How I Added a Zero to My 900: SAAB Thread

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Automotive Insanity > How I Added a Zero to My 900: SAAB Thread

Mario: Oct 29, 2006; It's-a-me!

Spiritual Thirst posted:

I just got a 1998 9-3 as a total car novice so I'm writing all this down while I look for the button that turns the wipers on my headlights on. Do any of you guys know where I can get a manual online? I've had a look around but nothing so far.

They turn on when you use the windshield squirter. Consider yourself lucky if they both run and park themselves properly though.

# ¿ Feb 6, 2010 05:44

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# ¿ May 13, 2024 15:14

Mario: Oct 29, 2006; It's-a-me!

Mcqueen posted:

Problem 1:
Since I've owned the car it's made a particular noise. When I'm off the accelerator and the car is in gear it makes a whining sound, kind of like a spinning chain. I thought it was the timing chain but it doesn't make the sound at idle at start up and never really goes away as the car warms up, both things people say that happen with an old chain. Could it be something else in the car?

Is it only in certain gear(s) or all gears? I have a whine from the transmission in 4th gear which I think is from a worn bearing due to low fluid level at some point. Check the fluid level and check for leaks around the output shafts. If it is a more irregular sound though, then I doubt this is it.

Mcqueen posted:

Problem 2:
Theres about 3/4 inch of play in the clutch pedal before there is any resistance. The grip point is therefore pretty close to the floor. I'm used to this, as its been that way since I've owned it but I have access to a garage for next month and I want to make good use of it. From what I understand the clutch and brake system are one, so I should bleed the brakes (need to install new rotors anyways so it would be a good time to do it) and then find the clutch bleeder and do that too, or is this a problem in the clutch cable that, as far as I know, has never been replaced? IIRC the clutch cable is auto adjusting?

You mention bleeding but also cable adjustments. The clutch is hydraulic, so there is no cable involved. Try bleeding it to see if it improves.

# ¿ Sep 18, 2010 01:20

Mario: Oct 29, 2006; It's-a-me!

Mcqueen posted:

I was unaware they changed to hydro clutch systems so early. Do you know where that nipple might be hiding? I have one of those motive power bleeders, can I just hook that up to the reservoir and bleed away?

The bleed valve is on the top of the bellhousing where the line enters. You may want to try this in addition to the power bleeder if you suspect there is air in the slave:

Click here for the full 1715x1096 image.

# ¿ Sep 21, 2010 05:57

Mario: Oct 29, 2006; It's-a-me!

Is the engine up to temperature for most of the time, or are they mostly short trips? Still, 14 seems awfully low even for short hops.

Are the numbers from the SID or calculated based on fillups and mileage?

# ¿ Mar 9, 2011 03:10

Mario: Oct 29, 2006; It's-a-me!

In the NG900/OG9-3 the little speaker inside the SID itself sometimes goes out.

# ¿ Apr 3, 2011 02:49

Mario: Oct 29, 2006; It's-a-me!

Is it the mini in-dash sensor fan that is making noise? They run for a few minutes after key off and make noise if their lube dries up. It could be related to the temp control too, since if it is not moving any air, the sensor will be as warm as inside the dash and the system will think that the cabin is that temperature.

# ¿ Apr 19, 2011 01:17

Mario: Oct 29, 2006; It's-a-me!

Nystral posted:

No on the inside between the door jam and the window. What you've linked has a plug on it and wires from the car run into this piece. I've trawled through that site and I can't seem to find a name for it.

The EPC helpfully calls it a "Cover" and it is part number 12794342.

# ¿ Apr 20, 2011 01:44

Mario: Oct 29, 2006; It's-a-me!

Viggen posted:

I know there's basically nothing usable for WIS w/ the 9K, and my Haynes schematics are kind of worthless trying to track that down - it just has magical battery->alarm->ignition type of logic boxes.

This is for the 900, but it may help. No first hand experience with these systems, just reading the schematic.

