Roffle SAAB - WBOD PRICE DROP £295 or £5 a ticket, 12 Months MOT - WEDS DRAW! SOLD OUT!

[beko1987]

Beautiful! The door shuts make the difference!

[Guest Hooli]

They really do, especially on moderns that have a lot more door outside the seal.

[SiC]

I wonder if the PAS system has had work in the past, given all the broken fixtures and fittings on it. I honestly can't remember if it had or not now.

[Guest Hooli]

Maybe, maybe not. The mounts under the front where you cable-tied it are like tiny exhaust mounts & when they get old the metal ends fall off the rubber block. Round the back it's a brittle plastic clip on the inner wing, could have been knocked if it's ever had a waterpump (it's in the right place to be in the way).

[Guest Hooli]

I took this down to visit my parents last weekend. Got over 34mpg from the last tank, with about 400miles of that being motorwayish with the cruise set to 70mph. Total for the tank was almost 550miles.

 

Only one issue, it went a bit mental on the way home surging & clunking & generally being a twat with the EML on for 30secs or so at the top of a hill. I'm assuming this was low fuel pressure as I had 12miles showing on the range at the time & as soon as it got level it behaved again.

 

Note to self - if the petrol light comes on just before exiting the A14 on to the A1, it's probably not a good idea to drive to Doncaster before filling up...

[SiC]

Ouch. Can't imagine it did the fuel pump much good. Fuel acts as a lubricant and coolant for it. Pretty certain it's original with 210k odd miles on it! So not in its freshest part of its life.

 

If you have intermittent cutting out or other wierdity, it may be dieing. Not sure if it's external or in-tank. I suspect in-tank.

[Guest Hooli]

It's the only time it's ever done it, I figure with that range left it's less than 1/2 a gallon in the tank & a long uphill could make it suck air. I'll worry if it becomes regular.

 

Oh btw, it ticked over 218k on the way back too.

[SiC]

Not bad for it considering the box isn't in the best of shapes. It is a useful data point though that if you own a car with a banging AW55 box, you can still get a fair bit more life out of them. I suspect if it bangs often it's likely to shorten it's life, but if motorway running then it can live a lot longer.

[Guest Hooli]

As I've still not got around to sorting the water leak on this I picked up some snake oil for a stupidly low price today. Votes on if it'll work???

 

[SiC]

Brave putting that in a system with a water cooled turbo!

[DodgeRover]

Won't work as it'll be a seal in the pump not a hole is my bet

[Guest Hooli]

Brave putting that in a system with a water cooled turbo!

 

I didn't know it was, I really should learn what I own one day...

 

I keep thinking it's the pump too, but the leak has got about 75% better by ignoring it over the summer & I can't believe a water pump seal would do that.

 

In other news, I've been using sport mode lately. The fun factor goes up almost as quick as the fuel consumption!

[SiC]

Maybe coolant is leaking out, gumming up and creating a new seal

[Guest Hooli]

Maybe coolant is leaking out, gumming up and creating a new seal

 

TBH, that is my theory.

 

I was planning to sort the water leak, the oil leak and the gearbox once I'd moved before summer was over. But due to the efforts of my ex to force me to stay here it's not happened yet. So at less than £2 I figured it was worth a try to bodge it through until I can do it properly.

[SiC]

You don't want to kill the car though! It was a very expensive cheap car.

 

Can't even remember how much you paid in the end. I know it wasn't a lot, even with its faults!

[Guest Hooli]

I'll give you a clue, the £1.80 snake oil represents 1% of the cost of the car....

 

You're right, I don't want to kill it. Hence the idea that if less water falls out I will actually keep it full of anti-freeze for the winter. Unlike the goona that was used in -7c (I think was the worst) with just tap water in, I was quite surprised with the lack of expensive noises that morning.

[SiC]

Don't forget the Saab is a lot more complex than your Laguna was though. Far more pipes, valves, fluid paths and moving bits.

[Guest Hooli]

And most importantly, the Saab is a car. The goona was a bad joke that looked like a car from a distance in the dark. Hence I tried this to keep anti-freeze in. Basicly, I like this Saab and hated the goona.

[Guest Hooli]

News!

 

The snake oil has only worked, it's no longer loosing water.

 

However the heater still goes cold after 30-40mins driving even though all the pipe work stays hot & the ACC shows no errors when a test is run.

 

Bloody cars...

[Guest Hooli]

As mentioned on another thread this is due an MOT on the 25th Oct, I might well take it in next tuesday as I'm doing a stupid shift at work for out of hours stuff. 1:30-9:30am when I normally work 8am-4pm...

