ChasR's Repair Adventures! Ford/Saab.14/12 - More Saab Stuff

[ChasR]

It seems the 00s cars everywhere are becoming more noticed recently. I have a few suspicions for this.

-Designs still had chances taken on them, and a nod to the past
-It seems like the zenith of mechanical interaction, but with enough electrics to make things convenient
-They have an acceptable amount of options as standard
-They're still simple(ish) to work on
-Parts tend to be available(ish) and in a good quality.
-10s stuff is now pretty dear compared to how cheap 00s stuff was in the 2010s, and anything 90s and previous that people desire are now pretty expensive for something worth having. Christ, it seems even K11 Micras are climbing in value now! The 90s stuff can have parts supply issues too. Not bad for a toy, a bit iffy if it's a car you or something else has to depend upon at times.

One of the two cars will be interesting to you, the Saab 9-3 Convertible. I have a love-hate relationship with this car. The MkIV Mondeo Powershift of my dad's may be featured, along with my now sold, but not completely out of my life, 2.5T that I owned, with the 5 pot Volvo engine. The E91? I'm not sure. I think that maybe is a little too new. But, with E46 prices on the rise, maybe that deserves a place here. I never saw myself as an E91 guy, but, like hoopsontoast, after living with one, I wonder why I didn't get one years ago!

These cars all have a theme
-They're not owned by me, but by family members.
-I am the schmuck who fixes them!

I suppose maybe this thread is some therapy for me, and others in my position!

But for now, here's a photo of the main basis on this thread, the Saab 9-3. A car I know a few here have considered buying, especially when they are cheaper than their German brethren by quite a margin. Then next post will start from the beginning of this car, which came into my life in around 2013.

[ChasR]

So, where does the story start?

My friend would buy this Saab locally from a car trader, for I believe £3.5k. Just let that sink in for a second.

Back 2014, a friend bought a 92k 6 year old drop top for £4.5k. When I checked Autotrader, I couldn't find anything close that was a petrol for that money! It may even have been £3.5k, but I'd have to double check. But here is what I found.
















Ah, car prices.

He would take this Saab to Spain a handful of times, and get it worked on at Saab Surgery or Bagnall Saab. In the meantime, I'd do the oil changes on it for him. But, I'd get to go in it on road trips, not thinking alot of the car. It even went with me to go and get my M3 when my friend had it, that was back in 2016.








That's how life was with the car until 2016, when he bought a replacement.

A 2009 BMW E89 Z4 3.0i SDrive. Quite a different machine which seemed like a night at day difference to him.



Obviously this is where the Saab would enter the ChasR family, where I will say more next time .

[ChasR]

This brings us to 2016, when he came to sell the car.

BMW at the time offered him £1.2k for the Saab. Yup, after 2 years of ownership, they offered him a pittance. I was there in Sytners with him at the time. However, I had a bit of a plan, which I only thought of that moment, as is the RR way, if he was a Mandalorian.



Some would call it a brainwave, others would call it stupidity.

My sister at the time had a handed me down ex-private hire 2007 Mk3 Mondeo, which my dad and I drove from 133k to 315k, where at which point, my sister was gifted the car. I know, we're a great family giving out great cars right?

In our defence
-The interior was very clean
-Exterior actually looked OK
-It had alot of work done to it over the 4 years my dad and I drove and owned it
-It was on an LPG conversion
-Suspension was fresh all round
-It recently had a DMF and clutch put in
-It was on 4 Michelin Primacy 3s all round.

Here's a shot of it at 315k.



Did it have it's problems? Of course it did!

-It had an odd smell inside despite being cleaned alot.
-The rear quarter had been hit slightly in the past
-It had a monumental oil leak, from which I suspect was the rear main seal. Annoying as it had a DMF fitted and the leak really should have stopped, if the garage did the job right. Very annoying. Fitting an undertray did help massively.
-It was beginning to use oil, around a litre every 1000 miles, but Duratec HEs aren't unknown for this.