216 is the ACC unit, 500 is the ICE module. The ICE is what really controls the relay (113) by grounding pin 35 to turn it on. Pin 31 on the ACC reads this voltage and turns on/off the icon on the display. I assume that manual operation of the defroster is controlled through the other two wires between the ACC and ICE. H- components are connectors, J- components are just test points (I think).

Does the icon on the ACC turn off when you try to turn it off manually (but the element keeps drawing power)? Could be a stuck relay.

This is apparently a test connector somewhere (I have no idea where it is found on the 900 even, let alone a 9000).

# ¿ Apr 21, 2011 06:41

Mario: Oct 29, 2006; It's-a-me!

Well, 03s (non convertible) start the next generation of 9-3. I think for Viggen <-> NG900 the center mufflers are a direct interchange, and the only difference on the rear is that the Viggen has a different tip.

localized, any tips for swapping the strut inserts, springs, and strut bearings? I've worked with the control arms, subframe, etc. enough already, but nothing with the strut assembly itself. Any must-have special tools besides spring compressors?

# ¿ Apr 30, 2011 02:17

Mario: Oct 29, 2006; It's-a-me!

kimbo305 posted:

The SID reported a different bulb being out, and I replaced that and got it to go away. In the process of checking which lights were coming up, I realized I had no idea what the hatch halves of the light were for. So I guess the car has the capability, but has some wiring issue preventing reporting those bulbs being out.

The rear fog light(s)? In which case, should come on when you turn them on (there should also be an indicator light in the gauge cluster). Sometimes a bulb is only installed on one side for the fogs depending on laws and how closely someone cares to follow them.

# ¿ Jul 14, 2011 06:23

Mario: Oct 29, 2006; It's-a-me!

Exactly those. Both the headlights (full on, not just DRL in the off position) and the rear fog light switch need to be turned on for them to light.

# ¿ Jul 14, 2011 07:02

Mario: Oct 29, 2006; It's-a-me!

The_Raven posted:

My '98 900SE Turbo's alternator spit the bit. I looked up the procedure on Alldata and the replacement doesn't look too brutal, but I've never done it. Is this doable in a driveway with jackstands? Any tricks I should know?

The allen bolts can be stuck pretty good; I've heard of some people that have broken them or ruined the head. The threads are on the far end.

The alternator itself can be sort of wedged in the bracket too thanks to corrosion (pain points highlighted in red). Have a prybar or similar handy to help work it out of the bracket. It might help to clean up the surfaces when installing the new one too.

You'll probably have to swap the existing pulley onto the new unit as well, but I don't recall any issues doing that.

# ¿ Aug 19, 2011 02:13

Mario: Oct 29, 2006; It's-a-me!

Nuclear Tourist posted:

I won't be able to fix this by myself unless I have access to a reasonably well equipped garage, will I? Cause I just told the tow guy to dump it at the local repair shop.

I just replaced mine using the "cut a hole under the seat" method, although I took the easy way and replaced the whole pump assembly instead of just the insert. The only "special" tool you would need for this is something to turn the locking ring.

# ¿ Sep 10, 2011 02:39

Mario: Oct 29, 2006; It's-a-me!

ACEofsnett posted:

The # is ys3df75n8s7000912

Thanks for your help yet again.

(I don't really care who has the vin, I have nothing in my life worth taking)

The 2.16" bore one is correct; both visually and cross-referencing the part number listed on thesaabsite.

# ¿ Oct 28, 2011 05:41

Mario: Oct 29, 2006; It's-a-me!

Here are the locks.

And the black DIC is not doing you any favors unless a T7 engine was swapped in for some reason. It probably won't blow up, but I wouldn't leave it if I was keeping the car.

# ¿ Aug 19, 2012 18:01

Mario: Oct 29, 2006; It's-a-me!

Viggen posted:

poo poo. It looks like the pull bar is the one that came out. You don't happen to have one anywhere that you can get a picture of, do you? It looks like it's supposed to thread or otherwise attach into the lock. The plastic shroud holding it to the latch is broken, and the other side just has a plastic 'tensioner' which gently eases down the threads.

