Saab 9-5, third times a charm with struts

[rainagain]

I also fitted a new connector to injector three. I was rather annoyed at myself though as I didn’t take into account how the wiring ran in the trunking so I had to cut a new hole for the wires to come out as the join stopped them flexing. 
 

[rainagain]

My new boost hose arrived all the way from Germany. 

looks roughly the same but some of the bends aren’t as well formed as the OEM one. It didn’t have the notch cut out for mounting on the turbo nor did it have the cut outs for the cage that holds the jubilee clip square. 

I did my best to make a notch in the right place, of course once I’d fitted it the way it bent up meant the notch was wrong. I had the fun job of removing it and to make another notch. There was no chance I could make the indentations to hold the cage so I left this off. I also noticed oil seeping round the connections to the new intercooler so I gave these a little tweak tighter. I’m not sure if this is just normal and can be filed under ignore. 

[rainagain]

It was great driving the car again and being able to use all the power without worrying about my temp boost hose repair failing. The car decided to reward me for sorting this by springing a leak in the power steering cooler and the front right wheel bearing started to howl. 
 

I decided to do this via a method I saw on YouTube where you don’t split the lower ball joint but instead unbolt the lower ball joint from the wishbone. 
 

You have to remove the calliper, calliper mount and disc. 

The calliper mounting bracket’s bolts were stupidly tight and thanks to the massive amounts of thread lock in them, they fought to the very last thread. 
 

The lower ball joint bolts looked like they’d been used to hold the prop on the titanic. One came off ok, one sheered and the other one I took a chunk out with the angry grinder to encourage it off. The drive shaft nut was easy as I’d borrowed a 3/4” dugga dugga gun, which popped it off like it wasn’t there.

The bearing was a hub unit and like the calliper it was held on with these stupid E headed bolts.  

[rainagain]

Access to the was a PITA but eventually they came off as well. Lots of hammering and prying popped the old hub off. 

I was about worried I had changed the wrong side as the old hub didn’t feel too bad when removed even though the noise in the car was terrible. 
 

I cleaned everything up including the abs ring on the drive shaft and persuaded the new unit into place. 

 

[rainagain]

Next up was fitting the lower ball joint back on. This was really annoying as the anti roll bar pushing down meant it didn’t want to go together. I tried to remove the track rod end from the hub to give me more freedom, but it wasn’t for shifting and as it was getting late I didn’t want to upset the neighbours by knocking seven shades of shit out of it to remove it. I swapped out one of the original bolts for a slightly shorter one that made it easier to slip the ball joint over it. The hub stops you from fitting the bolts from the top when it’s in position. 
 

[rainagain]

All back together including a bearing cap which was missing off the original bearing. 

The car also added lightness by dropping this unnecessary pile of rust during the hammering. 

It’s now back to being lovely and quiet on the motorway. Join me next week as I try and sort the power steering cooler leak  

[DSdriver]

If you have to do the rear wheel bearings be careful not to let the spanner slip off the nut and knock a hole in the chassis which was the demise of mine. Everything looked fine from the outside, the rust was under the underseal. To repair it would have meant removing the fuel tank and dropping the subframe which made it beyond economic repair.

If it had remained undiscovered the car would have sailed through the MOT and been perfectly safe which was rather annoying.

[rainagain]

I worked out I had actually covered 11,000 miles since I mot’d this, which was the same time I changed the oil so it definitely due another change. It was easier this time as I realised that there was a little panel in the wheel well you could remove to make it easier to get to the filter. 

I used my Aldi/Lidl oil extraction pump which make good work sucking the old oil out. 
 

I then popped in the new filter element. Before treating it by filling it with some 0W40 Mobil one I’ve had kicking round the garage for few years  

it’s currently sitting just under 156,000. 

[rainagain]

Without wanting to tempt anything this has been doing the job of being car really well recently. One thing that was annoying was the swirl flap bar kept falling off. I ordered a new one from ebay for just under £11 delivered. 
 