So, we decided it could live out its life for someone else. £350 later to a pub owner, and he was over the moon. He drove it, but I believe he was also the maker of that car. Ah, happy times. When cars were cheap and easy to by.


The way I saw it, the Saab was known, fresher, and something different for my sister to own. My dad, well, being my dad, wanted to offer Rich (my mate) £1200. I basically told him no way. My dad loves a bargain, but why would my friend sell something, to incur alot of hassle. All of us were busy around then, so it's not like we could drop him off at the dealership and wait around. So we settled on £1400. Rich would get some nice furnishings for his new place, and my sister would have a cheap drop top.

Yup, in 2016, my sister became the owner of a 2007 Saab 1.8t Linear on 117k for £1.4k in late 2016. Many folks were telling me I stole the car at the time. I thought it was a fair price TBH, but what do you folks think? I would be the chap who would drive it back and sort things out for her.

The first drive back if I'm honest didn't enamour me. In short

-The 2.0 turbo engine didn't feel that fast! Maybe torquier than the 1.8 in the Mondeo but not much faster
-You could put another gearbox in between the ratio gaps. It was stupidly easily to stall in 2nd in town, meaning you either slipped the hell out of the clutch in 2nd at low speeds, or drove around in 1st, with folks wondering why you weren't changing up. It also couldn't really pull in 5th on the motorways. If I am honest, it seemed similar in pace to a Ford Ka with the Endura-E unit aka the old Valencia lump.
-It was skuttle shakey, but all drop tops do that
-Steering had zero feel. The EPAS steering in a B6 Passat and my E91 are more feelsome, which is saying something. This is despite the Saab having a hydroelectric steering setup
-The Mondeo just drove nicer. I'll come back to this later.

But, it was something different and something my sister on the face of it liked. So I got to work.

First thing was to give it a full service. While I changed the oil for my friend, I didn't really change much else, and neither did the specialists! Out came the plugs.







Yup, they were done!

Did it drive alot different? It possibly started up better and was maybe slightly smoother but that was about it. I then mopped it, making it shine that bit nicer, all done with :

-Megs 105
-Megs 205
-Lake County Polishing pad for both.










It looked alright!

I even fitted some parking sensors. But what would my sister think of the car? We'll find out soon enough.

[westbay]

eerrmm, I might has missed a bit !, but, how did a BMW Z4 morph into a Saab ?

[qwerty]

Aug 24, 2022 9:19:38 GMT westbay said:

eerrmm, I might has missed a bit !, but, how did a BMW Z4 morph into a Saab ?

His mate replaced the Saab with a Z4 so ChasR bought the Saab off him for his sister.

Tom

[ChasR]

Aug 25, 2022 16:59:11 GMT qwerty said:

Aug 24, 2022 9:19:38 GMT westbay said:

eerrmm, I might has missed a bit !, but, how did a BMW Z4 morph into a Saab ?

His mate replaced the Saab with a Z4 so ChasR bought the Saab off him for his sister.

Tom

I probably typed it out in a rush! In essence, what Querty said is exactly what happened. I suppose for my friend, the Saab morphed into a BMW? I'll add the word Saab in above to the reply and allow the thread to make a little more sense.

My sister liked her new car, mainly as

-It's cooler than a Mondeo
-It looks better than a Mondeo!

But did it drive better than one? No. I think I hinted above that it seemed a little lacklustre. What didn't help is that the gearing was miles too long, and the engine seemed ashmatic. Sure it did move, but there was no real verve about how it went down the road. My sister though the same thing, noting:

-The steering wheel felt like it was connected to nothing ; I find it very lifeless too TBH.
-The Saab just didn't feel like it held the road well. She thought this was down to the lack of weight in the car, not realising a Mondeo and a 9-3 weigh a similar amount. We'll touch on this later, however.
-Despite having a 200cc larger engine, and 30BHP more, it really didn't feel that much faster, if any faster than the Mondeo, a car with almost 3 times the mileage to boot! The Mondeo could pull in 5th on the motorway, the Saab would need to go into 4th to move. 5th is super tall. Back then, it was the tallest top gear I had on any car.