So the bar marked #4 in the first pic does not attach to the striker latching assembly? I don't have any way to get a picture without tearing one of the doors apart, but I seem to remember that it was just a plastic clip (like you would find in the "Help!" rack at a parts store) holding the "L" on the end of the bar in the hole.

I think the center caps on the wheels are only ~$20 new from Eeuroparts.

# ¿ Aug 20, 2012 02:57

Mario: Oct 29, 2006; It's-a-me!

Viggen posted:

3) Any idea how hard it is/where to get to the ebrake sensor in the NG900? Light comes on at start, but does not register w/ ebrake on. Not sure if California will check for this, but better safe.. if affordable.

The switch actuated directly by the hand lever in the floor console. It's pretty easy to remove the plastic shroud - remove the piece around the lock cylinder (it's just snapped in) to reveal a screw holding the main section, then remove the rear section (held on with a screw in the rear ashtray area) to reveal the main bolts holding the shroud to the floor.

# ¿ Sep 3, 2012 00:50

Mario: Oct 29, 2006; It's-a-me!

The wiring diagram has pinouts (not all that detailed though):

354 is the "bass amp".

I'm amused that the speaker wire colors are different between LHD and RHD models.

# ¿ Sep 8, 2012 02:01

Mario: Oct 29, 2006; It's-a-me!

Viggen posted:

$700 Non-Turbo 900 Hatch.

Don't let the no-reverse phase you. It's probably just a grounding problem.

says it's the shift linkage. I bought mine with a busted linkage and both reverse and 5th were unusable. It can be checked pretty easily too if you know where to look.

# ¿ Sep 20, 2012 02:23

Mario: Oct 29, 2006; It's-a-me!

Definitely the right choice. Mine has worked well for years after a cleaning and a drop of oil. Are you talking about the headlight wiper or the windshield wiper not parking correctly?

Went to the junkyard to get a "new" rear window regulator after the plastic piece in the driver's side unit finally gave up. Two of the three 900s on the lot had the regulator broken in the same way, but the third car had one in good condition. The real treasure though was an SID2 unit I picked up on a gamble because it was only $5. Got it home and ALL the pixels work perfectly!

I meant to get some pics of the door latch mechanism for you, Viggen, but totally forgot until I got back home.

# ¿ Sep 25, 2012 01:55

Mario: Oct 29, 2006; It's-a-me!

Viggen posted:

Trying to get the front headrests up in the NG900. I can't do it. They're in the lowest position and they're stuck SOLID. I've pulled the clips and put my weight behind it. They just won't loving move.

4 loving bolts and the seats are out but I cant get the goddamn headrest up.

Does it feel like one of the two posts is stuck, but the other is moving freely? The left side post has notches at each adjustment position and seems to be the culprit if the headrest is stuck at the lowest position. The right side post only has a single notch at maximum extension, and once you get to that point, you need to release it by pushing the latch spring away with a screwdriver or something. None of this should take a ton of force if nothing is broken.

http://imgur.com/a/wvtDC
This shows releasing the latch bar on the right hand side post as well as the notch positions on both posts, and a reference pic with the headrest removed. In the second pic, you can just barely see the latching spring on the right hand post (left side of the image). Both work in a similar way, but the left side has a "clip" to disengage the latch spring. for ordinary day-to-day adjustment.

# ¿ Sep 30, 2012 21:28

Mario: Oct 29, 2006; It's-a-me!

Viggen posted:

LIES! ALL LIES!

Here are a couple of pics of the guts of the latches. First one is the hand-release latch, second is the tool-release latch.
http://imgur.com/a/rXlS0

The spring steel parts are just stamped/folded and are not super strong. One of them might have gotten deformed through wear or abuse and is binding up the mechanism. If it's the hand-release one, you can pull the plastic clip out and then try to press both sides in with more substantial tools. I can't see how the other one could be an issue because the headrest post is smooth until the last, single notch at maximum extension.

