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Wet heater duct

811 views 6 replies 3 participants last post by  ahal 
#1 ·
Hi everyone,

Yesterday I was working on the offside rear door of my 1990 9000. The car has been condensing water inside like mad ( it is parked 'nose up' on a sharply sloping driveway ). The car is not in daily use :nono;

As I was fumbling about with the door, I noticed water coming out of the under - seat heating duct on under the drivers' seat! Wtf! :eek: How the heck could water be coming out there? Any ideas?

Thanks in advance,

Tony.
 
#3 ·
That's a very good question. Coolant levels have remained pretty normal, if that's anything to go by. The Aircon doesn't work ... I remember the seller telling me it needed to be re-gassed.

I really don't know a fat lot about the workings of the beast tbh ... bodywork no problem, taking things apart / putting together usually no problem ... but this has me confused.

Thanks,

Tony
 
#4 ·
Are you sure you have water in the door? Two possible sources of rain water leaks are the aquarium drains block which causes water to fill the AC evaporator box or heater box which then drains into the heater ducts particularly if the car is parked nose up. Secondly, the rear sunroof drain might plug which then leaks rainwater into the rear footwell. I have had both issues with my old 86 9000 of lamented memory (it recently finally died at the hands of a woman oaf who drove the hitch of her Ford F150 through the radiator, killing a perfectly good SAAB with 380,000 km on the original turbo and original untouched engine.)

Anyway, if not coolant then suspect the heater box and evaporator box drains or sunroof drains. Doors are designed to drain from drain holes in the bottom edge and the fix for water in the door is to clear those drains. Plastic cable tie works to poke the debris out without scratching the paint protection. Also, taking the door liner off and cleaning the bottom of the doors out by hand works a treat though more complex. Doors leak water into them all the time and this is normal. There is no condensation to speak of. The engineering solution is drains in the bottom edge of the door since you cannot keep water out of the doors.
 
#5 ·
Sorry, I didn't explain very well. I was working on the door because the thing you pull up / push down to lock the door was limp, hence ( to my alarm! ) the rear door wasn't locking. It turned out that the nearest plastic gromit which the mechanism 'hinges' on had snapped, so I replaced it with a rawlplug for the moment, and the locking mechanism is now funtioning :)

Is there something I can block in order to stop this water getting in? Tbh I wouldn't even know where to look. I'm getting the service manual next week :) I was just wondering about the turbo too. I often start the car and let it run for about 10 - 15 minutes. When the temp. is up half way, should I boot it to get the turbo spinning up?

Sorry to hear about your '86 model. I love them, and one day hope to have one. Sure, the Carlsson / Talledega / Viggen and so on are nice, but the basic 1986 shape, in my opinion, has a lot of clean elegant lines. I'd never say exciting to look at, but very very elegant.

A Ford F150 eh? Yikes, they're huge! :eek:

Many thanks,

Tony
 
#6 ·
No way to stop the water getting in wich is why there are drains at the bottom of the doors. Any water getting into the door is supposed to drain straight out the bottom.

No need to warm up the turbo quite so much. The key is to get the oil flowing and the turbo warm whic happens quite quickly, especially if you use synthetic oil which I recommend. Treat the turbo engine the same way as an ordinary engine during warm up. More important is to allow the turbo to spin down and fresh oil to reach the hot turbo before shutting off the engine after a hard run. If you have been running the engine hard let it idle for 30 seconds to a minute before shutting it off. Time it with a watch for the first couple of times as you may be surprised at how long 30 seconds actually is.

I too had a lock rod plastic pivot break. The real parts are not that expensive to get from the dealer.
 
#7 ·
Yes, SAAB parts can be pretty reasonable. It's a bit like Volvo really ... some bits are quite cheap, others not so. I think it depends on who makes the parts for them :eek:

My rear decor panels arrived from my friend Bob in Maine during the week, so that cheered me up! I spotted two of them on Ebay ... some guy in Danbury had two of them in the original boxes ( NOS ) so I bought them both! :roll:

Man, what I wouldn't give for a flat driveway! I've also noticed that you can forget even having a peep under the Carlsson unless your head happens to be about 3 inches wide! Great car though, I really have to get in on the road this summer.

Cheers,

Tony
 
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