[osrsbilly]

Hi everyone,

After almost a year of deliberation I bought my first saab and wanted to introduce myself here (and ask a few questions)

Its a black 02 2.0t 93 SE convertible, I'll share some pictures once I get a chance to polish it!

Okay, so here's some things on my mind right now :

• I'm based in West Midlands, any recommendations for local garages would be great.
• I did try googling but couldn't an answer to this.. is there supposed to be a steering lock or is not needed due to the ignition and how the gearstick locks in reverse?
• My fogs are clouded on the inside, anyone have any experience with cleaning them? I don't fancy taking the whole bumper off which is what I've heard some people do
• I've changed the dash speakers, would be keen to do the rears too, what size are they and am I going to be able to just pop the covers off or will I need to take some panels off?

Thanks for any help, apologies if some of these questions have already been answered on this thread!

 

[Mimmi]

Hi and welcome to SC.
Your car do not have steering lock, you have gearstick lock.
Turn on your fogs and they will dry.
6.5" and you need to remove panels first.

 

[Mort]

Welcome. - Congrats on joining the SC and on the SAAB
1. There are a few UK Saab owners in this forum - I'm sure they will be able to comment about local garages.
Parts wise in the UK - Parts for Saabs and Neo Brothers are a good place to start.
2. I assume you have a manual - Yes the car needs to be in Reverse for the key to be removed.
3. If you want to remove the Fogs they can be removed without removing the bumper - there should be 2 screws and nut on the upper bracket, you'll need to unplug the connector to remove the light assembly.
Welcome.

 

[EdT]

The upper nut on the foglight can seize to the stud, which then can start spinning on you. I would first try Mimmi's solution. If that doesn't work, soak the nut with a good penetrating fluid for a good long time.

 

[CarpeCyprinidae]

You can also unscrew the bulb from the back of the foglight in-site and run an air line in to dry it out through the bulb hole. Alternatively the entire rear metal plate of the foglight - the reflector assembly - can be removed with the light in-situ, but this is harder. With the reflector removed you could reach in with a dry cloth and dry it all out.

 

[Doug]

I agree with the comments on cleaning the glass, and the PITA that is removing the light unit. In my experience the chances of undoing that top bolt are slim. I have carefully hacksawed a couple out of the bumper, in a way that allows it to be refitted. Once you do get the light out, the bolt head rotates in the moulding, and as it’s a mm thick it’s difficult to get hold of it with grips.

Perhaps file flats on the end of the bolt, put in a vice then spanner the nut off. When you eventually get the seized bolt separated, replace it with a normal nut/bolt.

I’ve cleaned the glass with a rag on a stick, and don’t see why it shouldn’t be damp as long as it’s dried out. I used isopropyl alcohol IIRC.

 

[jvanabra]

The vice + spanner/wrench has always worked for me, always combined with a lot of penetrating oil. The bolt is small, so not really much reason to file flats, and, if you're lucky, the vice won't mess up the threads to badly and it will be reusable.

 

[Jeremy R.]

If the bolt does get messed up, you can always buy a new one:

Fog Lights (9-3 Parts > Electrical > Lights: Fog Light > Fog Lights)

Fog Lights (9-3 Parts > Electrical > Lights: Fog Light > Fog Lights)

www.esaabparts.com

Whenever I've had to replace a fog light, I always use stainless steel hardware because I've had a couple of nuts and bolts get pretty rusted on, just like everyone else. The nut and the bolts are M6x1.00. I also like to use lock nuts on the fog light because I've had a couple of nuts fall off. If you're missing the support bracket (part 15 in the diagram), your fog light will tilt back into the bumper when that happens.

 

[jvanabra]

What I wanna know is would a plastic nut survive up there....

 

[BobSaabit]

+1 all of the above. A good penetrating oil, sprayed on all three mounting bolts, for three days in a row... then try to take the bolts out. (Here in the USA, PB Blast is great for an oil, but I don't think they sell it over there).

If there are "u-pull" breakers near you I'd go try to pull some there first just to see how the fasteners work on them when you don't really care about the lights or bumper. If there are Saabs at the u-pull, more than one will have broken fogs that you don't have to care about breaking while you learn. Lights from early 9-5's through 2002 are the same as ours ('99 and '00 for both models also had cornering lights in there).

If they are moist inside, something is letting the moisture in: glass seal, rear seal, or bulb seal. You should look them over if you take them out and see if you can fix the issue. You can probably farm better bulb seals off the bulbs in a u-pull's corner lights. I'm not sure on the size but I am guessing it's the same.

 

[BobSaabit]

What I wanna know is would a plastic nut survive up there....

Great idea... if you could get Nylon metric that would be perfect. I don't think we can here in the USA. But, at least you could cut them off if they rusted to the mounting "nut". You'd probably have to do bolt & nut with SAE thread.