# ¿ Oct 2, 2012 01:46

Mario: Oct 29, 2006; It's-a-me!

Yes, the thick part of the spring section engages with the notches on the headrest post. The first picture shows some wear on the metal bit. It's bowed outward slightly; any more and it might not engage on the notches.

# ¿ Oct 3, 2012 02:10

Mario: Oct 29, 2006; It's-a-me!

Viggen posted:

Yup. New NPS is a little flakey too,

And here I thought that a Sensonic system would have the most troublesome maintenance. :v:

# ¿ Oct 13, 2012 19:33

Mario: Oct 29, 2006; It's-a-me!

Nothing specific to the gear selector cable, having not worked on one, but I'd just check the full run of the cable to see if there were any kinks or binding points, possibly removing the cable to clean and lube it, then throwing parts at it if nothing helped yet.

# ¿ Oct 13, 2012 20:59

Mario: Oct 29, 2006; It's-a-me!

Viggen posted:

I've never seen an inefficient cat code from an exhaust manifold issue. It's more likely that the stud is broken, and you'll have to drill it out, which is a complete pain in the rear end.

Really, your options are to learn to live with it, or expect to get completely hosed on having someone else deal with the exhaust studs. They tend to last about 10 years; replace ALL of them at one time.

As usual, YMMV, I'm only a shadetree, and Mario/others may have further insight beyond my 'this is what mine do/have done'.

I'm right there with the shadiest of shade trees, having nothing beyond personal experience to work from (NG900 and a T5 at that). But I agree that the stud is more likely to be broken off -- only the truly lazy or forgetful would leave it out unless there was a broken piece remaining.

That TSB revision is awesome too.

# ¿ Nov 16, 2012 02:21

Mario: Oct 29, 2006; It's-a-me!

I was going to suggest that the SID might be involved based on the wording in your WIS images. Maybe try removing it to see if the behavior changes?

And I think "They were all rescues. This one was found abandoned beside the highway" would make a better title :unsmith:

# ¿ Dec 7, 2012 03:32

Mario: Oct 29, 2006; It's-a-me!

Viggen posted:

Merry SAABmas, everyone.

Early SAABmas gift for myself. 3" Taliaferro downpipe/midpipe to replace the aging stock downpipe. The flexible section on the old downpipe is almost completely separated from the catalyst, and while it could be repaired, what better time to upgrade?

# ¿ Dec 16, 2012 02:18

Mario: Oct 29, 2006; It's-a-me!

No, didn't need anything custom on this; just ordered from the site. I haven't had any problems with them, but it's disappointing to find out that might be the exception.

# ¿ Dec 16, 2012 04:06

Mario: Oct 29, 2006; It's-a-me!

It's pretty common. The motor drives a cable on a pulley system to slide a piece up and down a track, which raises and lowers the window. The problem is that there is a plastic piece in the slider which breaks and suddenly renders the window inoperable. This happens often enough that when I pulled a regulator at the junkyard to fix mine, 2/3 of the cars there were broken with the same problem.

# ¿ Feb 18, 2013 05:43

Mario: Oct 29, 2006; It's-a-me!

It's not too bad to replace, just a bit tricky to get the cable re-strung. You might have trouble sourcing the part though, so consider replacing the whole unit with a salvage one.

This is a repair/upgrade part, but it costs $40 :psyduck:

. The video on the page should help you though.

# ¿ Aug 3, 2013 08:27

Mario: Oct 29, 2006; It's-a-me!

ryden posted:

Thanks for the info guys. We've decided to just leave it for now. The video Mario posted was helpful, but it seems like getting the whole assembly out of the door is going to be a pain in the rear end.

You've done the hard part already. Now just drill out the five rivets holding the unit, unplug the cable, and remove.

When re-installing, it helps to have a way of holding the glass partway up. I used a loop of tape going over the top of the door, protecting the finish with a towel.

Mario fucked around with this message at 04:20 on Aug 17, 2013

# ¿ Aug 17, 2013 04:17

Mario: Oct 29, 2006; It's-a-me!

