Saab Conundrum. Some Vauxhall Interest, Also Fiat, Alfa etc.

[Barry Cade]

A 2008 Saab 9-3 TTiD got dragged in to work last week -customer said it had gone "BANG" and lost all power. I dragged it over to the ramp for a look see. Timing belt in place and tight. No oil trails. Hmmm. Engine locked up solid though. As this is the 180 BHP Daddy with the twin turbos it's a little tight for room. After losing a couple of digits and half a pint of blood, the reason became clear after I removed the air con compressor. The con-rod had made a break for freedom and had smashed a tidy little orifice in both the front and rear of the block. After a little research,a chat to the owner ,it was agreed to fit a BRAND NEW engine, supplied from Neo Bros for a very reasonable sum. £1500 notes for a new lump, including fuel pump,injectors,glowplugs and belts all fitted. They also do a complete ready to drop in unit,with both turbos,manifolds,wiring loom and DMF/clutch for just over £2800.

 

The engine was dropped out complete with rack/subframe/struts etc, and the stripdown and changeover began- the fuel pump has to be removed to fit the inlet manifold...which was found to be missing a couple of swirl flaps..and the DMF was ^&*(ed.  Inlet manifold £220 complete new, with flap motor,and DMF near on £200 notes. Both turbos seem OK with no sign of damage.

 

Total bill will be over 3 large. Car still has 2 years finance on it. What would you do?

 

 

[Cavcraft]

What would I do? Have a good night out on the bridge money.

[Inspector Morose]

A lot of cash to throw at a seven year old 9-3. If it was one of those last model 9-5s though.....

[Richard]

This is the problem with middle-aged cars. If you don't pay the four figure bill you lose the money you paid for the car, and in this case the money outstanding too. When the next four figure bill comes in you have to pay that too, or you've lost the money you paid for the car and the money you paid for the first big repair. Repeat until you get sick of it all and buy a £500 car.

[PiperCub]

Agreed & as somebody told me as a youngster when I was probably giving it the big one about wanting this and that, 'If you can't afford to break it, you can't afford to own it lad' - wise words.

 

Also proves the folly of buying any car on finance, if you only have x pounds then that is what you buy a car with. Don't feed the finance company sharks.

[Pillock]

I wouldn't take finance without a warranty, there's no way I'd want to be lumbered with the choice of still paying for a car I've bridged, or paying as much as the car is worth just to keep paying for it every month.

 

And yes, all warranties are shit. But so is finance.

[Sigmund Fraud]

I can sort of see why he did it... Those cars sell for around £5K in working condition, a borked one would probably not be worth much more than £500. So he is essentially investing £3K so he can make £2K on top of it when he sells.

 

Of course, if we take into consideration the initial price of the car and the finance costs, he is probably losing a fuckload of money.

 

Autoshite Car Buying Advice :

 

1. Never buy a modern car.
2. If you ignore point 1, at least don't buy a diesel.
3. If you ignore points 1 and 2, at least don't buy one with a Renault or Fiat engine.
4. If you ignore points 1, 2 and 3, at least don't pay more than £500 for it.
5. If you ignore points 1, 2, 3 and 4, be prepared for financial disaster !

[cort16]

Probably best to stump up the extra grand for the new motor than out a 2nd hand one in and then go through it all again in a year . I guess the labour would be the same even if it was a 2nd hand engine?

[Barry Cade]

Probably more as you'd no doubt replace the cam belt and water pump, and possibly injectors and pump etc. The last JTD/CDTI thing I did with a broken belt only snapped the rockers so interested to have a look inside this one to see what's gone on, don't think a swirl flap could have broken a con rod/big end. I actually rate these engines but this is the first I've done with the two turbos.

[cort16]

The inlet and exhaust manifolds on these must be interesting to support the turbos.

I can see how it works on a v engine but it must be much more complex on an inline job?

[Bren]

If it were mine I would have done this -

 

 

I will never have another diesel. Ever.

 

Come to think of it, if the green party threaten to ban them they'll get my vote in may.

[Barry Cade]

The inlet and exhaust manifolds on these must be interesting to support the turbos.

I can see how it works on a v engine but it must be much more complex on an inline job?

[Pillock]

A picture says a thousand words.

 

In this case, "Yes, lots more complex" repeated 250 times.

