Replaced the outer tie rod ends today, will have the front end aligned shortly so I can switch over to the wheels with the good tires. Old outer tie rods were completely shot, the steering wheel had a lot of movement when going over bumps, and it felt like the steering was binding when it was close to full lock. Feels a million times better now (even not aligned). I'll consider that a win!
The car is aligned, I'm going to get some bolts and new arms in the back so they can fully adjust that end, but it's driving much better than before. I've never replaced tie rods before, but based on my experience here, I'm going to check a few of my other higher-mileage vehicles!
I'm starting to work on the parts car with the bad motor. I wanted to confirm the motor was indeed bad, and I think I have. Unless someone from the hive has a better idea, the plan for the parts car is to strip off the main points of value, and send it along to clean up a garage bay.
Posted in another thread, but thought it was worth putting here, as well - good Saab DIY via YouTube:
So it's been an eventful month or so with Hazel. I had it aligned, but they said they said they couldn't align the rear because of some frozen bolts on the toe arms. Add that to the list.
I replaced both backup bulbs (one was out), and both rear fog light bulbs (only one rear fog light bulb is installed from the factory) while I had the trunk panel off.
I swapped in the driver's side seat from the parts car, which was in much better shape than the original. Also swapped in the AMP1 (radio amp under the driver's seat) from the parts car, and had a working radio (and turn signals)! Was really pumped as this is the 4th AMP1 I've tried in the car and the first time I haven't had the popping noise re-appear. I was excited and drove it for a few weeks with a working radio. Almost added it to the Minor Win's thread!
I noticed the A/C didn't seem to be working well (it was great when I bought the car), so I did some diagnostics. Cooling fan issues will prevent the A/C from kicking on, so I tested those via my Foxwell scanner and they checked out fine. Checked the low/high pressure with my A/C gauges and they looked a little low. Added a small amount of R134a, but the compressor still wouldn't kick on. I also swapped the A/C relay from the parts car with no change, so I jumpered the pins in the fuse box to start the A/C compressor. Awful screeching ensued, so I think the compressor is toast. Add that to the list.
The compressor pulley wasn't making any noise, but I figured bypassing the A/C probably made sense to avoid the risk of the A/C pulley causing issues. The Saab forums and FB group recommended a 35.5" belt (Continental 4050355), but that was too long and squealing on initial startup (I had replaced the serpentine belt tensioner recently, so I knew the belt length was the issue). Installed a new Gates K050344 35" belt and all was good in that department.
After I installed the new belt, I ran into two issues last week. The first was the loud popping sounds from the audio system were back. It started after I loaded some chairs in the trunk, so I wondered if I knocked a connection on the rear speakers. After some basic troubleshooting, I gave up and pulled fuse 14 from the fuse box on the driver's side of the dash and drove the car home. Went to start it the next day and got the dreaded "steering lock malfunction" message, so the car currently won't start. I'm in the process of pulling and cleaning the ISM (Ignition Switch Module) as that's recommended as the first place to start with these types of issues. But that error prevents the car from starting, so it's really annoying. I do have a backup ISM in the parts car, so I can use that if cleaning the current ISM doesn't do the trick. Thankfully, the ISM doesn't require a Tech2 to marry it to the car.
My biggest frustration with this car is as soon as I fix one thing and start to drive it, something else pops up. Guess that's the Saab story 
Not sure where to go from here. I took a $1500 car and probably dropped another $1500 (probably conservative) into it. That doesn't include the cubic hours of research & labor, and I currently have a $500 paperweight that won't start to show for it. Hopefully cleaning the ISM solves that problem, but Hazel's charms are wearing thin. My wife is even less thrilled about the parts car 9-3 taking up the other bay in the garage. I was looking into that, but my focus has shifted back to getting Hazel running again.
I originally bought this car for my teenage sons to drive. One of the challenges is that the audio system is not a typical system, it's all a fiber optic loop. On top of that, there are a ton of components, there's the ICM (basically the display), the EHU (the radio/amp), then the AMP1 under the seats. So short of ripping everything out and starting over with standard components, there's not a good way to add Bluetooth/Apple Carplay to the car. And the lack of a backup camera with new drivers really bothers my wife, and I share her concern. I did take it to a local shop, and got a quote for $1600 to install Apple Carplay and a backup camera, but all that depends on the original radio working well (which it isn't). There is a NLA aux cable that will give a 1/8" input jack, but that requires a Tech2 to activate. I did find out about a wireless backup camera system that has a solar-powered camera that others have used, so that's encouraging in the backup camera department.
Sorry for the rambling, it's been a frustrating couple of weeks. Hopefully I'll make some solid progress before the next update.