If anyone is needing instrument panel lights, here are some leads to avoid paying $texas from eeuroparts or similar. I got a few of each of these to replace burnt out ones, since any pulls from the junkyard are probably all burnt out too.

Backlight bulbs for SID LCD $0.88 at Mouser ( :10bux:

at eeuroparts)
Backlight bulbs for ACC panel and SID buttons $0.89 at Mouser ($11 at eeuroparts)

Or if you want to search elsewhere, keywords are "neo-wedge" base and "T-1 1/2" bulb size.

# ¿ Nov 3, 2013 04:17

Mario: Oct 29, 2006; It's-a-me!

I've never tried it, but this bulb looks close to a match:
http://www.allelectronics.com/make-a-store/item/LP-70/14V-NEO-WEDGE-BASE-LAMP/1.html

# ¿ Nov 16, 2013 02:37

Mario: Oct 29, 2006; It's-a-me!

If you have a meter with a decent low-voltage range, you can use the probes on each leg of the blade fuse while the fuse is still installed. A voltage drop through the fuse itself will exist in proportion to the actual current draw in that circuit. This is less likely to confound the problem when dealing with all of the computer-controlled modules.

http://www.iatn.net/forums/13/39089/draw-test-using-voltage-drop

# ¿ Nov 17, 2013 23:23

Mario: Oct 29, 2006; It's-a-me!

West SAAB Story posted:

T5 is the SAAB engine management software, the predecessor to T5.5, and T7. You don't really need to know this, unless you are going to get balls deep into changing things. All HPT SAABs after the 900 are TD04, and LPT are G17s (factory, at least).

Slight addendum, the 1999 9-3 is either a Garrett T25 for the standard (B204L) and most HOTs (B204R), or (supposedly) the Mitsubishi TD04 on very few of the later HOTs. All the HOTs will have a cross-flow intercooler though.

# ¿ Nov 22, 2013 02:37

Mario: Oct 29, 2006; It's-a-me!

Yeah, it's a bit wacky, but a bit of junkyard investigation seems to agree with forums on this.

# ¿ Nov 23, 2013 03:46

Mario: Oct 29, 2006; It's-a-me!

Extrapolating from the NG900/OG9-3, so this might not all apply, but consider if you will need:

Strut mounts / bearings (no better time to replace them if they are at all marginal)
Ball joint nuts (single use)
Axle nuts (single use)
Pipe wrench / chain wrench / etc. to hold strut and remove large nut holding cartridge
Ball joint separator tool or other method to separate them

# ¿ Jan 10, 2014 03:13

Mario: Oct 29, 2006; It's-a-me!

West SAAB Story posted:

Anybody have a compatible bulb for 4383782? I'm blanking. It is stronger than the standard 9000 instrument bulb, so it has to be like 1.2-1.4w. I have a 9-3 ACC that just arrived and its missing, and I don't have a reference bulb.

This is the big one on the ACC for the LCD panel, right? I think the bulb is the same on the NG900 ACC, which I happen to have a spare handy for.

Taking some measurements makes me think this is the closest match:
Bulb http://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/JKL-Components/194/?qs=sGAEpiMZZMucm%2f%252bFOY0TQsCfAYPjCD2Jug1PrIlxZfs%3d
Base http://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/JKL-Components/2933/?qs=sGAEpiMZZMv%252b7lHaI%2fk89COhP0LSyiUl2W6I97XxRr8%3d

# ¿ Apr 3, 2014 02:07

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# ¿ May 13, 2024 15:14

Mario: Oct 29, 2006; It's-a-me!

West SAAB Story posted:

...at least until I need to use WIS (which I've already virtualized).

I thought the same thing about the WIS and had been running it virtualized for years. But then I tried running it non-virtualized the other day and it works fine (NG900 WIS, Win 7 64 bit). Just go into the WIS directory and run TABMAN.EXE -- the installer program is what seems to be incompatible. Sure makes printing a hell of a lot easier.

# ¿ Apr 16, 2014 01:23

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