Chet T16
Active Member
20/04/2007
After spotting his for sale on an irish forum i made the mistake of mentioning it to Chris. Anyone who knows Chris will be aware he has a 9000 soft spot. It didn't take him long to convince me and Hanna and I were on the way to collect it within a few hours of talking to the seller.
As advertised the car had a few fault. Namely engine mounts (common) and a dodgy TPS (again common) bald tyres and also the drivers door didn't open from the outside.
When i arrived the the sellers house i don't think he'd even got home from work so hadn't as much as got the car started, we faffed around for an hour or so getting it jump started and the tyres pumped up. On the first test drive it was apparent the throttle was sticking closed after booting it but i didn't think much of it. On the drive home it was faultless apart from the throttle sticking once which was sorted in a few seconds. It wasn't actually faultless as i soon discovered the 2 front headlight bulbs were blown so had to drive behing hanna with just parkers and fogs on.
Pics from the advert
[BREAK]
21/04/2007
First thing i wanted to sort was the sticking throttle so i stripped it off the car to see if it was overly dirty. It wasn't too bad but i gave it a good clean. I forgot to take the after shots
Throttle was still sticking after this and also the check engine light was being put on causing the ECU to stop the car from boosting. Not good especially given that the TCS/ABS/cruise control/boost control/drive by wire throttle are all connected together and a fault in any of these can send the can into limp mode.
While the engine mount problem the seller had mentioned wasn't too bad if you were smooth with the throttle i still wanted to get it sorted.
A quick look at the top mount (normally first to go) showed a much worse problem.
Luckily Alan was at hand with his welder to fix it. With it welded in place there is still some movement in the engine but nothing bad enough to warrant new mounts
[BREAK]
22/04/2007
New day, new helper. Grif came round and being an actual mechanic instead of someone who happens to have some tools
lol i pulled off the TB for him to have a look at. This time we pulled the end covers off to try make sense of just how it works. It turns out the sticking was caused by a bit of the cable linkage being worn and allowing the butterfly to slip slightly over centre and get stuck. It also became apparent that the motor in the TB (to override the throttle for TC and for the cruise control as well as idle control) was stiff and worn. I'm not sure of the exact setup but i think the motor also acts as the TPS.
With the linkage bent the throttle problem was fixed. The motor problem wasn't as easily fixable. Test driving suggested that the only effect of the engine light coming on was the lack of boost and no idle control. The idle was sorted by adjusting the throttle cable to open the butterly a bit as the motor should, no ideal but good enough for our purposes!
I figured the best thing to do would be to bypass the saab APC system. While this is very good system which keeps boost at the maximum safe level and allows the cars to run on any sort of petrol safely its overkill on a car that only needs to last a short while. Bypassing is actually quite easy as the APC plumbs in the same as any normal bleed valve. Ringing around all the lads it became apparent we weren't going to get a bleed valve today. Bugger. Logging onto ebay seen the purchase of one for the sum of £22 but its still not here today.
So we had to make one in true Mc Gyver fashion. Going back to basics a bleed valve is simply a device the bleeds off air between the compressor housing and actuator, you just need to know how much air to bleed off. I'll let the picture explain how it works but you should know this is a professionaly tested, installed and calibrated device. You can't just start with a 2.5mm drill bit and make the hole bigger until you reach desired boost levels :lol:
It boosts, it doesn't build boost as quick as it did with the APC but thats to be expected. Once the ebay controller is here it should be fine
Next job was to take a look at the drivers door handle.Stripping the door and removing the handle we found that it was the handle itself had broken and as lunk would have it, the broken bit was in the bottom of the door
Hats off to grif for the time and energy he put into fixing it. It now works perfectly
Next job is a leaky exhaust manifold gasket which won't be helping the boosting and sounds terrible.
Pics on the next page
[BREAK]
Lots of pics
[BREAK]
23/04/2007
New shoes!
Found 2 part worn 195/55 tyres to replace the bald fronts. Stuck them on and would you beleive theres no 1/4 throttle wheelspin in 4th now
The passanger side dip beam was giving trouble and it would seem that it was having trouble earthing through the putty someone had stuck the bulb in with. Need to clean that up to get a good earth
[BREAK]
25/04/2007
The exhaust manifold gasket arrived from GSF, £6 for the gasket, £8 for delivery.
Removing the manifold is quite straight forward as the nuts are easily accessible at the front of the engine. These are prone to snapping but they came off fine
New gasket compared to the old one.
Everything bolted into place and the car started...bugger still blowing from somewhere. Running the hand around showed 2 things a) it was leaking a small bit from the maniold to turbo join b) it was blowing from the underside of the turbo itself
Not a good sign.
