[IgneousGib]

I have a 2000 9-5 Saab which just went up in smoke and I have no idea what is wrong with it. I don't have the money to get it into the shop just yet but I'd like to get an idea of what's going on with it in the meantime if I can. If anyone here can offer any insight it would be greatly appreciated. These are the details of what led up to now. Sorry if some of it is unrelated, I'm no mechanic and I wanna be sure to include anything that might be important. So anyhow, I purchased the car a year and a half ago. I had it looked over, had diagnostics run and had everything fixed that needed it. It ran great and I fell in love quick . Then one morning my neighbor knocked on my door and told me he had backed in to my car with his pickup truck. We swapped insurance info and my car went into the shop for body repair. According to the shop there were no signs of mechanical problems. About 2 or 3 weeks later my car was returned to me looking better than ever and running just fine. A week later, on the way home from work one night, my oil light came on. I figured I'd drive to the gas station 3 blocks away and check my oil but I didn't make it that far. Within a block of my light coming on a bunch of stuff happened all at the same time. My power steering went out then my car lost power, I mean it instantly had a top speed of 20 MPH. I could barely pull the car to the side of the road which was full of smoke by this time. I had the car towed home. A couple days later after the car had been sitting I checked the oil which looked fine and ran diagnostics which showed nothing. So I tried starting the car. It started right up but all the previous issues persisted and smoke went everywhere once again. Any idea what could cause all that to occur at the same time? Any feedback at all would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Mopper]

is there coolant in the car ahaha?

 

[IgneousGib]

is there coolant in the car ahaha?

yes there is.

 

[LEP3]

Sounds like the serpentine belt is off for one thing, but driving with the oil light on is bad. It should be shut down immediately if that light somes on. Is the smoke coming out the exauste? Maybe you got lucky and only blew the turbo and not the engine.

 

[twoturbos]

Blown turbo. I would be astounded if it is anything but that.

Oil light on, road full of smoke, no power ?

Yup, blown turbo

 

[PNW9995]

oil light probably from low pressure from it being sucked out by the turbo. Then smoke in your exhaust from the oil that got sucked through. Just your series of bad luck in a short period of time. Accident wouldnt have anything to do with it, but atleast he was a good guy and told you he hit your car instead of leaving.

 

[Caged_Ferret]

Have to agree with the turbo going bad.
When mine went, it was a gradual process. Started off like bad valve guide seals then progressively got worse. To the point when I accelerated my car looked like a mosquito control unit. (Cars behind me had to stop or pull over LOL)

Easiest way to check is to remove the "cobra" pipe on the turbo and test the impeller for play. See if it will move at all by moving the spindle up, down, left and right. There should be no play what so ever.

If it is the turbo then that would be the cheapest part of the repair. If it's anything else, you're probably in for a few dollars.

Turbos aren't cheap though either. Don't settle for a Chinese brand if at all possible. I was lucky and got a low mileage replacement from eBay.

Good luck.

- Mike

 

[unclemiltie]

agree the turbo is the most likely suspect

There are mixed reviews on the Chinese turbos on ebay. There are quite a few people here who have had good luck with them, and some who have had issues.

Don't let the shop convince you to buy a new turbo, at most you are going to need a new CHRA. I got one from Sweedish Dynamics, the price was fair at about $400. it has all of the "important" stuff in it and takes all of about 15 minutes to put it into the turbo once it's out of the car. They sell directly on their web site but also sell on ebay an their prices are lower on ebay. There are others who sell the CHRA/Cartridge as well.


It's about a 4-hour job for someone who knows what they are doing to replace the turbo, so budget on that for the repair from a local garage. Plus the CHRA, gaskets, fluids, etc.

Oh and finally. after the turbo is installed don't be surprised if the car smokes like crazy for a while. you probably have a lot of oil in the exhaust that needs to be burned off. have your mechanic also take one of the hoses off of the intercooler and drain the oil out of that as well. And hope that driving with the oil pressure light on didn't do any more damage.




BTW, you can also pull the exhaust down pipe off of the turbo to reach in and check. Some people thnk pulling the intake side is easier, I tend to think pulling the exhaust side is easier. Maybe that's because I live in CA and there is no such thing as rust on our cars!

 

[IgneousGib]

Thank you so much for all the replies, very very helpful and much appreciated! It seems unanimous that the turbo is shot but I am not sure I understand how the power steering fits in to all of this.

 

[rogue780]

Thank you so much for all the replies, very very helpful and much appreciated! It seems unanimous that the turbo is shot but I am not sure I understand how the power steering fits in to all of this.

As a previous commenter mentioned, it also sounds like your serpentine belt broke or is having some issue that would cause it to not power the power steering pump. I believe that belt also powers the oil pump which I think is what blew out your turbo? (I'm a Saab noob, but I'm getting there.). Someone stop me if I'm wrong.

 

[unclemiltie]

oil pump is driven by the crankshaft, no relation whatsoever with the serp belt other than the crankshaft drive that too.

 

[brewtide]

Before running out and snagging a new turbo, I'd run a compression test on the cylinders. Make sure there in oil in the engine, and do each cyl at a time. Again, keep UP on the oil level doing this, so you don't crank it dry.

There is the possibility that it is instead a cracked piston or so, which would suck to find out AFTER buying a new turbo...

Cheers,
Benjamin

 

[Jssaab]

And drop the sump to make sure it i snot sludged up killing the turbo.. and the engine

 

[dduvall]

BTW, you can also pull the exhaust down pipe off of the turbo to reach in and check. Some people thnk pulling the intake side is easier, I tend to think pulling the exhaust side is easier. Maybe that's because I live in CA and there is no such thing as rust on our cars!

I agree. Depending on where you live though. Mines a CA car, so the exhaust bolts were super easy for me. I soaked for about 10 minutes in liquid wrench.

The stupid clamp holding the cobra pipe to the turbo was a major pain for me.