I unclippped the glow plug connectors to give me some more room to allow me to extract the old control rod. Comparing it to the new one I found the little O rings which help hold it onto to the flaps had I assumed disintegrated. I was in such a hurry trying to get the old one out I didn’t realise it was handed and I couldn’t remember which way it was originally sitting. 

I put some silicon grease in each of the new bushes and after some faffing getting the flaps all aligned I was able to install the new rod. I was quite pissed off that after I installed it I found the little screws screwing the bushes to the rod were mostly all a bit loose. It was a bit of a PITA tightening them with it installed, however I’m glad I spotted them before the screws fell out. A few drives later it’s still where it should be so I’m calling that a win.

 

[rainagain]

I had an appointment in the nearby big smoke (Edinburgh), I’d booked parking through JustPark, I didn’t realise to get to the car park I had to squeeze my very long car into a very small lift. Luckily for me two guys having a smoke near the entrance helped me get into the lift, at first like me they didn’t actually think I was going to fit. 

I gave it a wash the day before and even with my crap parking as I was running late due to the lift I still think it’s a good looking car.

To get out the car park there was instructions on the wall showing the necessary reversing manoeuvre. I did feel like Austin Powers but I eventually managed it. 

[rainagain]

Then driving home later that night I hit one of the many potholes and heard a bang, then the car got a lot more bumpy. I looked round the rear and found it had gone low rider on me.

yeps that’s a broken spring 

I found a pair on eBay, annoyingly they didn’t have anything listed for sports suspension which according to the vin decoder this car has and which makes sense as it’s the ‘Sport’ model. 
 

Just after I’d ordered them I checked autodoc and found not only did they list the sports springs but they were also cheaper. Grr. At least the ones from eBay should arrive quite soon. As I now have two broken cars including my neglected Focus. 

[stuboy]

6 hours ago, rainagain said:

Then driving home later that night I hit one of the many potholes and heard a bang, then the car got a lot more bumpy. I looked round the rear and found it was gone low rider on me.

yeps that’s a broken spring 

I found a pair on eBay, annoyingly they didn’t have anything listed for sports suspension which according to the vin decoder this car has and which makes sense as it’s the ‘Sport’ model. 
 

Just after I’d ordered them I checked autodoc and found not only did they list the sports springs but they were also cheaper. Grr. At least the ones from eBay should arrive quite soon. As I now have two broken cars including my neglected Focus. 

auto doc will be 3 weeks.. ha ha ha

[AnnoyingPentium]

If you're needing any bits for this car, the breakers in Killie had two the last time I was there. One was definitely a diesel, as I have the tailgate badges on my wall.

[rainagain]

4 minutes ago, AnnoyingPentium said:

If you're needing any bits for this car, the breakers in Killie had two the last time I was there. One was definitely a diesel, as I have the tailgate badges on my wall.

Which scrappy is that? I wouldn’t mind grabbing both washer pumps and connector plugs to splice into the currently hack about wiring, as it’s missing the rear pump. 

[AnnoyingPentium]

4 minutes ago, rainagain said:

Which scrappy is that? I wouldn’t mind grabbing both washer pumps and connector plugs to splice into the currently hack about wiring, as it’s missing the rear pump. 

Kilmarnock Car Breakers on Old Street. I need to go back and grab a few bits but I'll get to that in the new year if the parts I'm after are still there. 

[Ged]

Would have a go at getting the top nut off without destroying the shock while you are waiting, might take you 3 weeks so you can get the right springs from autodoc.

[rainagain]

3 minutes ago, Ged said:

Would have a go at getting the top nut off without destroying the shock while you are waiting, might take you 3 weeks so you can get the right springs from autodoc.

My eBay spring turned up tonight! That’s fast service, there’s not much difference between sport and normal suspension so I’m just going to fit them rather than waiting for three weeks. If I’d gotten round to sorting the focus I wouldn’t be in so much of a hurry. 
 

I don’t suppose you know if the top nut is metric fine? I’d rather chop the nut off to save the shock. 

