SAAB 9-3 Taxi

[Chris Cristini]

Well one of the drivers ended up stranded yesterday and its a timing/compression related fault so let's see what it is I am going to start tearing in to the engine.  have a bunch of pictures to share 















Its done another Saab story the owner wants to sell or part it out On CL bent valves almost no compression on 3 cylinders that's sad considering how nice the car is oh well.












It was at this point when he wanted me to stop he said he would not have the money to pay for all of my work I told him I will change the belt all of the gaskets and see if we can find used heads to make it a bit cheaper. He said screw it.

[Chris Cristini]

Oh lol sorry its a 9-5

[190mech]

So what happened?The cam sprocket marks looked good,or is it a 6 and has a different belt for the other head?All the European stuff are 'quirky' designs,that tend to explode if something goes amiss..I'm a US/Jap car fan,but they too make tictok bomb designs also!!

[Chris Cristini]

It a one belt serpentine like system the timing was dead on I should have took a pic of the old plugs 3 of them where burnt and crispy which makes me think the valves are toast all of this I bet is caused by the Direct Ignition modules and the DTC that has been stored for months regarding multiple misfires Saab's Direct Ignition uses the spark plug to measure Ions in the combustion chamber to sence Knock and PRI ignition It probably would still be going strong if it was fixed.

I think Saab's trionic ECU and DI is a really unique system and they where the first as other car makers copied its functionality and changed small things like individual COPs and other stuff. The trionic ecu is so good people take them out of old Saab's just to make them stand alone Engine management systems.

It really is sad to see a wonderful engine that GM destroyed.

[190mech]

I guess the owner made the right call,more to fix it than what its worth..

[Chris Cristini]

Agreed even though my stubborn a$$ hates to see it unfixed but it is what it is

[cwazywazy]

Saabs are nice. My dad had an 03 9-5 wagon, really nice car. Then a tree fell on it.

I like Swede cars in general, actually.

EDIT: Maybe you could buy it from him? Might not be able to make a profit, but you'd get to keep a nice car on the road.

[Chris Cristini]

I think I might buy the turbo off of em he only wants $10 for it   also I might be interested in the HID head lights and a DI pack for research purposes.

[cwazywazy]

Offer like $200 for the whole car? Could part it out or fix it.

[kagetenshi]

I would offer $250 if it was near me. It is worth about $1500 pieced out around here.

[kagetenshi]

Hell, anyone around d Nashville, tn want a k&n air filter for a 2004 impala?

[aeroxbud]

I used to love the old Saab cars. Quirky but generally well built.
I love the way Vauxhall gave them the Vectra to base the 9 5 on and said they could change a few bits. Saab changed 95 percent of the car as they did not consider it well built. I guess that's one of the reasons they are not trading anymore.

[Chris Cristini]

I loved my 9000cs it was a very unique car I believe the dual OHC engine was rated on the top ten most reliable Turbo charged gas engines of all time for cars anyway. It died at over 200.000 miles after avoiding a collision with some impatient meat head pulling out of a store parking lot hit a high curb and all of the lines, Exhaust pipe and front end components got obliterated even jammed the oil pan it to the crank it all could have been fixed but same situation not worth it. The cool part about that car is it still had the original Turbo charger and at that time I have never seen a turbo last as long and still produce boost.

[cwazywazy]

My dad's turbo didn't last that long. Seal blew out and it made an ungodly amount of smoke.

My Swedemobile is an old Volvo 245. Slow, but reliable and a pleasure to drive. Only $200 too.

[Chris Cristini]

Well he changed his mind I get to tear the engine down and see what it needs yay lol. Hopefully I get more then $15 for this job.