ISM has been cleaned, and the "Steering Lock Malfunction" error has gone away. The circuit board had some dirty contacts, which were resolved by applying Cyclone Cyd's fix. One note - don't use brake cleaner to clean out the switch itself, it caused my plastic to break off in chunks in a few places. Thankfully I had enough of the 8 original tabs to hold the ISM together after cleaning.
I also disconnected the AMP1 amplifier under the seat to stop the audio issues. I lose the radio and turn signals by doing this, but I'm getting white noise from the radio even when it's off, and I don't want to drain the battery. I'm happy with a running, quiet car.
Probably my favorite feature of this car is the heat - it produces heat almost immediately, and the heated seats are amazing! After freezing for 3 hours watching some lacrosse games, I was happy to jump in the car and have almost instantaneous warm air.
In other news, the 35" short short serpentine belt seems to be the perfect length, I've had zero issues since installing about 100 miles ago.
In reply to dj06482 (Forum Supporter) :
That's some great news on the ISM! I fear how a lot of those electronic modules are going to fare as the cars get older and older! I know that I've had a couple go-arounds with the ignition switch on my 1990 and I can't help but think that the contacts wouldn't corrode and get as dirty if they hadn't put the ignition switch down in the place where all the spilled drinks wind up!
wae said:In reply to dj06482 (Forum Supporter) :
That's some great news on the ISM! I fear how a lot of those electronic modules are going to fare as the cars get older and older! I know that I've had a couple go-arounds with the ignition switch on my 1990 and I can't help but think that the contacts wouldn't corrode and get as dirty if they hadn't put the ignition switch down in the place where all the spilled drinks wind up!
I generally like the ignition switch on the center console, but it's definitely more suscepitble to spills there - especially with a not-so-good cupholder directly behind it on the 9-3 SS. I was thankful I could take it out and clean it, and that seemed to do the trick. I do have a spare in my part's car, but am glad it didn't come to using that.
The blower motor has made intermittent squeaking noises since I've owned the car. Yesterday I dropped the blower motor, re-greased the top and bottom of the shaft, and re-assembled. The jury's still out on whether that worked, as I have heard a slight squeak on a few occasions. It seems to be much improved overall, but I may end up just swapping in the used blower motor I picked up from the junkyard last week while I still remember how to pull everything apart and put it back together.
One note for those playing from home, when re-installing the blower motor it slides up into place from the bottom (you'll see the vent portion slides into a channel that way). I had intitially re-installed it from the top, so I had to drop it and correct that. It was making some noise when I had it installed incorrectly, and luckily I tested it before I started putting all the trim back together.
This is the video I used from Paul Carter (Cyclone Cyd).
Here's the old blower motor prior to re-greasing:
I've been getting intermittent rear brake light failure warning messages on the display for a while now. I did some research and it can be everything from bulbs that are old and dying, bad contacts in the housings themselves, and wiring issues. Whenever I've checked, I've had brake lights, so I haven't been overly concerned about it, but it's annoying. So, I ordered some new P21 bulbs, and cleaned up the contacts in the housing themselves. I did give the wiring a good inspection and that all looks perfect, so fingers crossed it was the bulbs themselves.
The Volvo had a big brake light relay hidden under a trim panel about a foot forward of the tail light on the driver's side. I wonder if Saab uses the same relay.
The good news is that the brake light issues seem to be behind us. There's a ticking noise coming from the dash that I believe is the blend door motor, so I'll add that to the list.
One thing came up that's probably relevant to all Saab owners. I checked out auto insurance policy, and saw the per-vehicle breakdown. 6 months of collision on the Saab (KBB is probably around $2500) is the same amount as the total for our other three vehicles (combined KBB of $25k). Full glass and comprehensive were much more expensive on the Saab, but that collision number being 10X higher per dollar of KBB value blew me away!
I'm guessing the biggest factor is parts availability and finding shops that can repair them. But the difference in cost was much larger than I expected. Dropping collision was an easy decision.
So yes, this could cause a funky warm idle!
Our Rav4 had an issue where the pipe on the muffler rusted through, so my son's been driving the Saab while the parts came in for the Rav4. He said that he pulled up to a stop sign in a parking lot and the car stalled on him. It immediately restarted, which was good. I buttoned up the Rav4 last night, so I took a look at it today and sure enough, the tube from the air filter housing to the turbo had separated right by the turbo. No codes, etc. but I'm guessing this is the culprit. I had previously noticed a small crack and had wrapped some electrical tape around it until I could buy and install a new pipe. They're NLA, but I had bought a good used one off of eBay, so that's installed now and life is good again. I did order a silicone version of this tube because the plastic ones are very prone to cracking, and I also ordered a whole bunch of silicone hoses in 4mm and 5mm sizes to replace the vacuum lines on the car. Figured it's good preventative maintenance.
