The new adventures of Brownnova! Another Saab: not flopping its top

[brownnova]

On the other members, it turns out the wheel bearing on the XC90 was the same one which failed last year. The garage offer a 12 month warranty on parts… which we snuck into by a week! Booked in for next week.

The MG… well let’s just say the customer service from both the dealer and from MG has been poor. Top marks to the AA who sorted us a hire car for a couple of days when they picked it up.

Sadly that’s now ended so we’re down to the Saab only again! 6 hours in it on Thursday, and all the family tripping this weekend.

Tomorrow it shall convey us to the collection of a new purchase…. Which is always exciting!  

[hairnet]

4 hours ago, brownnova said:

 

 

Tomorrow it shall convey us to the collection of a new purchase…. 

sacked off the mg then

[brownnova]

Collecting day!

We relied on the kids to wake us up as usual. They’re pretty much like clockwork at 6.15, so the plan was an 8.30 depart.

Needless to say the kids actually woke up at 8.05… so we’re now aiming for a 9.00-15 departure. 

Today’s collection involves no public transport, but a significant bridge and a visit to an island. 

It’s a family trip so the kids and wife are in the 9000 for this collection. The 3 year old has me pegged, when we say we’re going on a bit of a drive she said “is it to get a bew car?” Some kind of intuition there… she even guessed that it was blue! 

Breakfast: A crumpet (not pictured) 
PC: currently 0… but the 2 year old usually does one in the morning. (Will not be pictured) 

[GrumpiusMaximus]

Dear God I hope you’re not going to the Isle of Sheppey.

[hairnet]

runcorn/widnes

 

[brownnova]

Saab 900 was loaded with small humans and the A55 traversed: 

The journey has included: 

Tunnels

Distant castles 

 

Bridges

And prettier bridges

In an interesting factoid I have bought a car of this brand and body type before. Also from Anglesey. On that trip I stopped to check over the car ten minutes into the journey… in a car park about 20 seconds away from where I have picked this one up from. 

[brownnova]

On 18/12/2023 at 20:19, brownnova said:

 

The brown nova is still here… Might be out this year too.

Plans for ‘24… Maybe cut down the number of projects and buy things I can actually drive. Maybe not. I think I’m between paying someone to get the Nova roadworthy as I’m just not going to or selling it and buying a Saab convertible, an XM a Jaguar S Type, a Rover 75 or something else that piques my interests at the time.  

 

I predicted the departure of the Nova… and this arrival in the end of year that accounts! 

[brownnova]

[Keymaster]

Excellent work, looks great in that shade of blue

[Saabnut]

Good choice! Bringing them both to Prescott this year?

[brownnova]

So… the story is thus. Having had a desire for a Saab ‘vert since my last one, once the Nova was condemned to a mass weldathon I knew I wasn’t the man to do it. So an agreement was made to sell, meaning I had the money saved plus the sale cost burning a hole in my pocket. My intention was to buy a nice 900 or 9-3 convertible… or maybe another MX5 or maybe something else.

What I actually ended up buying was a cheap 9-3 which needs a little attention… 

I actually looked at two on the same day, one which was purportedly in very good condition and well cared for. It was rough, and had DMF rattle… no thanks. Then we went to look at the cheap one on Anglesey because it was within an hour and we like a day out to the island. Turns out this one too was a little cosmetically challenged… but the old lady who had owned it for a number of years was charming and knocked the price down further when we discovered the roof was not working… MrsB is a pretty good judge of these things and was very much in favour. So we did a deal for less than half of the asking price of the first one we looked at.

As mentioned, the main issues are in-op roof. Now this was working before winter, so the fuse seems a good bet. If not for the price I might either get it repaired or just use it manually.

Other bits are mainly cosmetic, the front bumper has taken a clack, and someone appears to have broken in on the past, so the passenger door has some quirks. 

Broken glass under the seats shows recent break in attempt. 

Nod to its flying heritage! 
 

However, despite all these minor things, it drives spot on, pulls well and is very very smooth… if I can get the roof working it will really have been a good deal! 

[brownnova]

Just now, Saabnut said:

Good choice! Bringing them both to Prescott this year?

Hopefully at least one, maybe both. Need to re-join the club. I let my membership lapse. 

[brownnova]

3 hours ago, Saabnut said:

Good choice! Bringing them both to Prescott this year?

Just gone to look and remembered that SaabFest clashes with Festival of the Unexceptional this year… 😬😬

Decisions… 

[Saabnut]

8 hours ago, brownnova said:

Just gone to look and remembered that SaabFest clashes with Festival of the Unexceptional this year… 😬😬

Decisions… 

FOTU is the Saturday I believe, Prescott is a weekend event with the main day being the Sunday. You can do both or have a drunken weekend at Prescott with us! Decisions.......

 

[brownnova]

Spent a little time going through this today… 

Things I learned: 

- The roof issue is not the fuse. Bugger.  
- There was so much dog hair! But it’s clean now. 
- The spare wheel well was full of water. Not anymore. 
- A broken window leaves a shed load of glass! All cleaned up. 
- It has isofix! But they’re well buried! 
- It threw an airbag fault at me… but I’d knocked the connector off when cleaning. 
- it also threw a lock fault at me… but I jiggled the door electrics and it came back to life. 
- The front bumper is badly cracked. Looks as if she ran over a tall curb. 
- Someone has effected a shit repair to the boot opening mechanism meaning it now fouls the hood tonneau. 
- Autoglym hood cleaner is expensive and did not get the green off the blue hood…
- I think the rear exhaust rubbers are missing. 
- It’s a lovely thing to drive. And once I can get the roof working it will be awesome! 

