Hi all, first time poster so please bear with me!
I have a 1998 Saab 9-5 (4-cyl, petrol, LPT Ecopower), with stacks of miles on the clock (160k).
It’s been running fine, until around two weeks ago, when it lost all its ‘usable’ power. By that I mean, it will drive ok, but is noticeably sluggish. For example, go up an incline and it’ll struggle to maintain the national speed limit, even in 3rd gear.
My immediate thoughts were the turbo wasn’t working, or there was a blockage to the injectors (being an LPT model I have no turbo gauge, so I can’t be certain).
I can’t see any other notable problems, i.e:
No warning captions
Starts fine, first time and idles normally (fuel pump powers up on first click of the ignition)
No smoke from the exhaust either on start up or after running up.
Smooth revs – no surges or splutters when driving (I carefully revved it at idle, and it went through the rev range ok).
No clanks, noises or bangs that would worry me, its simply just the drop off in power (Also, there was no symptom preceding this drop off in power, the effect seemed to just happen without related problem or other warning sign).
What I’ve already changed:
New sparks plug fitted
Air filter changed
…..Both to no effect
Any ideas? I’ve heard about checking for vacuum leaks (?) but I really don’t know how to do this. I’ve also read about a ‘waste gate’ valve or ‘blow off’ being faulty – it doesn’t appear too expensive or difficult to replace – might this be worth a try? (Please see the attached photo, is this item the correct gate/blow off valve?)
Thanks for any help you can be!
I have a 1998 Saab 9-5 (4-cyl, petrol, LPT Ecopower), with stacks of miles on the clock (160k).
It’s been running fine, until around two weeks ago, when it lost all its ‘usable’ power. By that I mean, it will drive ok, but is noticeably sluggish. For example, go up an incline and it’ll struggle to maintain the national speed limit, even in 3rd gear.
My immediate thoughts were the turbo wasn’t working, or there was a blockage to the injectors (being an LPT model I have no turbo gauge, so I can’t be certain).
I can’t see any other notable problems, i.e:
No warning captions
Starts fine, first time and idles normally (fuel pump powers up on first click of the ignition)
No smoke from the exhaust either on start up or after running up.
Smooth revs – no surges or splutters when driving (I carefully revved it at idle, and it went through the rev range ok).
No clanks, noises or bangs that would worry me, its simply just the drop off in power (Also, there was no symptom preceding this drop off in power, the effect seemed to just happen without related problem or other warning sign).
What I’ve already changed:
New sparks plug fitted
Air filter changed
…..Both to no effect
Any ideas? I’ve heard about checking for vacuum leaks (?) but I really don’t know how to do this. I’ve also read about a ‘waste gate’ valve or ‘blow off’ being faulty – it doesn’t appear too expensive or difficult to replace – might this be worth a try? (Please see the attached photo, is this item the correct gate/blow off valve?)
Thanks for any help you can be!