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Ugh. Depressing.

2K views 40 replies 13 participants last post by  TheRedBaron 
#1 ·
Well, the other night it snowed here, and it wasn't too bad, until I got into my neighborhood. It was about 30-45 minutes after it had gotten dark, so the bottom layer of slush was just starting to freeze, making it basically a big ice rink. I was going slow, but there's one turn I had to make that slopes downhill, away from the turn. Well, as luck would have it, it was also one giant ice patch, and I curbed my left front wheel :( Pretty treacherous, my roomate did the exact same thing in his jeep an hour later when he came home. The area was covered in sand the next day, I guess it is a "problem area" for ice in the neighborhood.

Anyway, now I've got some massive positive camber. The lower control arm is seriously bent, but luckily it seems to have taken the full brunt of the impact. The tie rod, spindle and upper control arm (thank goodness for that one) seem to be straight and true. Unfortunately I don't have the tools required to replace the lower control arm, nor do I have the time to go to the junkyard and then fix it this weekend :( Which means I have to take it to the shop. Luckily the place is close enough that I can drive there going 15 mph (there's quite a shimmy in the front end).

Ugh, and all this right before the holidays :( I'm pretty crestfallen, just needed to vent. Thanks for listening!
 
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#3 ·
nutcase said:
Bad luck :( This is why I agree with those who say not to reinforce the A-Arms. A lot cheaper to replace than the front of the body :)

Sure you don't have the tools? Two bolts, five nuts and it's off. Reverse to replace.
Well those nuts on the bracket can't come off without a long socket (which I don't have).

Then there would need to be an alignment done anyway, which I can't do myself. Also, I'd rather have a more experienced set of eyes looking at the suspension parts, just to be safe, and make sure I haven't compromised anything else.

I suppose I could go to the junkyard later, and butcher some poor car trying to get an A-arm off with vise-grips and a hammer, and see what happens. But last time I was there, there was narry a c900 to be found (athough their stock does rotate fairly quickly).

Maybe I'll try it!

edit - I also don't have the 19mm or whatever size socket/wrench is needed to get off the ball joints/tie rods. maybe my buddy does, I'll call him.

THanks for the encouragement.
 
#6 ·
even if you can't get one out of the yard they are $50 on eeuroparts.com I believe.


That really sucks man, we had a siilar snow here and one of the members in our Saab club came up from Washington for the meet and did a similar thing.

It happens to the best of us.
 
#11 ·
Sounds like you did exactly what mikewiththespike did last year :cheesy:
 
#12 ·
Thanks for the kind words, guys! Well, I'm back. I found a 900t vert with one, it was a little rusty, and I got it 90% off, but I couldn't find the 19mm long socket that I had borrowed in my bucket, and then I got kicked out (they closed). Of course when I got back to my car, I found the dang socket in the most obvious of spots :roll:;oops::x So I'm gonna get up at the butt crack of dawn tommorow and be there with the one tool i need right when they open and spend 4 minutes taking the rest of the thing off. Then rush back, put it on, all in time to watch the Bills shellack the Dolphins at 1:00!!!

900t said:
Sounds like you did exactly what mikewiththespike did last year :cheesy:
Except I was going probably 5 mph and not trying to impress anyone! Seriously, the ice made me accelerate down the hill into the curb, despite my best efforts :lol:

The heartbreaker here, though, are the two dings in my superaero. I hope I can find someone who can fix it, or at least find another one for sale.
 
#16 ·
IronJoe said:
I wish you'd stop showing off in your car all the time.
Ok fine, there were three high school girls on the corner. I yelled out the window "Hey, ladies, you know who erik carlsson is?!?!" tried to left foot brake around the corner at high speed, and proceeded to sh*t the bed into the curb.

I can still hear them laughing.
 
#17 ·
where do you support your car with the jack-stands when you replace the lower control arm? whenever i have the car up on the jacks, i always anchor them against one of the lower control arm mounts... for a lower control arm repair, i cant imagine where i'd put the jack stands...
 
#18 ·
TheRedBaron said:
Ok fine, there were three high school girls on the corner. I yelled out the window "Hey, ladies, you know who erik carlsson is?!?!" tried to left foot brake around the corner at high speed, and proceeded to sh*t the bed into the curb.

I can still hear them laughing.
Quite. EVERYbody knows that if you're going to imitate Erik, you have to roll the damn thing. He didn't get known as Erik-on-the-roof for nothing.

Honestly. Amateurs.
 
#19 ·
Deniss, the car at the junkyard was just supported by tires, but when I do my car I will just use factory mounting points on the side of the car with maybe a backup stand up front.

TooMany2cvs said:
Quite. EVERYbody knows that if you're going to imitate Erik, you have to roll the damn thing. He didn't get known as Erik-on-the-roof for nothing.

Honestly. Amateurs.
Hahahahahahaha you're too much!
 
#20 ·
TheRedBaron said:
Ok fine, there were three high school girls on the corner. I yelled out the window "Hey, ladies, you know who erik carlsson is?!?!" tried to left foot brake around the corner at high speed, and proceeded to sh*t the bed into the curb.

I can still hear them laughing.
so I'm not the only one known for "grace under pressure" eh?

Sorry to hear of your mis-adventure RB - hope you got it all sorted out - I feel like a real sh1t for not reading this earlier and coming down to help you out -

Have a great holiday

steve
 
#22 ·
SteveTheFolkie said:
so I'm not the only one known for "grace under pressure" eh?