[Keymaster]

Sorry to read the autoglym didn't work. I've recently had great success with renovo cleaner getting the green out of mine... it took 3 passes mind you. Then 2 coats of their dark blue dye and a coat of their UV proofer got it looking reasonably good again. Took a few days but satisfying and not too pricey really.

[brownnova]

10 hours ago, Keymaster said:

Sorry to read the autoglym didn't work. I've recently had great success with renovo cleaner getting the green out of mine... it took 3 passes mind you. Then 2 coats of their dark blue dye and a coat of their UV proofer got it looking reasonably good again. Took a few days but satisfying and not too pricey really.

I think a second pass on the autoglym is the next move, and then as you say I’ll go for some dye too. Yours looks great! 

[Floatylight]

Have you got one of those drill brushes to agitate it?

[brownnova]

45 minutes ago, Floatylight said:

Have you got one of those drill brushes to agitate it?

I should have… but that involves me finding anything in my tip of a garage! 😂

[brownnova]

A car which tells you things… 

There’s nothing in the boot but… 

Hmm… 

And 

Not quite sure why…. Too wet to investigate manual opening today.

As a bonus.,. 

So this one appeared today. Now the doors won’t lock on the fob and the drivers window won’t work… excellent.

Any ideas from your Saab 9-3 experience @Saabnut @Keymaster @Split_Pin

On the up side I’ve used the car a lot today, and it drives very well, and if I can get past these little issues I think I’ll probably really love it! 

[Split_Pin]

Nice purchase,  I keep wanting to sell mine but never do. Even after buying the fantabulous A8, the Saab still felt great to drive today.

There are a lot of sensors in the roof. Really, that needs plugging into Tech 2 to tell you which one has gone bad.

I still have the lower bumper section from mine when I replaced it with an Aero item. It just clips on. You can have it FOC if you can find a way of getting it from Central Scotland to you.

[Keymaster]

Agree with @Split_Pin on the roof sensors.

Like you I acquired mine for reasonable money from a little old lady. Thankfully no roof issues, but it had been parked in a bush for a while & when brought back to life it was throwing some interesting messages on the dash - no tcs, no abs, no fog lamps, no reverse lamps, no locks... And it was quite, quite insistent I should turn left. Turned out the battery was in very poor health. New battery sorted the messages out, the left indicator still comes on occasionally but I think that's an issue with oxidization on the switch contacts..

[brownnova]

48 minutes ago, Split_Pin said:

There are a lot of sensors in the roof. Really, that needs plugging into Tech 2 to tell you which one has gone bad.

I think this is the next course of action… might have to call the Saab specialist. Tbf, it was cheap enough that even with some money spent on the roof it’s still a good deal! 

 

48 minutes ago, Split_Pin said:

still have the lower bumper section from mine when I replaced it with an Aero item. It just clips on. You can have it FOC if you can find a way of getting it from Central Scotland to you

Very good of you! I’ll see if I can think of if/how this could be achieved… 

[Sunny Jim]

Are you going to FoTU? Some Scottish shiters headed there. If you're not if someone can get it to FoTU I can get it to you.

[Saabnut]

Pity you are so far away, I could have lent you my Tech-II. Will have it at Prescott.

[Split_Pin]

I work from home so I'm about any time. I'm away next week but can just leave it under one of my other cars to collect 😀

[CaptainBoom]

Excellent purchase, (I may be somewhat biased) they really do their job of fun transportation quite well.  My kids always clamour for the school run in the Saab, even if getting out of the back seats is a chore.  They look very decent in that blue (again, biased).

Alas I can't offer much help with the errors, mine has displayed a host of them in my tenure; stability control failure, roof failure, headlight failure, locking failure, steering lock failure (that one is quite scary).  On some occasions after being left for a few days the 'infotainment' screen won't start, and stops the indicator noise (because it's generated by a speaker, not a relay/timer).

It all came down to rainwater getting down the nearside A-Pillar and playing havoc with the fuses, that and a lazy battery.  I agree though your roof needs a Tech-II guru.  You could always look up on uksaabs to see if a member has one local to you.

I'll tag @Dabooka as well, as his thread has a good story of his 9-3 ownership.

[brownnova]

8 hours ago, CaptainBoom said:

Excellent purchase, (I may be somewhat biased) they really do their job of fun transportation quite well.  My kids always clamour for the school run in the Saab, even if getting out of the back seats is a chore.  They look very decent in that blue (again, biased).

Alas I can't offer much help with the errors, mine has displayed a host of them in my tenure; stability control failure, roof failure, headlight failure, locking failure, steering lock failure (that one is quite scary).  On some occasions after being left for a few days the 'infotainment' screen won't start, and stops the indicator noise (because it's generated by a speaker, not a relay/timer).

It all came down to rainwater getting down the nearside A-Pillar and playing havoc with the fuses, that and a lazy battery.  I agree though your roof needs a Tech-II guru.  You could always look up on uksaabs to see if a member has one local to you.

I'll tag @Dabooka as well, as his thread has a good story of his 9-3 ownership.

I always forget who has a Saab here, difficult to keep up sometimes! Thanks for that. I think rainwater ingress is definitely an issue here! It leaks from the passenger window quite a bit. Got a reasonably local Saab specialist who I’ll take it over too at some point. Although my local indie has loads of different diagnostic, so I’ll ask there too.
 

Might just use the roof in manual mode until that point! 

[Keymaster]

TADTS.. Rod the drains at the top of the A pillars and feed the window rubbers with silicone grease.

[Split_Pin]

I throw a rag each side of the floor up against the sill when it rains heavily to absorb the water leaking from the windows. All my convertibles have done this, not just Saabs and there's not a lot you can do really.