[Kelden21]

Hey guys, it's my first time posting here and i was hoping you guys could help me out with a few questions. I recently bought a saab 94 900se turbo. It had a 148k miles, so I guess I should have expected something to go wrong. It worked flawlessly for about 2 weeks, but then the gears starting acting funky. Sometimes it would grind when i tried to shift even if the clutch was put all the way in. Sometimes if i was on a hill it would sort of roll back an inch at a time if you were rocking, even though it was parked and in reverse (no E brake, that's another problem)

However, then it went out completely i think. My car stalled out after the gears went crazy, and i pushed it into a parking lot. Now I can start my car, but if i release the clutch, it stalls. I can put it into gear, but no amount of gas will make it move, it just shoots the RPMs up, and when i release the clutch too far, it stalls. Now my question is this. I live in Minnesota, US, and this is definately a foreign car. What are the chances a regular mechanic will work on my car? How many hours of labor should I expect to pay? How much does a clutch itself cost? Is the saab dealer my only option? I really am not a car savy person, so it's not something I could do.

The other question is pretty simple and not all that important. My E Brake is either broken, or just not connected to anything. I can pull the lever all i want, but it never does anything. Anyone know how tricky that is to fix?

Thanks again, and i really do appreciate your time and responses.

Kelden

 

[escalator guru]

The '94 + models used a cable clutch, vs a hydraulic clutch. (they're also considered "new generation" 900, so this will get moved to the appropriate forum ) It's possible that you've got a cable problem, with both the clutch and the e-brake. Many prefer Saab Certified, but any competent mechanic dudeguy should be able to take care of it for you. Somewhere on the site is a listing of mechanics who deal with Saabs, but won't necessarily cost you the $$$ of a Saab Certified mechanic.

And, welcome to SC.

 

[earthworm]

Flooring the clutch pedal releases the clutch, or is supposed to when the unit is properly adjusted. Saab uses an automatically adjustable cable , many feel that the manual cable is more reliable..

This stalling bothers me, a locked in gear transmission will cause this.
I can easily see a $4,000 repair bill after all is said and done.
Probably the rear shoes are way out of adjustment, they can ,of course, be worn out and the cables may be shot..
An automatic adjuster is used, but I do not think it works that well..
Time to get out and get under...

 

[JMarkert]

Welcome!

If you only need the clutch, it's probably about $1300.00 or so for the replacement. You'll definitely want to ask your friends about a good foreign car repair shop, but they don't need to be SAAB only. SAABs just aren't that exotic these days, now that most cars are front drive. You'll probably do well if you can get several estimates too.

As earthworm mentioned, the clutch cable often causes a lot of trouble. Before you bring it anywhere, you might want to read the FAQ's stuck to the top of the forum, there are several old posts on it. It's worth trying to "manually" adjust the cable, since it's free and might solve your problem. There's also a chance that the shifter linkage is shot too. Both the cable and the linkage cause lots of trouble. Finally (yikes) there's always a chance that the transmission itself is toast. I got my shop to put in a used one for about $1700. Of course if there are several things wrong, it might cost more than the book value on your car, so be a little careful.

Good luck, and let us know if you have any questions.

 

[Kelden21]

Sorry I didn't include this before, but I beleive my throw out bearing was giving out a week or so ago. It was making a racket which stopped when i pressed the clutch in completely. I called around and a the best price i have is $982 to replace the clutch with the 5.5 hours of work they estimated it would take included. Thanks for all the help, if you have any other ideas, I would be infinitely grateful for your help.

Thanks again.

 

[Jeremy R.]

That's actually the opposite of what a bad throwout bearing would do. A bad one will only make noise when the clutch pedal is pushed down, because that's when the throwout bearing is under pressure and spinning. Mine could still spin fine at 64,000 miles, but there was so much junk on the shaft that it couldn't slide easily at all.