Joined
·
370 Posts
First a little history... after a history of well chosen but budget driven car decisions (a 1981 Honda Prelude, a 1986 Honda CRX Si, a 1995 Saturn SC2) I ended up stumbling into the world of Saab. That damn Saturn just wouldn't die, but I was getting tired of it, and I was getting enough kids that the "sports coupe" was a non starter.
So in looking for a boring replacement, it didn't take long to decide that used Camry's and Accords were overpriced and soul crushing. Further digging and comparison of good used cars that would be a good value for somebody mechanically capable showed Saabs as a slam dunk (compared to Audi or BMW). The Saab aesthetic of "make something nice and special, but don't just add stuff because everyone else is adding stuff" was brilliant. They set out, and succeeded, of making an "economy" car in terms of great value. Not cheap, but wonderful to own, wonderful to drive, and wonderful to live with for many many many miles. Quality over arbitrary luxury, like an older 911.
So I got that car, a 2001 SE automatic with every bell and whistle (which I think was about the only way they sold that automatic version) with 70,000 miles on it from a very knowledgeable Saab mechanic that bought and refreshed it and put it up for sale. What a wonderful car. I drove that thing everywhere and anywhere, including hauling trailers full of dirt bikes, until it was around 170k miles. At that point, something bad went wrong, and after a complicated rescue (I was two hours from home with three kids, a dead Saab, and a trailer of dirt bikes attached to the back of it) I got it home and looked at it.
The middle two cylinders had zero compression. But the car would actually pull pretty strong if you would get it started and keep the revs above 4000 RPM. At a minimum, I figured the head was going to have to come off and be reworked, so I started hunting parts on Craigslist. But then I found a fairly loaded 2006 9-3 Aero V6 that was just listed with 45,000 miles on it for $9000. I knew the 2001 wasn't going to be seeing the land of the living for anything under $2000 when I was done.
Let me take a step back and share my "car math". My Dad taught me this. He said that if you can get a car that costs you $1000 for every 10,000 miles you get out of it, you "win". That includes purchase price, and out of pocket maintenance costs. I don't include normal consumables like tires, gas, and oil, but perhaps I should (with a bumped up metric) because those could easily dwarf the other costs, but thats a different topic.
So anyway, all the cars I listed as ones that I owned were successes. The Prelude was a $5000 car that i got 80,000 miles out of. The CRX was a $6000 car that I got 120k miles out of (and still running well when I sold it cheap to a friend). The Saturn was my only showroom car, and I had 175k miles on a $15k car and it was also running great when sold cheap to a friend. The Saab was another win, with 80,000 miles on a $7000 car.
So by that math, the obvious choice was not to fix the 2001 SE, and buy the 2006 Aero V6 for $9000, because I will "break even" on that car when it hits 135,000 miles, which on a Saab is about as easy as falling off a log. I went to look at it (it came into a BMW dealer in trade in and he just wanted it the hell off his lot), and came home with it that day. I donated the SE to charity, but sadly nobody bought it at auction to fix and I believe it got scrapped.
So fast forward a few years... Aside from an interesting adventure replacing the valve body on the 06 Aero (which I did myself for $650 in parts, so actually not that big a deal), the Aero has been great. But I look at that packed full engine bay, and while I love the forged pistons and technology overkill and durability and performance of a really well engineered engine, it's missing that "punch way above it's weight" and "amazing something so simple can do so much" element of that Saab straight 4 turbo in the old SE. And the hatchback Saabs looked great, worked great, and could so SO much and carry SO much. I really missed it.
At the time of initially diagnosing the zero compression in two cylinders, but a motor that otherwise ran well at high RPM, I got distracted by the new Aero (which was still the right decision). When it first failed, sitting on the side of the road in Kentucky waiting for a friend and a truck to rescue the trailer of dirt bikes and the kids, I was mentally diagnosing the problem. Of course I thought "DIC" and came back the next day with tools and a new one... which didn't help. At that moment I was also thinking "head gasket"... but I've had a few experiences with head gaskets before, and when they go, the coolant becomes either fouled with oil, or more likely shot out the overflow tube. And the coolant was clean and full even after a 70 mile drive on two cylinders where I had to keep the RPM's above 4000 to keep it from stalling.