Despite this, she did enjoy having a drop top for what was effectively her 'first' car.

The AC was broken when we had the car, so that go fixed. However, it did require
-A Compressor
-AC Condensor/dryer assembly.

This would be the 3rd compressor the car saw. When my friend bought it, it had one then too. This time however, the company tried to flush out the compressor and the AC pipework to give it more of a chance this time.

This is how the car would be until late 2017, where changes would come along the way in the form of wheels.

[qwerty]

Interesting to read about the Saab convertibles. They always seem very tempting when I'm browsing sub £2k stuff

Tom

[ChasR]

Aug 28, 2022 7:26:11 GMT qwerty said:

Interesting to read about the Saab convertibles. They always seem very tempting when I'm browsing sub £2k stuff

Tom

Stay tuned. I ended doing more work on this .

[ChasR]

The time came in 2017 to change tyres. What I'm going to say next will be familiar to many.

My friend had put mid-range stuff onto the car, consisting of

-2 Kumho KU31s up front
-2 Toyo CFIIs at the rear.

I from years ago went to sticking with the big boy brands, after flirting for a decade with mid-range and budgets. The handling of this car was never great as you can tell. What then happened was to find some replacements. My dad went the same way as me with tyres, which is why the mega-mile Mondeo was on Michelins. It did help that 16s were cheap on that.

Unfortunately, that was not the case on this Saab. It was a victim of funny tyre sizes. 215/55R16 for those wondering. How much? About £120+ a corner! Quite an expense! I think the Toyos set my fried back £80 a corner. Considering Michelins on the Mondeo were £75 a corner, the prices seemed excessive! While we debated what to do, a cheap set of alloys came along.

We (well, my dad and I) searched and searched for ages. Many folks wanted £400+ for mediocre wheels. One day however, a set of Aero wheels turned up for the princely sum of £135, with 4 good tyres. The downside? they were in Wisbech! A bit of a trek from Warwick. That said, I went up and picked them up, and even met up with some friends down that way, so that made the trip a little more worthwhile.

£135 howver doesn't get you alot of wheel! They were straight, but

-2 of them wanted a refurb, due to the paint beginning to come away from the rim
-1 had already been started on, but not finished, out of the two wheels above.

But on the flipside:
-They have 4 good tyres, 2 Landsail LS388s and 2 Conti SportContact 3s.

Being the cunning, and cheap guy that I was, along with practically every powdercoating shop being closed over the Xmas period in 2017, I grab some spare bits I had to hand, including some Renault Iceberg Silver paint, some primer, filler primer, etch primer and sandpaper. I wasn't after perfection, just something which was an improvement from before.



Suffice to say, it looked good, better than I expected, even with no wetsanding. Yes, it could have been improved with wet sanding, but I just needed a set of legal wheels on the car.






It was then time to compare, and fit the new wheels on.















It's fair to say, the usual formula of going with a bigger* set of wheels on a car of the same type worked out well, especially with this car being an odd model! I suppose I should have said this earlier!

*but not the biggest size .

This car is a half-facelift. How can you have a half facelift, I hear you ask? Well, I suppose it's when the bean counters are in, and trying to seamlessly enter in certain changes over others. This car, being so, had the earlier exterior but thankfully, the much improved interior of the later cars. It also meant these wheels were correct for the car.

Would the drive improve much? Time would tell, as would a drier day than Xmas time!

[ChasR]

In short, the drive of the car was improved. It still felt a little disconnected between the axles at times, but it was fine.

However, to brighten it up, I ran some thinners on the centre caps. If I had known, I'd have sanded them back and lacquered them. Ah well, lesson learned. It's fair to say, for a car which cost £1.6k in all, it was a smart looking car coming into 2018.







Things were rosy here, and I spoke well of Saabs at this time, even if I didn't like their driving dynamics. However, this would be the beginning of things going sour

Not much happened over this timeframe, except, after trying to reset the service counter (I was a little too late to reset it), the car got stuck with it claiming it never needed.