I've been doing more driving than fixing lately (a good thing), but two things came up recently. The blower motor that I re-greased has been getting progressively noiser (and more annoying), and the recirc actuator was clicking. I had picked up a replacement blower motor earlier this year, so I finally installed that. I took apart the recirc actuator and unforunately, the gear that had a tooth break off was one of the smaller ones that goes through a full rotation, so I needed to replace the whole part. Bought a new one off of Rock Auto, it shipped quickly, and all is nice and quiet once again.
T25 covers most of getting to the blower motor, the casing itself is held by 7 T20 screws. The recirc actuator is also T20 bolts, the back one is especially difficult to get to. I had to tape a torx bit to the screw to be able to start threading it back in. It took my about 20 min to get that bolt out, too. Not fun :-(
These were the videos I referenced:
Also replaced the crack-prone OEM plastic piece that connects the airbox to the turbo with a silicone aftermarket piece. I bought the black one to avoid drawing attention.
Im laughing, remembering why I have a ratcheting thingy with a T20 taped into it.
And I learned the silicone hose lesson as well.
I have eliminated 3-4 oil leaks, but still have to find one more. Ugh.
LOL - I ordered the same tool, but then I got impatient when the recirc actuator showed up from Rock Auto a day early. It's probably the most I've fought with a single bolt, and definitely the worst under-dash job I've ever done. And it's only the 2nd time I've bought a specific tool for one bolt (first time was a bolt on the back of my '01 Mustang's head near the firewall when I needed a flex-head ratcheting wrench).
Where's the oil leak coming from? I've been able to eliminate a bunch over the past few years:
- PS Pump Rebuild/Reseal
- Vacuum Pump Rebuild/Reseal
- Oil Pressure Valve (this one wasn't leaking, but can). I bought an extra by accident that you're welcome to, let me know if you need one!
- Oil Level Sensor gasket (this was my main oil leak, the sensor was fine but the o-ring goes bad, had to drop the pan for that one)
- Crankshaft seal (was done with I R&R'd the timing cover, which is another common leak point with the timing cover gasket)
The valve cover gasket is another one on my list, and the PCV valve under the intake manifold can also cause oil leaks if it's not working correctly).
On the coolant side, I've done the following to address/prevent leaks:
- New coolant reservoir and cap (preventative, but the cap was cracked)
- Top radiator hose (preventative, new hose has the metal T in place of the plastic T that breaks)
- radiator (had evidence of slight leaks, and at 19 years old, I didn't want to take that chance)
- heater hoses (leaked if they were bumped, the o-rings probably just needed to be replaced, but while I was in there...)
- water pump (was sporadically leaking)
- T-stat housing and gasket (housing bolts to the block were only finger tight!)
- coolant crossover pipe o-rings
I typically only take glamour shots when something is going up for sale, and unfortunately this was no exception. I've owned Hazel for a little over two years, and she had a good run in our house, but unfortunately never fit into a longer-term role.
I bought Hazel with the intention of having one of my teenagers drive her, but that never really came to pass. Strike 1 was the fiber-optic stereo that I could never get to work 100%. Strike 2 was after my oldest learning to drive on our RAV4, my wife and I said that a backup camera and Apple CarPlay were non-negotiable for a new driver. And Strike 3 was the fact that whenever I felt like I had wrapped up the last project, another issue popped up almost instantly. We picked something up that fit our needs better for teenage drivers over the summer (build thread to follow). I waited a few months to see how things played out, but ultimately 5 vehicles was one too many.
I ended up putting Hazel up on FBM, and had a bunch of interest. I passed her along to the first person that saw her, and included a trunk full of parts, fluids, etc. I bought her for $1,500, and sold her two years later with about 3k more miles for $2,500.
Lessons learned:
- For a car like this, it would have been better to pick her up after someone put a ton of work into her (like I did) and was taking a bath. I spent about $3k in parts alone, the only labor that I didn't perform was coding a new key and an alignment. I had hours upon hours of time into this car.
- Despite the low buy-in of $1,500, this was definitely not a bargain at the end.
- I learned to do a bunch of new work (oil pan R&R, balance shaft tensioners/chains, timing chains, struts/springs, that crazy water pump, etc.), so that was fun
- Collision insurance on cars like this is insane because if they get in an accident, they're totaled. Collision coverage on this car was the same cost as our 3 other cars combined (and their combined KBB value was about 10X Hazel's KBB). Once I saw those numbers, I dropped collision.
- Taxes were very low
- I saved two Saabs from the junkyard, this one, and the parts car. So I've done my part in saving the Saabs!
All in all, a good learning experience, and I was thankful to see her go to a good home.
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