Sorry to hear of your mis-adventure RB - hope you got it all sorted out - I feel like a real sh1t for not reading this earlier and coming down to help you out -

Have a great holiday

steve
Oh, Steve, don't be silly, don't expect you to drive 3 hours to help little ole me! :D

Well, I swapped in the lower control arm (which took a lot of rolling around in the muck in the rain). It's actually really easy to do - if you do nothing else at the same time and have all the right tools (jack, something to unload the suspension, 17mm sockets/wrenches, and one 19mm long socket), it really shouldn't take more than an hour.

The alignment is now better, but not nearly perfect (at least it's drivable, but with that wary "this can't be a good idea" feeling). I have a feeling (or rather a hope) that the spindle bent as well. Ugh, I hope there isn't a little tweakage to the frame or upper control arm that I didn't see :fingerscrossed: I should have taken a picture of the bent control arm next to the good one, you can see how saab designed them to bend in exacly the way that it did.

Anyway, it's in the shop now, I didn't see any 88+ 900s (to take off the hub/knuckle/spindle from) in the junkyard, and I can't have my girlfriend driving me all over the place all week only to find that the new knuckle doesn't fix it. The guys are pretty reputable, and I know them to be honest (I actually bought the car from them in the first place), so hopefully they take good care of my baby. And hopefully the control arm being done already saves some $$$.

Anyway, thanks for the support guys, life isn't quite as sweet without a saab!
 
#23 ·
I'd think it'd be more likely to bend a tie rod than a spindle - the spindle is a pretty stout bit of steel and is well supported by the bearings whereas the tie-rod is just kinda "there".

Compared to what I was doing over the weekend, a three hour road trip to work on a car would have been a treat! I'm trying to get my daughters Subaru ready for inspection ..... I hate drum brakes!

Glad you're getting her back together -

Steve
 
#24 ·
SteveTheFolkie said:
I'd think it'd be more likely to bend a tie rod than a spindle - the spindle is a pretty stout bit of steel and is well supported by the bearings whereas the tie-rod is just kinda "there".

Compared to what I was doing over the weekend, a three hour road trip to work on a car would have been a treat! I'm trying to get my daughters Subaru ready for inspection ..... I hate drum brakes!

Glad you're getting her back together -

Steve
Haha, drum brakes, I remember those. I saw them once, on an old land rover, 7 years ago. Funny lookin things.... :lol:

Well, the tie rods seemed straight and true when I looked at them - the shop just called me and said the spindle was bent (I think it looks like cast iron, probably designed to bend, like the control arm?), and that they would sell me a used one off their parts cars for $150 (pretty dang steep, but I guess you have to account for them removing it from the donor car). Then, 3 hours labor to button everything up, at the wonderful DC area price of.....$87.95 an hour. Yes, I said $87.95 an hour :eek: . With an alignment, tax, and shop fees, it's gonna come to $540 or so, he said. Could be worse, but the bottom line is I get the car back tomorrow knowing an experienced set of saab eyes made sure it everything was working as new.

He also told me that both of my inner drivers are slinging grease, so I've got that going for me. :lol:

Well, all in all, I'm happy. Sometimes I guess you gotta leave your car to the experts, and open your wallet. But this is why I need a backup car, because then I could afford to have it off the road for a few days while I gather all the required parts and take my time fixing it.
 
#25 ·
Stud these!

Long long time ago, on an icy hill far away, I accellerated due to gravity with no control, brand new "all season" tires on brand new car, standard transmission, ....no problem, just crawl and keep it under contro.
ooops, why is the car accellerating?!!, put it in neutral...pump the brakes.....oh shi#! still accellerating!,....no problem, nothing to lose, just hold the brakes, ...no steering, ok, that didn't work, just coast then and try to avoid....THAT JERK PULLING OUT IN FRONT OF ME!!....steer around him,,oh no! a center island with 8"Curb....ok,....jumped that ok, transmission still intact......., oh no! another jerk passing a guy going up the icy hill....in my lane......way too much speed!
I got to work that day with not too much damage.
That afternoon I purchased four studded snow tires.
Have been putting studded snow tires on my cars since then. Cheap life insurance, and way cheaper than the deductable..
 
#26 ·
Rich3Saabs said:
Long long time ago, on an icy hill far away, I accellerated due to gravity with no control, brand new "all season" tires on brand new car, standard transmission, ....no problem, just crawl and keep it under contro.
ooops, why is the car accellerating?!!, put it in neutral...pump the brakes.....oh shi#! still accellerating!,....no problem, nothing to lose, just hold the brakes, ...no steering, ok, that didn't work, just coast then and try to avoid....THAT JERK PULLING OUT IN FRONT OF ME!!....steer around him,,oh no! a center island with 8"Curb....ok,....jumped that ok, transmission still intact......., oh no! another jerk passing a guy going up the icy hill....in my lane......way too much speed!
I got to work that day with not too much damage.
That afternoon I purchased four studded snow tires.
Have been putting studded snow tires on my cars since then. Cheap life insurance, and way cheaper than the deductable..
Yeah, snow tires are "on my list" but now that I have to fund this they'll have to wait a few weeks.

Interestingly, some non-studded snow tires that they make now actually get better traction on straight ice than studded ones - they put these little grit particles in there that really grab hold. Also, studs aren't legal anywhere near here :lol:
 
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