Unlike BMWs or Mercs, only TECH2 can reset these service counters. At the time, Snap-On Solus had no idea what a Saab even was (pretending it's a Vauxhall didn't work), so I had to go to Bagnall Saab, where they reset it for a reasonable price (£30). Yes, it may be expensive, but bar shelling out £200+ for GM TECH2, what were my options?



Amongst this time, my sister would fit on Goodyear Eagle F1 tyres up front. I know folks here claim tyres are black and round, and don't make a difference. I'll be honest, I noticed a difference, but to me, it only highlighted moreso how underpowered this car was. I also only drove it in the dry, where the differences weren't as apparent. My sister, obviously drove it as a daily. She noticed the difference straight away, and she berated my dad and I for making her drive around on

-Kumhos on the 16s
-Landsails on the 17s

Such was the difference with the F1s. The car felt planted in the wet, and far safer to her on her 100 mile daily commute. It's just as well, as we had bigger plans for this car.

We then decided to remap the car. One name was mentioned by many to go to : NoobTune. It turned out the B207 2.0 Turbo, branded as 1.8ts, were woefully underpowered, even though the engine started out life as a 170BHP unit, culminating as the 150BHP lacklustre engine that we had. £80 later, and 30 mins behind a laptop, and the car was good to go. It went from 150BHP to around 210BHP. A 60BHP increase. Big claims, which I was skeptical over, but to be honest, 150BHP seems woeful from a 2.0 turbo unit. How was it?

The gearing in this car is something I've moaned about. 1st is too short, 2nd is so tall that it can be stalled in town. Except, now it was harder to stall it. It finally had that low end grunt it was missing for a long time. Then came the motorway.

Instead of coming onto the motorway in 3rd gear, maybe 4th if you were lucky, 4th gear now had plenty of pull. This car could now comfortably sail into 3 figures on a private road in 5th, as opposed to needing to go into 4th before, to do any kind of overtaking. Then there was the power band.

Sure, it didn't quite as much punch as you wanted below 2kRPM. Above that however, it was like another engine. It would pull all of the way to the redline without hesitation. Finally, this car was fun, and showed what the engine could do!

However, the car still had a number of problems

-Rear discs at the time seemed impossible to change. So I changed the pads, and realised the slider bushes and area around them wasn't great
-Brakes had never been great on this car
-Wheels needed refurbishing

So we decided to throw some cash at this car, after owning it for 3 years. We refurbished the wheels at City Powdercoaters. At around this point, Covid came along. Also at this point, the car got hit, since my sister was a teacher, thus was one of the folks still going into school.










Someone reversed into the side of it, while my sister was driving through a car park. Annoying? Definitely! Then came the time of seeing

-Whether it would be written off
-What would be the decisions from here

[ChasR]

Hindsight can be a wonderful thing. You also think that, if things seem bleak then, things can get bleaker.

We needed to make a decision about this Saab. Having friends in the trade didn't help, and bear in mind, the car was crashed during the first lockdown. The way I saw it, we had a few choices, pending the insurance payout.

-Buy a replacement. At this time, for my sister, I recommended a PCP. She doesn't like broken cars, I don't like fixing her cars, and I have a dad who is all too keen to fix cars for family when they go wrong. A noble gesture, and maybe less selfishly, I was like that too.

However, going off trader mates, anything for sale was very much poor. Folks were keeping hold of their existing cars, unless they were done. We almost got her onto the idea of buying used-approved. I wanted to steer her into something German, mainly as they come with a 'new' car warranty which is extendable. Something which I understand other brands don't do. I didn't like fixing her car to her very tight schedules (she's a teacher, so it's basically the holidays I have to wait for, in order to fix things ; not always practical).


-Fix her car. Obviously, this would depend on the insurance payout. It would be quite a bit of work however.

Naturally, you can guess what we did.

It was then time to get it assessed. Naturally, no one could get a 1/4 panel for a Saab 9-3. That meant very lengthly repairs, with fancy machinery, like what Ed China wielded about in a Wheeler Dealers episode. This was not going to be cheap.