As it was the car was blocking everyone elses car in so i couldn't take the turbo off to investigate until i moved them all around.
The rear passanger door wouldn't unlock so i tackled that to see what the problem was. As it happens it had the very same fault in the same door as chriss 9000. After getting the doorcard off with the door closed (not as hard as with some cars) it was only a matter fitting a nut and bolt into the linkage where the plastic clip had broken. I also discover the central locking solenoid was completely fecked. I found one on ebay and also bought a heated passenger mirror off the same seller
[BREAK]
26/04/2007
Turbo off. Again not a bad job as everything is quite accessible. The hardest part was manouvering it out of the bay.
This is what i discovered, i crack and missing bolt on the exhaust housing :x
Closer
To investigate further i had to pull the exhaust housing off. Thats just a matter of removing the 4 13mm bolts (3 in this case) and the housing can pop off. Except it was stuck fast and needed a few thumps with the rubber hammer. Something i didn't realise until the housing was off was that the 4 bolt holes are actually open to inside the turbo so it was blowing out of the hole rather than the crack. Looking at the pic above its quite obvious that was the case.
So a job for tomorrow is to find a bolt.
[BREAK]
27/04/2007
I found a turbo from a sunny GTI-R down the garage and plundered it for the 4 bolts as they were in better condition that mine. I also took the washer/bracket thing that clamps on the housing as the saab one was bent.
Back home and the turbo was reassembled.
Note the aerodymanically adjusted vanes
Arty farty shot down the compressor outlet
As i mentioned earlier there was a slight leak between the manifold and turbo. I happened to have a new gasket for money pits turbo so i put that on as i won't be needing it for a long time!
Turbo back on and started up shes as quiet as anything. The ebay boost controller turned up so i stuck that on but haven't had a chance to do a few runs and adjust it. It is boosting quicker and stronger than before. That'll be helped more by sealing the exhaust rather than the controller.
This pic shows the turbo with the engine running, you'll have to take my word for that!
Very short vid of a 3rd gear run, nearly into the back of a focus (also on the track) Boost is running slightly more than standard
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FmisgAb5xo"]YouTube - Saab 9000 2.3 Turbo[/ame]
[BREAK]
14/05/2007
SOLD!
After spotting his for sale on an irish forum i made the mistake of mentioning it to Chris. Anyone who knows Chris will be aware he has a 9000 soft spot. It didn't take him long to convince me and Hanna and I were on the way to collect it within a few hours of talking to the seller.
As advertised the car had a few fault. Namely engine mounts (common) and a dodgy TPS (again common) bald tyres and also the drivers door didn't open from the outside.
When i arrived the the sellers house i don't think he'd even got home from work so hadn't as much as got the car started, we faffed around for an hour or so getting it jump started and the tyres pumped up. On the first test drive it was apparent the throttle was sticking closed after booting it but i didn't think much of it. On the drive home it was faultless apart from the throttle sticking once which was sorted in a few seconds. It wasn't actually faultless as i soon discovered the 2 front headlight bulbs were blown so had to drive behing hanna with just parkers and fogs on.
Pics from the advert
[BREAK]
21/04/2007
First thing i wanted to sort was the sticking throttle so i stripped it off the car to see if it was overly dirty. It wasn't too bad but i gave it a good clean. I forgot to take the after shots
Throttle was still sticking after this and also the check engine light was being put on causing the ECU to stop the car from boosting. Not good especially given that the TCS/ABS/cruise control/boost control/drive by wire throttle are all connected together and a fault in any of these can send the can into limp mode.
While the engine mount problem the seller had mentioned wasn't too bad if you were smooth with the throttle i still wanted to get it sorted.
A quick look at the top mount (normally first to go) showed a much worse problem.
Luckily Alan was at hand with his welder to fix it. With it welded in place there is still some movement in the engine but nothing bad enough to warrant new mounts
[BREAK]
22/04/2007
New day, new helper. Grif came round and being an actual mechanic instead of someone who happens to have some tools
lol i pulled off the TB for him to have a look at. This time we pulled the end covers off to try make sense of just how it works. It turns out the sticking was caused by a bit of the cable linkage being worn and allowing the butterfly to slip slightly over centre and get stuck. It also became apparent that the motor in the TB (to override the throttle for TC and for the cruise control as well as idle control) was stiff and worn. I'm not sure of the exact setup but i think the motor also acts as the TPS.With the linkage bent the throttle problem was fixed. The motor problem wasn't as easily fixable. Test driving suggested that the only effect of the engine light coming on was the lack of boost and no idle control. The idle was sorted by adjusting the throttle cable to open the butterly a bit as the motor should, no ideal but good enough for our purposes!