Then, sitting at my desk one day thinking back, I remember a distinct "oh &^%^" moment. I googled up a picture of a Saab head gasket. Now, I'm thinking all that was wrong with that motor was a head gasket that failed at the webbing between those two middle cylinders. That would explain everything (I think). The two adjacent cylinders would alternately leak into each other instead of compressing. Given enough RPM, they probably even made some power because they couldn't leak fast enough. Because it was a narrow failure just at the smallest part of the webbing, it didn't penetrate to any coolant or oil passages, so the coolant wasn't blown out or contaminated. Of course figuring that out after the car was gone means it gnaws at me and I can't check it.
But I always wished I had just parked that car somewhere under a blanket and kept it to fix for a kid. If I had known it would have just gone to scrap after donating, I would have done just that. Hindsight is 20/20.
So fast forward to two months ago. An old friend of mine (Eric King) from post college Church groups who had seen various mechanical "great terrible ideas" I successfully executed on Facebook is in the middle of his own great terrible idea (restoring an old BMW just about scratch). His son Marcus has a 2001 9-3 SE... but it's a manual. Oooohhh! And it's this beautiful black. Ahhhh! (Mine was a silver automatic). The suspension is beyond shot. The clutch has about 30 miles of limping left in it (literally). The AC hasn't worked in years, it has all the normal 9-3 issues with seat trim falling apart, it is getting some rust over the wheel wells, and it has 206,000 miles on it. Eric wants another car project like he wants a hole in his head, Marcus already got a beautiful 2 door BMW 3 series to replace the Saab, so they have to do *something* with it.
Remember it's black. And it's a manual. And the motor runs GREAT.
So Eric and Marcus contact me knowing I'm a Saab guy with all the right kinds of poor judgement. They tell me that they would prefer the car not get scrapped, and that they will sell it to me for the price of a large pizza. In my defense, it was for a REALLY good pizza (Adriaticos Bearcat Pizza). So the rest is history. I have a 135k beat to hell Toyota Sienna that the oldest son has been driving (into deer, parking lot posts, street signs, and some other stuff I'm sure he hasn't told me about). I undid the bambi imprint, and I should be able to sell that for $1500 easy. I'll put that $1500 into parts for this Saab (with a lot of my own "free" labor, which I enjoy), and it should be good for another 50k at least. So the net effect should be that my oldest can drive a very cool and practical 9-3 for a few years instead of an old minivan (worse milage, harder on tires, a hassle to drive and park, and soul sucking uninspiredness and uninterestingness). So in the larger picture, the math all works here. Some family that needs to seat 6 and who needs a "sort of reliable" vehicle but only has $2000 will be set for another year or two. I'll put that $1500 or so into this Saab, not think about the labor, and the net result will be a car worth about, uh, $1500.
From a Karma standpoint, this worked out well. I donated that old silver auto 9-3, but wished I had it back, and now I have the same year but black and a manual. Some parts of it worse than my old one, some parts better, but it's a manual, which is the pure and right soul of a Saab 900/9-3 hatchback. This is the one to give a new lease on life. The Kings know they did their part to keep a special car from going to a scrapper for a few more years... this car should have a very long life. It could be a 300,000 mile car (which I would be willing to put some work into achieving just because that would be awesome!).
It went up on jackstands last night. Good news and bad news, but more good and less bad than I expected. After doing a clutch job on a 2003 Mini Cooper S, the clutch on this car looks like a walk in the park. Aside from the shocks, the rest of the front end looks in pretty good shape (and elegant and simple brilliantly designed with premium parts). The floor is rusted through in at least 4 places, so I'll need to address that. I'd like to bring the AC back, so that will be a project. And the body needs some attention, hopefully the black paint will be easier to match than the silver was on my previous one (that had the same rust), so this can be a "well worn commuter" affordable restore. I'm sure once I start removing things, there will be a trail of brokeness as rusted bolts snap off. And things like strut bodies and some hard fluid lines are not just rusty, they look close to rusting all the way through.
But it is SO beautifully simple! I work on my other cars (9-3 V6 Aero and Mini Cooper S R53). Great cars, but in comparison, this 01 9-3 straight four is just beautiful in it's simplicity.