With the insurance money through, we decided to repair it. Great I thought. From starting to work on the car, I would come to regret this straight away. Naturally, I had big plans for the car, including

-Brake overhaul ; they never quite worked as well as I hoped
-Full Service ; it was around due
-Door lock fix ; the driver's door stopped locking all of the time. Great if you are a young woman driving through Brum, even better that the car doesn't have a key lock fitted to the driver's door.
-The dent ; finding a guy to fix it locally

Can you tell that I am thrilled looking back? Well, it's time to start with how things got rolling.

Firstly, I got a Kenwood CarPlay headunit. The car had zero Bluetooth functionality, so I thought I'd fit it before it went into repair. Normally, the headunits with me, go in, and they work. Even the stalk controls work fine. I should have known this would not be a simple fix.

In order to make this work with the steering controls, I ordered the Connects2 connection kit. With this car having a later dash, it should have worked. Should, being the operative word. With a Canbus connection kit, it should have been easy to fix.

It didn't. I followed the instructions to the letter, and the Connects2 Videos. I even called them, only for one guy to say, this is why these cars should got to specialists for them to fix, and that no consumers should fit these parts. So why then, did they bother making public YouTube videos?

Would I recommend you buy Connects 2 products? No. Things were looking bleak.

I even put a video out, to no avail:



With this, I ruled out the Connects 2 kit, and bought the InCarTec. However, I would not be able to try it, as I dropped the car off to the local bodyshop to repair. This would take some time. More than I banked on to fix.

[ChasR]

It was with the bodyshop for what seemed to be a month. It spent more time being moved in and out, than actually worked on.

At least the rear 1/4 was getting underway





During this time, my sister had my Mondeo 2.5T, to which I preferred driving, and clearly, she did. I also wanted to do some work to it, which I will detail later on. I suppose, I wanted my car back ASAP. What was meant to take 2 weeks tops clearly was going to take longer. I didn't bank on how much longer it would take however.

There was a bit of two and thro ing, with the bodyshop feeling like we hadn't been charged enough, which was annoying (it was close to 4 figures to repair it, which to me anyway, seems excessive, but I'm happy to be corrected here . But the car did come back looking fine.

So, the car was back. It still had a number of issues. From a radio that didn't work, to a car that could still stop better than it did. It was time to crack on

I sorted out the radio, which helped matters. The InCarTec kit worked well. Would I recommend getting bits off Connects 2 in the future? With their abysmal service? no chance. That was one thing fixed.

Next, it was time fix the brakes. The rears as I alluded to, were bodged a while ago by yours truly. The fronts had never been touched. After 40,000 miles and at least 5 years, there was still plenty of meat left on the pads. Maybe they were cheap pads, which didn't work very well?

With this, I set about removing the fronts. I would immediately come across a problem. This had the E-Torx bolts fitted. Not a problem I thought, I have them, but in a 3/8" drive. With an adaptor, they should come undone, or so I thought.

I was wrong, very wrong.

I initially tried a 3/8" ratchet, which did nothing. I then tried a 1/2" ratcher, which again, was useless. These folks who say people must be weak if they can't undo it, I'd have loved them to try on these.

I would then try the DeWalt rattle gun. Again, nothing. I would then try a large breaker bar.




It damaged it. I then tried a spare adaptor. It snapped it. By this point, I was sick of the car, went home in a strop, and just wanted the car gone!




It seemed I'd be stuck with this heap

[ChasR]

It was fair to say, I was not enjoying working on this Saab. Maybe I missed the Mondeo that much! It could also be I stumbled upon why these cars are cheap. Whatever the reason, I'd push on.

Clearly, my 3/8" drive sockets were going to get me nowhere. There was only one thing for it. Some 1/2" Impact sockets.

With these on the rattle gun, one of them came out super easy. It goes to show, the right tools can make or break the job. I'd try the other with the breaker bar. After a massive crack, and the car moving about a bit, that one also came out fine. This however, would uncover a new problem. The disc would not come off the hub!

