What I Did To My Saab Today.

[StanleyB]

I have just forked out £1900 to do a long list of jobs on my 9-3. I should get the car back coming Wednesday. I was in two minds if to have all that work done, but I just can't find another 2.3 litre turbo engine that gives me so much pleasure.

[Geoff1951]

 (What I did to my Skoda Today)

Just read TomPaine's post.

By coincidence, today I swopped fronts and rears, to even up the wear. Slightly more left on the rears as per normal, and I want to change all four at once from the current Michelin Energy+ to Primacy 3s in the autumn. (Yes, I know new tyres go on the rear, but there's not much between them anyway and they'll be evened up and replaced before the weather turns.)

Took me a while to get the wheels off, they'd done the usual trick of welding themselves to the hubs, but with careful use of a length of wood and a 2lb mallet, they came off in the end. Tightened everything up, put the trolley jack away, and went for a ride around the block to check for any sign of unbalance or vibration. All perfect, and as a bonus the slightly extra rubber on the front makes for a better ride. Highly satisfactory finish to a couple of hours work.


Then while locking up, I realised I'd lost the locking wheelnut key. It took the edge off the day somewhat.

[Kev_Mc]

I have just forked out £1900 to do a long list of jobs on my 9-3. I should get the car back coming Wednesday. I was in two minds if to have all that work done, but I just can't find another 2.3 litre turbo engine that gives me so much pleasure.

I thought I'd spent a lot on mine! Is that a Viggen?

Mine now has fully working climate after a new compressor and replacement pipework.

[StanleyB]

I thought I'd spent a lot on mine! Is that a Viggen?

It an odd ball that SAAB used to take some catalogue pics of with all sorts of bits from their work shop no doubt. It came with just about every piece of accessory that could be fitted to a 9-3. The 2.3 engine is not the aluminium block from the Viggen, but from the 9000 I reckon. Even the stereo sounds far better compared to the regular 9-3, even though it is the same head unit.
I managed to get my hand on it through a company that was asked to dispose of the bits after noticing it in their yard waiting to be taken apart. Feel free to pass by and take it for a spin if you ever find yourself coming to London via the M1.

[Audax]

On Saturday I was heading out to Tesco and the passenger side indicator decided to leap free from the car and do a merry little dance over the bumper.

Sure enough the clip that holds it in place was broken. I'm not sure if it just magically broke on Saturday or had been missing for some time but usually if they are broken it's not long until the indicator unit comes out.

Anyway, fixed with a self tapping screw in the top of the unit through part of the headlight frame. Annoyingly the other bit of decorative plastic in the unit also came loose so that also got a screw through the back of the unit to hold it in place.

[Geoff1951]

Quite shock when that happens, especially at motorway speeds! It bounces around the wing and bonnet on the end of the cable, and isn't very kind to the paintwork.

[Audax]

Quite shock when that happens, especially at motorway speeds! It bounces around the wing and bonnet on the end of the cable, and isn't very kind to the paintwork.

Fortunately my car doesn't have great paintwork and it's grey so you can't really see the damage and it only really got the bumper.

The worst time this happened to me was delivering a customers car back to them after it had been to the body shop for repair work. The guy who painted the car had removed the light but hadn't put it back in properly. I was 5 minutes away from the customers house when the light popped out and went all over the freshly painted wing, bonnet and bumper, worst of all it was a black car and you could see all the white undercoat very clearly. We had to phone the customer and explain why their car wasn't coming back that day after it was already 2 days late! Understandably they were not very happy about it either, especially as it was then another 2 days to get it sorted.

[Geoff1951]

Audax, that's what happened to me. After I'd had a wing repaired when someone reversed into me, a local repairers who get all the insurance work round here and boast about their excellent reputation, (!), didn't refit the indicator properly and broke a clip in the process. Cost them a new indicator unit and a bonnet respray.

[Norfolk Jim]

Hi Chaps.