We will see if I hate it before I am done.
I'll document what I do and what i learn in this thread in case it helps others.
So in looking for a boring replacement, it didn't take long to decide that used Camry's and Accords were overpriced and soul crushing. Further digging and comparison of good used cars that would be a good value for somebody mechanically capable showed Saabs as a slam dunk (compared to Audi or BMW). The Saab aesthetic of "make something nice and special, but don't just add stuff because everyone else is adding stuff" was brilliant. They set out, and succeeded, of making an "economy" car in terms of great value. Not cheap, but wonderful to own, wonderful to drive, and wonderful to live with for many many many miles. Quality over arbitrary luxury, like an older 911.
So I got that car, a 2001 SE automatic with every bell and whistle (which I think was about the only way they sold that automatic version) with 70,000 miles on it from a very knowledgeable Saab mechanic that bought and refreshed it and put it up for sale. What a wonderful car. I drove that thing everywhere and anywhere, including hauling trailers full of dirt bikes, until it was around 170k miles. At that point, something bad went wrong, and after a complicated rescue (I was two hours from home with three kids, a dead Saab, and a trailer of dirt bikes attached to the back of it) I got it home and looked at it.
The middle two cylinders had zero compression. But the car would actually pull pretty strong if you would get it started and keep the revs above 4000 RPM. At a minimum, I figured the head was going to have to come off and be reworked, so I started hunting parts on Craigslist. But then I found a fairly loaded 2006 9-3 Aero V6 that was just listed with 45,000 miles on it for $9000. I knew the 2001 wasn't going to be seeing the land of the living for anything under $2000 when I was done.
Let me take a step back and share my "car math". My Dad taught me this. He said that if you can get a car that costs you $1000 for every 10,000 miles you get out of it, you "win". That includes purchase price, and out of pocket maintenance costs. I don't include normal consumables like tires, gas, and oil, but perhaps I should (with a bumped up metric) because those could easily dwarf the other costs, but thats a different topic.
So anyway, all the cars I listed as ones that I owned were successes. The Prelude was a $5000 car that i got 80,000 miles out of. The CRX was a $6000 car that I got 120k miles out of (and still running well when I sold it cheap to a friend). The Saturn was my only showroom car, and I had 175k miles on a $15k car and it was also running great when sold cheap to a friend. The Saab was another win, with 80,000 miles on a $7000 car.
So by that math, the obvious choice was not to fix the 2001 SE, and buy the 2006 Aero V6 for $9000, because I will "break even" on that car when it hits 135,000 miles, which on a Saab is about as easy as falling off a log. I went to look at it (it came into a BMW dealer in trade in and he just wanted it the hell off his lot), and came home with it that day. I donated the SE to charity, but sadly nobody bought it at auction to fix and I believe it got scrapped.
So fast forward a few years... Aside from an interesting adventure replacing the valve body on the 06 Aero (which I did myself for $650 in parts, so actually not that big a deal), the Aero has been great. But I look at that packed full engine bay, and while I love the forged pistons and technology overkill and durability and performance of a really well engineered engine, it's missing that "punch way above it's weight" and "amazing something so simple can do so much" element of that Saab straight 4 turbo in the old SE. And the hatchback Saabs looked great, worked great, and could so SO much and carry SO much. I really missed it.
At the time of initially diagnosing the zero compression in two cylinders, but a motor that otherwise ran well at high RPM, I got distracted by the new Aero (which was still the right decision). When it first failed, sitting on the side of the road in Kentucky waiting for a friend and a truck to rescue the trailer of dirt bikes and the kids, I was mentally diagnosing the problem. Of course I thought "DIC" and came back the next day with tools and a new one... which didn't help. At that moment I was also thinking "head gasket"... but I've had a few experiences with head gaskets before, and when they go, the coolant becomes either fouled with oil, or more likely shot out the overflow tube. And the coolant was clean and full even after a 70 mile drive on two cylinders where I had to keep the RPM's above 4000 to keep it from stalling.