Fortunately, I've been here before a few times. I could either bash the hell out of the disc, and potentially damage the hubs/bearings, or destroy the disc, by cutting down it, and relieving the tension in the bell of the disc. With this, I grabbed the reciprocating saw, which my dad claims I love more than life itself, cut through the disc until I hit the bell. With one tap of the hammer, the disc fell off. This technique works brilliantly everytime



Before I did the rears, I thought I'd take the car out on a roadtest. It seemed I was wise to do this. The front caliper had seized on, badly. I tried freeing it off, but it would not have it. Being my sister's car, I didn't want to take any chances.

So, it looked like it needed a new front caliper, and the Chinese one I inadvertedly ordered didn't quite look the same. What's more, from looking into the piston area, the piston didn't even look coated! Everyone has told me the calipers on eBay are no different to the overpriced stuff at the local places. So in the end, £70 got spunked onto a new OE replacement caliper from the motor factors.

Yup, the replacement looked exactly the same. It may have been OK, but it was my sister's car, not mine, so I couldn't take that chance.







The rears would also prove to be fun! It should just be a simple fact of removing the carrier bolts right? Well, that's what they were expecting you to think



Yup, it wasn't that simple. Due to the rear suspension bolt, I couldn't get the impact socket on. The clearance was too tight, and I didn't want to go at it anything but square on.







I then realised the socket was never going to go on, despite what the Pelican Parts site sites. I had heard (and many Saab folk) told me an E-Spanner could do it. But considering the bolts probably had not been touched for 140,000 miles, alone with the fronts being a pain to undo, I had my doubts, and I really didn't want to spend yet more cash and time on spanners that may not work. So what did I do? Get creative.

Moving the suspension up and down made zero difference to the access of the bolt. That was ruled out. There was only one thing left. Remove it partially. 12 year old car on 142k. I'm sure the bolt would just come out. Well, the rattle gun and an E16 socket on the highest setting along with PlusGas removed the nut. The bolt surprisingly was free to move inside, which was a big relief.

It would turn out, the way I did this job is actually how Saab tell you to do it from their Work Instruction Sheet (WIS). No, really. This has to be one of the most stupid rear brake pad changes I've ever done on a car. The Aeros don't have this issue as the carrier can remain in place while the disc is removed. That is not an option with the solid disced cars. I have a video, which I'll upload later, as I would come back to the brakes in 2 years time. I just would not know it then.

I then removed the Carrier bolts with the breaker bar and an E18 socket. Yup, I was quickly getting my money's worth out of the Impact TX-E socket set.



The best part of the job? Trying out a new windback tool, but an air powered one. This made putting the pistons back a very quick job indeed, and far less fiddly than the mechanical ones.



This saved valuable time and made a fiddly but simple job much easier.

The steering also needed changing as the UJ had failed. Not a problem I thought. A £150 shaft ordered later and it was a pain to fit. Actually fitting it was fine, but the new shaft itself wasn't the best made. The bolts bound going in, so much that I stripped a bolt, and the re-tapping and cleaning process revealed junk inside of the shaft which didn't help.

A bit of time with a drill bit to enlarge the bolt hole, which stopped the binding, and some Dremel action to get rid of flakes of metal in the shaft, finally had the shaft going in OK. This really shouldn't have been necessary on a part of this value. But I guess where you can't get OEM parts (Sorry Saab folk, I searched and I couldn't find a genuine replacement ; this one was from Neo Bros) you don't have a choice

Finally, the car was done, and I could ship the heap away from my memory! I was sick of an awkward car to work on, with poor parts availability, and iffy parts at that. I suppose it could be forgiven, with the wind in your hair and the car hitting boost! Or maybe not...




It seemed like a waste of a week, as I booked the time off work to fix it in that week. I never banked on the brake pad change taking almost a week in itself to do. I hoped to never see this car again. I was wrong. I'd see it in almost 2 years time, which would bring us to this year annoyingly. More on that next time.

[ChasR]

It seems that I forgot to share more pictures. So it is time I corrected that situation!

