kush
05-01-10, 01:15 AM
After hunting craigslist for a month or two and checking out seemingly endless cars that were outside of the sellers descriptions I had pretty much given up. I saw this SAAB pop up from a "dealership" on CL and was weary.
I checked the car out one evening and gave it a drive, I was made aware that the first gear pops out and when I tried it all I heard was a grinding noise so I have avoided that gear since. The brothers who ran this little dealership thing bought cars from auction and flip them, he bought this one with some minor front end damage a few months ago and it has been a side project of his. The car ran well otherwise and after learning about its history I thought about it overnight and spent a few hours reading about these cars, carfax was clean.
The next day I headed back to check the car out during the day, followed the buyers guide from saabcentral and set a mental price point in my head as to what I was willing to pay for the car. After some haggling the seller met my price and I was the owner of a quirky 18yr old Swedish convertible.
It is a 5spd 16 valve turbo with 159,000 miles.
immediate maintenance:
10ft 3.5mm rubber/silicon tube for vacuum line over hall
case of mobile 1 synthetic for engine/gear box
coolant flush
new plugs/wires/cap
I am also considering running a can of seafoam through before I flush everything. If everything is good I will likely replace the stereo system next as I am not sure what is in the car, there is what appears to be an OEM clarion cd player and a pioneer cd changer controller between the seats, but I haven't found the unit yet.
Some photos:
http://web.me.com/r.y/saab/1991_SAAB_900SE.html
I checked the car out one evening and gave it a drive, I was made aware that the first gear pops out and when I tried it all I heard was a grinding noise so I have avoided that gear since. The brothers who ran this little dealership thing bought cars from auction and flip them, he bought this one with some minor front end damage a few months ago and it has been a side project of his. The car ran well otherwise and after learning about its history I thought about it overnight and spent a few hours reading about these cars, carfax was clean.
The next day I headed back to check the car out during the day, followed the buyers guide from saabcentral and set a mental price point in my head as to what I was willing to pay for the car. After some haggling the seller met my price and I was the owner of a quirky 18yr old Swedish convertible.
It is a 5spd 16 valve turbo with 159,000 miles.
immediate maintenance:
10ft 3.5mm rubber/silicon tube for vacuum line over hall
case of mobile 1 synthetic for engine/gear box
coolant flush
new plugs/wires/cap
I am also considering running a can of seafoam through before I flush everything. If everything is good I will likely replace the stereo system next as I am not sure what is in the car, there is what appears to be an OEM clarion cd player and a pioneer cd changer controller between the seats, but I haven't found the unit yet.
Some photos:
http://web.me.com/r.y/saab/1991_SAAB_900SE.html