Then, sitting at my desk one day thinking back, I remember a distinct "oh &^%^" moment. I googled up a picture of a Saab head gasket. Now, I'm thinking all that was wrong with that motor was a head gasket that failed at the webbing between those two middle cylinders. That would explain everything (I think). The two adjacent cylinders would alternately leak into each other instead of compressing. Given enough RPM, they probably even made some power because they couldn't leak fast enough. Because it was a narrow failure just at the smallest part of the webbing, it didn't penetrate to any coolant or oil passages, so the coolant wasn't blown out or contaminated. Of course figuring that out after the car was gone means it gnaws at me and I can't check it.
But I always wished I had just parked that car somewhere under a blanket and kept it to fix for a kid. If I had known it would have just gone to scrap after donating, I would have done just that. Hindsight is 20/20.
So fast forward to two months ago. An old friend of mine (Eric King) from post college Church groups who had seen various mechanical "great terrible ideas" I successfully executed on Facebook is in the middle of his own great terrible idea (restoring an old BMW just about scratch). His son Marcus has a 2001 9-3 SE... but it's a manual. Oooohhh! And it's this beautiful black. Ahhhh! (Mine was a silver automatic). The suspension is beyond shot. The clutch has about 30 miles of limping left in it (literally). The AC hasn't worked in years, it has all the normal 9-3 issues with seat trim falling apart, it is getting some rust over the wheel wells, and it has 206,000 miles on it. Eric wants another car project like he wants a hole in his head, Marcus already got a beautiful 2 door BMW 3 series to replace the Saab, so they have to do *something* with it.
Remember it's black. And it's a manual. And the motor runs GREAT.
So Eric and Marcus contact me knowing I'm a Saab guy with all the right kinds of poor judgement. They tell me that they would prefer the car not get scrapped, and that they will sell it to me for the price of a large pizza. In my defense, it was for a REALLY good pizza (Adriaticos Bearcat Pizza). So the rest is history. I have a 135k beat to hell Toyota Sienna that the oldest son has been driving (into deer, parking lot posts, street signs, and some other stuff I'm sure he hasn't told me about). I undid the bambi imprint, and I should be able to sell that for $1500 easy. I'll put that $1500 into parts for this Saab (with a lot of my own "free" labor, which I enjoy), and it should be good for another 50k at least. So the net effect should be that my oldest can drive a very cool and practical 9-3 for a few years instead of an old minivan (worse milage, harder on tires, a hassle to drive and park, and soul sucking uninspiredness and uninterestingness). So in the larger picture, the math all works here. Some family that needs to seat 6 and who needs a "sort of reliable" vehicle but only has $2000 will be set for another year or two. I'll put that $1500 or so into this Saab, not think about the labor, and the net result will be a car worth about, uh, $1500.
From a Karma standpoint, this worked out well. I donated that old silver auto 9-3, but wished I had it back, and now I have the same year but black and a manual. Some parts of it worse than my old one, some parts better, but it's a manual, which is the pure and right soul of a Saab 900/9-3 hatchback. This is the one to give a new lease on life. The Kings know they did their part to keep a special car from going to a scrapper for a few more years... this car should have a very long life. It could be a 300,000 mile car (which I would be willing to put some work into achieving just because that would be awesome!).
It went up on jackstands last night. Good news and bad news, but more good and less bad than I expected. After doing a clutch job on a 2003 Mini Cooper S, the clutch on this car looks like a walk in the park. Aside from the shocks, the rest of the front end looks in pretty good shape (and elegant and simple brilliantly designed with premium parts). The floor is rusted through in at least 4 places, so I'll need to address that. I'd like to bring the AC back, so that will be a project. And the body needs some attention, hopefully the black paint will be easier to match than the silver was on my previous one (that had the same rust), so this can be a "well worn commuter" affordable restore. I'm sure once I start removing things, there will be a trail of brokeness as rusted bolts snap off. And things like strut bodies and some hard fluid lines are not just rusty, they look close to rusting all the way through.
But it is SO beautifully simple! I work on my other cars (9-3 V6 Aero and Mini Cooper S R53). Great cars, but in comparison, this 01 9-3 straight four is just beautiful in it's simplicity.
We will see if I hate it before I am done.
I'll document what I do and what i learn in this thread in case it helps others.