I figured the best thing to do would be to bypass the saab APC system. While this is very good system which keeps boost at the maximum safe level and allows the cars to run on any sort of petrol safely its overkill on a car that only needs to last a short while. Bypassing is actually quite easy as the APC plumbs in the same as any normal bleed valve. Ringing around all the lads it became apparent we weren't going to get a bleed valve today. Bugger. Logging onto ebay seen the purchase of one for the sum of £22 but its still not here today.
So we had to make one in true Mc Gyver fashion. Going back to basics a bleed valve is simply a device the bleeds off air between the compressor housing and actuator, you just need to know how much air to bleed off. I'll let the picture explain how it works but you should know this is a professionaly tested, installed and calibrated device. You can't just start with a 2.5mm drill bit and make the hole bigger until you reach desired boost levels :lol:
It boosts, it doesn't build boost as quick as it did with the APC but thats to be expected. Once the ebay controller is here it should be fine
Next job was to take a look at the drivers door handle.Stripping the door and removing the handle we found that it was the handle itself had broken and as lunk would have it, the broken bit was in the bottom of the door
Hats off to grif for the time and energy he put into fixing it. It now works perfectly
Next job is a leaky exhaust manifold gasket which won't be helping the boosting and sounds terrible.
Pics on the next page
[BREAK]
Lots of pics
[BREAK]
23/04/2007
New shoes!
Found 2 part worn 195/55 tyres to replace the bald fronts. Stuck them on and would you beleive theres no 1/4 throttle wheelspin in 4th now
The passanger side dip beam was giving trouble and it would seem that it was having trouble earthing through the putty someone had stuck the bulb in with. Need to clean that up to get a good earth
[BREAK]
25/04/2007
The exhaust manifold gasket arrived from GSF, £6 for the gasket, £8 for delivery.
Removing the manifold is quite straight forward as the nuts are easily accessible at the front of the engine. These are prone to snapping but they came off fine
New gasket compared to the old one.
Everything bolted into place and the car started...bugger still blowing from somewhere. Running the hand around showed 2 things a) it was leaking a small bit from the maniold to turbo join b) it was blowing from the underside of the turbo itself
Not a good sign.As it was the car was blocking everyone elses car in so i couldn't take the turbo off to investigate until i moved them all around.
The rear passanger door wouldn't unlock so i tackled that to see what the problem was. As it happens it had the very same fault in the same door as chriss 9000. After getting the doorcard off with the door closed (not as hard as with some cars) it was only a matter fitting a nut and bolt into the linkage where the plastic clip had broken. I also discover the central locking solenoid was completely fecked. I found one on ebay and also bought a heated passenger mirror off the same seller
[BREAK]
26/04/2007
Turbo off. Again not a bad job as everything is quite accessible. The hardest part was manouvering it out of the bay.
This is what i discovered, i crack and missing bolt on the exhaust housing :x
Closer
To investigate further i had to pull the exhaust housing off. Thats just a matter of removing the 4 13mm bolts (3 in this case) and the housing can pop off. Except it was stuck fast and needed a few thumps with the rubber hammer. Something i didn't realise until the housing was off was that the 4 bolt holes are actually open to inside the turbo so it was blowing out of the hole rather than the crack. Looking at the pic above its quite obvious that was the case.
So a job for tomorrow is to find a bolt.
[BREAK]
27/04/2007
I found a turbo from a sunny GTI-R down the garage and plundered it for the 4 bolts as they were in better condition that mine. I also took the washer/bracket thing that clamps on the housing as the saab one was bent.
Back home and the turbo was reassembled.
Note the aerodymanically adjusted vanes
Arty farty shot down the compressor outlet
As i mentioned earlier there was a slight leak between the manifold and turbo. I happened to have a new gasket for money pits turbo so i put that on as i won't be needing it for a long time!
Turbo back on and started up shes as quiet as anything. The ebay boost controller turned up so i stuck that on but haven't had a chance to do a few runs and adjust it. It is boosting quicker and stronger than before. That'll be helped more by sealing the exhaust rather than the controller.
This pic shows the turbo with the engine running, you'll have to take my word for that!
Very short vid of a 3rd gear run, nearly into the back of a focus (also on the track) Boost is running slightly more than standard
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FmisgAb5xo"]YouTube - Saab 9000 2.3 Turbo[/ame]
[BREAK]
14/05/2007
SOLD!