[Ged]

Good luck

[Ged]

21 minutes ago, rainagain said:

My eBay spring turned up tonight! That’s fast service, there’s not much difference between sport and normal suspension so I’m just going to fit them rather than waiting for three weeks. If I’d gotten round to sorting the focus I wouldn’t be in so much of a hurry. 
 

I don’t suppose you know if the top nut is metric fine? I’d rather chop the nut off to save the shock. 

Oh didnt read fully, id say its coarse but its recessed so you cant really cut it. Maybe you could drill it or get a replacement metal shim bit at the top.

[Ged]

Trying to find a good photo of it, im sure you can buy that top metal bit and the piece of rubber seperately.

[Ged]

https://www.partsforsaabs.com/product_info.php?cPath=2_297&products_id=5601

https://www.partsforsaabs.com/product_info.php?cPath=2_314_58_464&products_id=5484&osCsid=4f14e01317b431511f0af43ed6a225e8

[rainagain]

Doesn’t time fly, finally made a start on sorting this tonight. 

That’ll be proper humped then.

The spring also kindly broke in such a way the bottom bolt wasn’t accessible. 

I had to chop the spring with an angle grinder whilst it was under tension, it did made quite a large bang once I’d chopped through it.

[rainagain]

Amazingly the top bolts all actually came out ok, my car is slightly more rusty than the one I saw in the guide online.

My car

Shiny car in guide 

The bottom bolt is done up to 190Nm and I’d managed to forget my breaker bar so this is as far as I got tonight. 
 

I should have done it earlier but I decided tonight I should really just replace the shocks as they look knackered. I almost bought the cheapest on eBay but instead settled on a pair of Monroes. Hopefully they’ll turn up soon. Tomorrow I’m going to remove both sides and split the struts apart. 

[Wgl2019]

Whilst you are in there I would suggest taking the arch liner out and giving it all a wire brush/ oily treatment of choice.......

[rainagain]

I got the struts both out tonight. However the side with the snapped spring has taken out it’s bump stop. 

 

I can find replacements on eBay but the delivery time is the 16th of January as is Amazon. Eurocarparts don’t have anything listed, but I’ll drop them a line tomorrow and see what they have. 

[Saabnut]

3 hours ago, rainagain said:

I got the struts both out tonight. However the side with the snapped spring has taken out it’s bump stop. 

 

I can find replacements on eBay but the delivery time is the 16th of January as is Amazon. Eurocarparts don’t have anything listed, but I’ll drop them a line tomorrow and see what they have. 

Try Bill at Saabits. If he has them they will be despatched the same day

[rainagain]

4 minutes ago, Saabnut said:

Try Bill at Saabits. If he has them they will be despatched the same day

Thanks I’ll give him a try as eurocarparts customer service isn’t open tomorrow. 

[rainagain]

I split the strut with the knackered spring and bump stop tonight. 

 

I had some bother getting the part circled below off the old shock but I held the strut in a vice and used a heat gun to heat up the tube until I could remove it with some vice grips  

I still can’t seem to get bump stops from anywhere, I’ve emailed Saabits after I called both my local branch and the main contact number for eurocarparts as they couldn’t find anything. I can get them from eBay but they won’t be here until a weeks time. I’m going to see if I can remove the other bump stop and take a trip to my local eurocarparts to see if there’s anything in stock that’s close to it. 

 

[Split_Pin]

Is there any way of cross referencing part numbers from other GM cars?

I see you have Vectra B rear suspension in your search there but I thought the 95 was a heavily modified Cavalier chassis with different rear suspension? The damper mounts also look similar to a New Gen 9-3?

[rainagain]

Saabits didn’t reply to my email so today I tried my local Dingbro, who despite selling me stuff in the past refused to sell me anything as I wasn’t trade. I then tried TMS motor spares in Rosyth. The good news is they can get my a new set of bump stops by the end of the week and they were only £18 the bad news was I had to pay the postage for them which was £14.50! This pothole is getting rather expensive! 
 

I got the other strut stripped down and luckily all the rubber parts are ok on it.