[cort16]

Reminds me of that 03 320d that's been sitting outside my lockup for a year or so . It had 1200 quid spent on a new clutch and flywheel then the next day dropped a swirl fall and toasted the engine.

[cort16]

 

 

The inlet and exhaust manifolds on these must be interesting to support the turbos.

I can see how it works on a v engine but it must be much more complex on an inline job?

I'm out

[320touring]

A match and a gallon of v power

[RichL]

I really don't like these 9-3's. I drove an '08 plate 9-3 Aero last week 2.0 pez turbo, 45k on it. Felt more like 145k.

 

Build quality crap, handling crap, brakes crap.

 

Off to the Bridge with it.

[Paul Dupart]

SAABs do destroy you financially, petrol or log juice. I had four before I learned. I'd otherwise be retired with no mortgage. Cut your losses and bridge it!

[Asimo]

The last SaaB worth repairing.

[Felly Magic]

Another vote for the can of petrol and matches, then saying it was an engine bay fire

[HH-R]

If it were mine it would be cubed.

[Sudsprint]

Save it ….but then I'm biased

[Barry Cade]

It is being saved- should be back up and running Tuesday afternoon.

[Jim Bergerac]

This was exactly the kind of thing I was thinking of when Bollox started that 'Privilege' thread. I know such horror stories are rare but I just can't understand why people spend big money on middle aged cars like this unless it's something special or something that's pretty bomb proof reliability wise. The owner probably paid at least £7-8,000 for this, it's still under finance and it's just thrown up a bill for £3K. In the owner's shoes, I'd probably repair it. Not because I'd want to, but because my sunk costs would be so great. You can't just blithely bridge something when you are in that situation.

[2MB]

Years ago my dad was in a similar situation. He borrowed money to get a different 5ish year old car every year, reasoning that the depreciation hit ad interest was worth it for the variety this offered. However he was beginning to come around to our way of thinking (spend 10% of the money on older cars with the same net result) and was on the way to look at a £500 bmw e30 when the cambelt snapped on his alfa 156 v6, resulting in 24 bent valves, 6 borked Pistons and lots of other damage. He's a tight bastard and not one for flippantly parting with money but it was either pay the £2000+ cost of a rebuild or sell a broken car at a huge loss. He got rid of the alfa straight away and started on the correct path with a scruffy '91 Saab 900 turbo 5 door, which could've been disposed of if it grenaded but of course didn't.

In the case of the saab ttid most of us would probably have to do thingse same thing; if you borrow money to buy a car you can't afford to throw it away when it breaks unfortunately.

(All three of my cars have cam chains for this reason)

[dollywobbler]

I do hope all this talk of insurance fraud is tongue in cheek. Not a nice response. 'I'm in a pickle, so I shall take action that someone else can pay for.'

[pompei]

My 9-3 TiD was good and proper fooked  -  needed DMF/clutch,  new inlet manifold (flaps were flapped), cam belt and a host of other things including new heater unit.  I didn't even get as far as your customer did and scrapped it as it was going to cost more to fix than it was worth.  That's probably ok if you're not talking 4 figures. 

 

I bought an older cheapo petrol 9-5 which is still battling on at 185,000 miles for less than the repair cost.  

 

Moral of the story  -  as others have said:- avoid GM diesel Saabs.

[twosmoke300]

The old 2.2 was a good if pretty noisy lump . The 1.9 is indeed poo

[HH-R]

Everyone I've known with a SAAB/Vauxhall 2.2 DTi/TiD and/or Fiat Multijet/CTDi has been well and truly rinsed though epic engine failure. They're shite.

[320touring]

I do hope all this talk of insurance fraud is tongue in cheek. Not a nice response. 'I'm in a pickle, so I shall take action that someone else can pay for.'

of course its tongue in cheek!all this 'working for a living'has mullered your piss taking perception abilities;) (i am of course jesting, and you make a fair point)

 

I wouldnt claim-just take loads of marshmallows!

 

Best use of a saab 9-3 EVAR

 

A work colleague had one of these in diseasal cab format. It has now been flogged following its 2nd attempt to extract £1500 notes from his pocket in 6 months.

 

I'm trying to convince him he needs a w126 560SEL if he can afford to chuck that to his car fixing.