I had that happen on my black aero when I was travelling at - uhum 3 figure speed on motorway (sorry officer dibble) but mine didn't bounce on wing for long and flew up in air to be never seen again - ripped the wires clean out. New complete unit and neat dent in wing which Dent Devils were able to remove. Complete new unit and housing ££££££............... none anywhere in breakers yards.

No idea why it happened as I definitely had never touched it/changed a bulb. Oddly the side repeater came loose as well for some reason but thankfully just slide back in. Ho hum

[Norfolk Jim]

Not so much what I did to my Saab but my VW Passat......................

Well everyone probably knows I never seem to get a car with perfect ride and power together. This has also been the case with the Passat.

Being a 2.0 TDi 170 Sport (now with 200hp) it has the firmer sport suspension but compared to the Aero suspension this is hard and I mean hard! At 128k it is probably a little shot by now so I have taken plunge of fitting Bilstein B4 Sport shocks which I understand are probably the same as original but to help with a smoother ride Eibach Pro springs being fitted - sound familiar??? The sport ride is lower anyway but this, like Hirsch will drop another 10mm but should make for a much more comfortable ride - fingers crossed.

I could have got complete set from German eBay company for EUR499.90 (about £361) but warranty would always mean sending back there which simply wouldn't work so have found a really great business in UK who will do package for £445 including delivery and get 24 month warranty. Company have been really good with loads of advice and are called Balance Motorsport - Google them.

Will let you know outcome.

Here I go again..........................

[sgould]

Today I had a hack at the old DI unit that has been sitting around for a couple of years!!














The centre metal contact can be unscrewed once the  blue plastic has been cleared around it.  Then the oil can be drained.  It's fairly thin and it all ran out in a couple of seconds. Only about a teaspoonful in there.  I don't think there is any need to let the oil drain down after fitting a new DI cassette.  Maybe a minute at most.  None of the 20 minutes mentioned in many threads on forums.  And there is no mention of any risk of this, or it being a problem when reading the installation instructions in the Saab workshop manual.

[Audax]

I don't think there is any need to let the oil drain down after fitting a new DI cassette.  Maybe a minute at most.  None of the 20 minutes mentioned in many threads on forums.  And there is no mention of any risk of this, or it being a problem when reading the installation instructions in the Saab workshop manual.

It's one of those myths that have become all pervasive over time that I see spread all over the forums. There's no mention of this in any of the older workshop manuals for the 9000 either that I could ever find.

[mikeloadsasaabs]

Being a 2.0 TDi 170 Sport (now with 200hp) it has the firmer sport suspension but compared to the Aero suspension this is hard and I mean hard!

The roads over here, even more so in Germany, are usually of better quality and much smoother than the UK, which means it isn't so much of an issue. Passat estates here are quite often the target of ludicrously low profile wheel and tyre combinations, as are Golfs.

[Audax]

The roads over here, even more so in Germany, are usually of better quality and much smoother than the UK, which means it isn't so much of an issue. Passat estates here are quite often the target of ludicrously low profile wheel and tyre combinations, as are Golfs.

....which always confuses me as would it not be so hard to work out that if one of your major markets has rubbish roads that when you pull the dashboard with the hole on the right hand side for the steering column you also pull out some decent suspension for that market? There are many other European countries with rubbish roads (even worse than the UK) so I'd have thought making comfortable cars would be a selling point but it seems car manufacturers are still aiming for the "sports" segment with saloons which then crosses over into the estate versions.

I still think my next vehicle is likely to be some kind of Volvo XC series, Mazda CX-5, Skoda Yeti or Subaru Forester due to reasons of practicality and comfort.

[Norfolk Jim]

Well the new suspension seems to be working but it is still a bit on the firm side but i'll just keep away from cr4p roads round here Now off on road trip in camper though so watch out Scotland - going to give Isle of Mull a look see and hope weather is half decent. I hear they can have all weathers in the blink of an eye.......................yeh right - rain and more rain and some wind mixed in. Usual holiday weather for us so no change but...................come on jet stream stay north and shift that low.