets face it, most older cars are sold because they have a problem.  In the UK a three year old ex-lease might be OK (it's what SWMBO did), but do thaty have such a thing in Austria?  Or are you planning to stay with a right hand drive car?

[Audax]

Lets face it, most older cars are sold because they have a problem.

I'd say that's really not true, most cars are sold on because they are "old" or the owner thinks that they are running on borrowed time and feel they need to change or they simply got bored and want something different. I've known people who had many of the 9-3 1.9 diesel failures over a few months (springs, egr, intercooler, dmf, injector 3 wiring, trailing arms) and then sold the car on after getting all of these problems fixed as they couldn't afford the car so end up taking a huge hit on depreciation and repairs that they never got the benefit from which gave the new owner a head start.

I've not really experienced a massive number of cars get sold on because they have a fault at that point in time, that even applies for car that were bought in the trade cheap at auction, sure the cars might need some brakes or tyres or a good service but it would only be 1 in 10 had an actual fault but never really much above and beyond you wouldn't find if a car came in for an annual service. Obviously there were exceptions to this where people would turn up with their "new" car having been sold a total dog (usually from motor traders I must add!) but most people turning up in their new car would have to spend money on a good service which is the same as a normal service but with the addition of maybe some brakes or tyres or exhaust or trim. The only reason the previous owner sold this car was because they didn't want to pay for brakes/tyres/exhaust themselves which isn't the same as the car having a problem.

[jmblack]

Had oil leak at head on our 2.3 and a retorque of the head made a big difference....

[Audax]

Had oil leak at head on our 2.3 and a retorque of the head made a big difference....

I should do that on mine, it had a head gasket at some point but I'm not convinced that the person doing it used a torque wrench. However the oil appears to be from lower down, it's all a bit of a mystery to see where it's coming from without taking the engine out!

[mikeloadsasaabs]

I should do that on mine, it had a head gasket at some point but I'm not convinced that the person doing it used a torque wrench. However the oil appears to be from lower down, it's all a bit of a mystery to see where it's coming from without taking the engine out!

Yes, I thought my oil leak was below the head but the head honcho at the dealer seemed convinced that's what it was.

Do you think it's tempting fate at this stage to get them to just retorque the head on mine?

[Audax]

Do you think it's tempting fate at this stage to get them to just retorque the head on mine?

Well, if it broke from having the head re-torqued then it was already nearly dead... It can't hurt anything other than the wallet!

[sgould]

Saab offered this as a solution on early cars.  They have a procedure!!

I would show a copy but that page on my WIS has failed.

[Audax]

Saab offered this as a solution on early cars.  They have a procedure!!

That was because they used different bolts and a different engine assembly process. It's not necessarily a problem that generically affects a car unless it's a 98-01 model.

[TomPaine]

Saab offered this as a solution on early cars.  They have a procedure!!

I would show a copy but that page on my WIS has failed.

Yes, I remember that my old MY98 9-5 had a retorqued head done under warranty, there was indeed an early bulletin for this on cylinder head leaks.

edit: though I see from Audax that the cause may have been different.

[sgould]

Found this...

https://www.genuinesaab.com/psi/files/headretorque.htm