Despite me hating the car, at least I could see the shiny discs







I suppose it looks alright, and I can see why folks do like these and the potential value that they represent, even if they are a Vectra underneath the frock.

This car however, would come back into my life at the start of this year. It crept up like a warm kitten. I'll leave a few shots. Some who have done this job before may know how the job went down if they can guess what I'm going to do

[Davey]

My only response... Ughhhhhh

[ChasR]

Dec 6, 2022 11:13:00 GMT Davey said:

My only response... Ughhhhhh

Dec 6, 2022 11:13:00 GMT Davey said:

My only response... Ughhhhhh

You mean, I should have been more cheerful about working on a Saab? 🤣.

After I Had finished working on the brakes, I thought I better mop up the car. It wOuld be the second time I’d do this in 3 years.

I’ll let the pics do the talking here.

[ChasR]

Was this the end of the car before I gave it back to my sister? Of course not! The driver's door lock decided it didn't want to lock on the keyfob anymore. Handy, if you are a young woman driving through Birmingham most days. That's fine, I hear you folks say, use the key! Well, there is a catch.

The keen eyed viewers will have noticed that this car doesn't have a key barrel in the driver's door, only in the passenger door, meaning that, to open it, you'll always have to go inside the car to open the driver's door. Great when you just want to go back from work, or if you are in a hurry. Bear in mind, the key is hidden away in the keyfob on this Saab, meaning you have to dissasseble the key fob in two pieces to use the key. The car is also started on the keyfob!





Fine I thought. I'll disassemble the door lock, and use an online guide to rebuild it.

www.bentasker.co.uk/posts/documentation/vehicles/371-saab-9-3-door-lock-unit-repair.html

I followed the instructions, albeit some areas didn't get much coverage, as much as I would have wanted them to. I came to assemble it. Our survey said, no. Still no working doorlock.

Calling Bagnall Saab, they said, the above repair is very hit and miss, and they themselves don't yield much success. Being a GM/Saab, the door locks are now NLA. Fantastic. A car which will forever, have to accept that the door can't be locked. Valuables hidden away? Don't worry, they can be nicked? Work laptop, when you go out to meet folks? Tough? Safety? Tough.

I hated the car at this point. I ended up bagging a door lock off Bagnall for £30 with a 3 month warranty. At this point, I just wanted the car gone.

However, my sister was happy to have the car back. The door lock would go again in 2 months, but my dad never went back to return the lock, and my sister's being a teacher during Covid, just didn't have the time to hand the car to us, unless we gave her a car. I don't know how her colleagues cope. Maybe this is why folks have PCPs.

Anyway, a year down the line, she would get a Mercedes S204 C250 CDI Sport, for a very good sum. The car wanted for nothing. Truth be told, I wanted it! But she needed the car more than me, and I didn't want to spend north of £4k on a daily car, no matter how nice it was.

With this, the Saab came back to my dad, who would use it now and again to go to work. Come to 2022, it would come back to me, for more work. I'll say more on this next time. It was indeed for the brakes, which as you can guess, went as well as anyone expected.

[stealthstylz]

Dec 2, 2022 7:23:17 GMT ChasR said:

Would I recommend getting bits off Connects 2 in the future? With their abysmal service? no chance.

I've got a sneaking suspicion this is actually my fault. When these half facelift cars were new I was the first person to order a Connects2 radio stalk/amp adapter in the country which had just been released. On fitting it, it worked perfectly so I sent the customer on their way (car had done about 1000 miles at that point). He phoned up about 2 hours later saying the car was rattling and wouldn't start. We got it recovered back and after much faffing, a new DMF and 2 new starter motors we fathomed that the connects2 kit was keeping the start motor engaged after the key had returned to the run position. They modified the kit but I could never get one to make the stalks work after that.

[ChasR]

There is no need to say it's your fault stealthstylz, to be fair.

Maybe I'm being swayed by this car appearing to be a swine to me. You never know, you may have saved my old man a flywheel and a starter. In my case however, the Connects2 box refused to even turn the headunit on ; the Saab doesn't have a ignition wire in the harness, but a CANBUS ignition signal. I can only surmise that the Connects 2 couldn't detect it. Maybe the chap's reply annoyed me, but it seemed like a lacklustre service. Would it have been too hard to explain that earlier half-facelift cars aren't suitable?

