Saab 9-5 air conditioning - usual behaviour?

[Bramley]

Hello all. I'm a recent convert to Saab, although I've wanted to buy one since I was a kid. However, after 10 years of wind-in-the-hair and bugs-in-the-teeth motoring in my MGB I've finally bowed to familly responsibility and 30k+ business miles p.a. and have bought a 99 9-5 estate.

I'm really enjoying the car, particulaly as the MG is not much of a joy in the middle of winter. However, I've had a couple of problems. The first (and silliest) was the failure of the electric window switch on the way home from the dealer. So next day I went back to the dealer with the window still open and he swapped the switch - problem solved.

However, while driving back to the dealer with window down, I also wondered why, when sitting in a traffic jam, I couldn't get the aircon to produce hot air. Remember, after 10 years of a 70's british sports car any form of car heating is a novelty. However, since then I have noticed that the aircon always seems to run out of hot air when the car has be idling for 10 minutes or so (mainly in slow traffic). I don't know much about aircon, so is this normal behaviour or is the controller on the blink? If so, is that expensive? I bought a warranty, but I gather that warranty companies try anything not to cough up (you mean you've been driving the car? Well, thats not covered, etc.).

Any advice would be gratefully received.

Thanks
Brian

[murphwiz]

Hi and welcome to saabcentral... :D

The ACC system in the 9-5 is generally excellant...
Can you elaborate on your problem a bit please?
If you set the temp on both sides to 26 or HI, do you not get heat from either side?
The AC should have no real effect on the heating, when on hot it simply de-humindfies the air, the actual AC compressor will not operate below 3c to prevent freezing of the condensor.

Let us know a few more details, I'm sure we can get to the bottom of it!

[mr saabman]

Hello Brian and welcome to the board :)
You say "I couldn't get the aircon to produce hot air." Could this not be the simple fact that the car had acheived the chosen temperature requested by yourself?
The 9-5 will blow hot air/cold until it stabilises the inside temperature as requested on the ACC panel.
As Leon says the 9-5's have an excellent ventilation system so please let us know if this is not what you meant :)

[murphwiz]

Also this might help with a bit of easy home diagnosics...
http://www.saab9-5.com/faq_acc.htm

[Bramley]

Thanks everyone for your replies. This is a well maintained board!

In answer to your questions, I'm pretty sure that its not just hitting the required temperature. When I first noticed (on the way back to the garage to fix the window), I was driving with the window down, in a traffic jam and the outside air temp was -1 C (can't find the degrees symbol on my keyoard!). On each occaision that its happened since it always seems to be a day when there is snow or freezing fog. Also, it doesn't matter how high I set the temperature. It also doesn't seem to matter if econ is on or off.

I must admit I hadn't checked to see if there was heat on the passenger side, but as soon as my wife is sitting there in a jam in sub-zero temperatures, I'm sure she'll mention it.

Thanks for the help. Apart from the minor niggle, so far the 9-5 is an excellent car.

Brian

[WhoMe]

Hi,

My 1998 Saab 9-5 has the same problem - intermtittently stuck on blowing cold air. Particularly after a long run.

Apparently it is a sticky thermostat keeping the engine coolant too cold. The Climate control is trying to heat the car, but there is no hot water to so it with.

What does your Temperature guage read? should be in the middle when warmed up.

[Bramley]

That sounds like it. It was the only thing that would make sense. My local garage wanted to rip out the air-con controller and replace it, but I didn't want the expense. Besides, I couldn't understand why it only happened in certain driving conditions.

I think the temperature guage used to show around about normal temperature, perhaps a little on the cool side. Can't really remember as the problem hasn;t happened since the weather warmed up a bit.

What was the solution? Replace the thermostat?