 

I've given it a quick check over and can't see anything obvious, but then I didn't expect to as it just seems to keep working. As it's no longer leaking I've drained the cooling system, flushed it again and put anti-freeze in. I know it won't cure the heater, but I'm ignoring that currently until I work out what the issue might be.

 

I also checked the plugs, they are good, new looking & clean. They are the wrong ones according to the book though, it lists NGK BCPR6ES-11 and its got NGK BCPR7ES-11 in. To my limited knowledge that just means a slightly wrong heat range, I think with NGK the higher the number the lower the heat. They can stay in though, as it runs fine.

 

Oh & I thought I'd broke when I put it back together and started it to bleed the coolant though. It had a hell of an air leak as soon as it started, which took a few goes to trace as it was near the throttle body & there are loads of pipes there. Turned out to be a cable tie had snapped that was holding a broken one way valve on a breather together. SiC might remember it, the black n white one at the back of the head, I've 'glued' it with a bit of silicon and replaced the cable tie, all fixed.

[Guest Hooli]

Nearly forgot. I found a small breather type hose had fallen off the throttle body too, I'm not sure what it does but it goes to a small unit on the bulkhead that also connects to the wastegate? halfway along the intake pipe, I assume wastegate or similar as it links to the turbot.

 

That's now reattached with a jubilee clip so it doesn't fall off again.

[SiC]

I did a lot of checking of those plugs and they should be correct. Came from a Saab dealer and in cute Saab OEM boxes.

 

I think they changed the recommendation on them to those.

[Guest Hooli]

I did wonder about if they'd changed. Knowing they'd changed the gearbox oil n stuff a few times I'm not surprised you've said that.

 

Like I said, it runs fine, they are clean so all is good.

[Guest Hooli]

Nearly forgot. I found a small breather type hose had fallen off the throttle body too, I'm not sure what it does but it goes to a small unit on the bulkhead that also connects to the wastegate? halfway along the intake pipe, I assume wastegate or similar as it links to the turbot.

 

That's now reattached with a jubilee clip so it doesn't fall off again.

 

Thinking about it, this might be EGR.

[Guest Hooli]

Right MOT was due on the 25th Oct but due to working a few stupid shifts this week I took the chance to do it early. It failed yesterday on a track rod end.

 

£16 part fitted this morning & £25 of tracking done on the way back from the retest, which it passed of course. Can't complain at £40 to get another 13months of motoring from this quality of shed. It really is turning out to be the best value car I've ever had.

[Guest Hooli]

I've just spent an hour under the dash of this car & finally found a reason for the heating going cold. It's the classic Saab blend flap issue where the plastic cracks so although the motor turns it doesn't adjust the heating. Looking at how it fits together, as the plastic warms up it'll allow it to bend & slip on the motor's shaft which makes sense with how the problem occurs.

 

I've bodgerated it by putting a drop of araldite in the broken shaft to glue it to the motor. Testing shall commence tomorrow when I take it to work as normal while my bike is still broke.

 

 

Oh & here's the crack...

 

[SiC]

OEM:

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F152180833465

 

Metal replacement:

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F282651353629

 

Quite expensive for what they are though. I probably would have glued it too. Plastic glue may be better as it fuses the plastic back together again.

 

Did you recalibrate it afterwards?

[Guest Hooli]

Without getting it out there was no way of clamping it 'closed' to stick it together properly, so plastic glue wouldn't have worked without as much work as replacing it.

 

I've not even switched the ignition on yet, I checked I could feel it slip as it calibrated before gluing it & because I could I made sure it didn't move until the glue was dry. It should be long dry now, but I'll calibrate it when I start it in the morning to go to work.

[Guest Hooli]

Well that didn't work...

 

It stays warmer for longer but if I go slowly after 30-40mins it gets cold, it does work again when doing 65+ now though.

 

I've investigated & the heater hoses go cold when the problem occurs, I thought they did before but I was never 100% about it. It's not the normal fault with these as this car doesn't have the heater cut off valve some got built with. I'm figuring waterpump area. If not the actual pump as the engine time is ok, then a blocked outlet or rubber hose around that area massively reducing flow to the matrix when hot.

[SiC]

Possibly the pump as we know its already suspect! Not sure I'd have put that snake oil in. Might have completely blocked a part of the system?

 

Or maybe the replacement thermostat that was fitted isn't working properly? I assume the temp gauge is sensible?