Oddly however, the InCarTec kit has never had the steering controls work with that, now you mention your experience. The other way regarding a stereo harness would have been to have found an ignition source which wouldn't drain the battery, which was an issue on the CLK ; it would always drain the battery. On the E91, if I ever get to writing about that here (be it age or time reasons), I found out that picking the wrong CANBUS signal can destroy batteries, due to the drain on the battery ; That came to me with a towbar, and a CANBUS signal box.

Now, back to the Saab!

This year was a year of new things. I would become an uncle, start a new job, Go from one car I had for 5 minutes and buy something else (The E91). Some new home improvements. What would also be new, would be catching Covid for the first time, after avoiding it for 2 years. Ho hum.

After being knocked down for a week, my dad, sod's law, had a problem with, you guessed it, the Saab. The brake pads I had fitted on the rear around 2 years ago were down to near the metal again after barely 2 years, with one side being worse than the other. At the time, I was aware that the calipers were not as free as they were. I told him, that basically, it was going to need new rear calipers. Since after 6 days, I was better, albeit still quite achey, I decided to lend him my Mercedes CLK, and for him to leave the Saab on my drive. For anyone wondering, if anyone cares, I did not go into my CLK since I found out that I had Covid, and he took precautions anyway (cleaning the surfaces we'd touch etc.)

On around the 7th day, I would wheel the Saab into the garage. This would be the first time the car had entered my manshed.



With the new parts, including new rear calipers, and pads, this should have been a simple job. Should being the operative word



Come on. You know it's not going to work out that way. This is the car that never fails to disssapoint, and create issues. Naturally, this is exactly what this did.



That was my problem. Seized handbrake cable ferrules. The ferrules had corroded and naturally, expaneded in the housing. Since the calipers are alloy, we had a classic case of electrolytic corrosion. Balls. I would try heat as much as I would dare, without melting the cables too much, attempting to target the caliper area. I would then try hammering the cable out, only to now mark the ferrule. This would potentially stop the cable from being reusable again. There was nothing for it, but to accept the inevitable, as anyone with these Godforsaken Saabs/GM curse word would realise. Either the handbrake cable, or the cable would have to be destroyed in order to remove them. This is, what appears to be, somthing most Wrectra C owners go through.



I weighed up the pros and cons for a day. The handbrake cable would involve me getting on the floor, dealing with heatshields that have never been removed, as well as buying new handbrake cables. The calipers would cost me the surcharge of them.

The price difference between the cables and the surcharge was the same. With that in mind, I informed my dad, that the calipers would have to be binned, unless he wanted to battle it out with a European Car Part Motor factor, as to whether the old calipers could be taken back.

With that in mind, I grabbed the Dremel, and got to work.




With that, I wasted no time in fitting the new calipers. Suffice to say, this was very simple. Naturally, unlike when this turd was assembled, I would grease the cable, where the ferrule entered the caliper body.

The end result? A car, which had better braking than since we even bought the car, and a gain of near 5 MPG. Bear in mind, the car passed an MOT with the calipers in a semi-seized state, but the drag clearly wasn't enough to question the MOT man, or the rolling road machine.

The downside? I would have iffy knees after this. Whether it was Covid, me rushing into working on the car, after basically being in bed for half of the week, or me squatting while working (Jesus, I squatted alot!), Lord knows. What I do know is that, I was glad for this heap to be gone, and for me to be back in the Merc, even it was a loud 5 cylinder thing.



Would this be the last time I would see the Saab again? You know how that is going to go...

[Gusman_2286]

Just did the rear calipers on my 9-3, hand break cables are a right pain. I was wanting the £30 quid back on returning my old calipers to Euro car parts so went with a stilson on the cable to eventually get it turning. The cables are a bit chewed but still operate fine...for now anyway.

That caliper bracket mounting bolt, man I know that pain!