Hello!
I'm new to the forum, so would like to welcome all the people around here. I live in Cornwall and drive red P-reg 900S Vert. I've been browsing the forum for some time now, read lots of useful and less-useful posts. Now the time has come for me to write something. Sad is, that it's because my car broke down completely today. So here's my story...
About a month ago I had the clutch cable replaced by a Saab garage. No, not the dealer-one, private. I was unexpectedly forced to replace the cable after the old one broke on my way home from work on a nice sunny friday afternoon. I paid 90 quid to have it done (surprisingly on the same day), and I thought that my problem is gone. But in not more than two days I started to feel that there's something bad going on. Firstly I thought that the clutch itself is dying and starting to slip, because I had strange feeling of car losing the torque when driving (accelerating). Then after I went through lots of topics on the Forum, i realised that I have cracked bulkhead... Great!
I started to be suspicious about the garage that I had the cable replaced recently in. I know that the cable itself goes through the firewall and though that they've messed something up. Additionally, I started to hear a squeaking noise coming from the place where clutch is after I depressed the clutch pedal. Again after reading some posts, I gave myself and answer: this might be the throw-out bearing.
I went back to the Saab garage and had car re-checked but only thing I've heard was that the noise and bulkhead crack has nothing to do with the replaced cable, and fault must have existed before...
After making a phonecall I went to Falmouth on the same day to have the car inspected by a Saab dealer. I was expecting to be told something else than what they said. They stated that the car has got a cracked bulkhead. My reply was obvious and I kindly requested to have the car repaired as in my opinion this is a factory fault and it does affect driver's and passenger's safety. I was told straight away that I will not have it done for free, as Saab don't do it anymore. Instead I was given Saab's Customer Care telephone number and advised to give them a ring. I haven't called them until today, and I am going to do this after I finish writing this post.
A week after that I started to have problems with engaging gears. Sometimes everything was nice and smooth, and sometimes I could hardly get it engaged. I was going on holiday abroad in few days, so I left the car parked to rest for 1,5 week. After coming back from holiday car was still doing tricks to me, but I didn't have the feeling of car "floating" on the road when driving it (?strange?).
I tried different things to adjust the cable. Somehow I have a feeling now that auto-adjusting bit on the cable doesn't work as it should and that's why I started to have problems with the gearbox, because of a too low bite-point. Also I have noticed that there are some metallic shavings on the engine and the gearbox, but interesting is, that I don't know where they come from... (?)
Nevertheless I didn't think that things will go so wrong as they did today. On the way back from work changing gears started to be more and more troublesome and finally I could hardly set off. After I managed to get back home I left the car on the street and tomorrow a friend will have to give me a lift to work.
Does anyone have an idea what might have gone wrong and what to do? I am thinking about buing a new clutch and replacing it over the next weekend by myself. Problem is, that I am not sure whether this will be a proper solution. The bulkhead problem itself is a different matter now...
I'm new to the forum, so would like to welcome all the people around here. I live in Cornwall and drive red P-reg 900S Vert. I've been browsing the forum for some time now, read lots of useful and less-useful posts. Now the time has come for me to write something. Sad is, that it's because my car broke down completely today. So here's my story...
About a month ago I had the clutch cable replaced by a Saab garage. No, not the dealer-one, private. I was unexpectedly forced to replace the cable after the old one broke on my way home from work on a nice sunny friday afternoon. I paid 90 quid to have it done (surprisingly on the same day), and I thought that my problem is gone. But in not more than two days I started to feel that there's something bad going on. Firstly I thought that the clutch itself is dying and starting to slip, because I had strange feeling of car losing the torque when driving (accelerating). Then after I went through lots of topics on the Forum, i realised that I have cracked bulkhead... Great!
I started to be suspicious about the garage that I had the cable replaced recently in. I know that the cable itself goes through the firewall and though that they've messed something up. Additionally, I started to hear a squeaking noise coming from the place where clutch is after I depressed the clutch pedal. Again after reading some posts, I gave myself and answer: this might be the throw-out bearing.
I went back to the Saab garage and had car re-checked but only thing I've heard was that the noise and bulkhead crack has nothing to do with the replaced cable, and fault must have existed before...
After making a phonecall I went to Falmouth on the same day to have the car inspected by a Saab dealer. I was expecting to be told something else than what they said. They stated that the car has got a cracked bulkhead. My reply was obvious and I kindly requested to have the car repaired as in my opinion this is a factory fault and it does affect driver's and passenger's safety. I was told straight away that I will not have it done for free, as Saab don't do it anymore. Instead I was given Saab's Customer Care telephone number and advised to give them a ring. I haven't called them until today, and I am going to do this after I finish writing this post.
A week after that I started to have problems with engaging gears. Sometimes everything was nice and smooth, and sometimes I could hardly get it engaged. I was going on holiday abroad in few days, so I left the car parked to rest for 1,5 week. After coming back from holiday car was still doing tricks to me, but I didn't have the feeling of car "floating" on the road when driving it (?strange?).
I tried different things to adjust the cable. Somehow I have a feeling now that auto-adjusting bit on the cable doesn't work as it should and that's why I started to have problems with the gearbox, because of a too low bite-point. Also I have noticed that there are some metallic shavings on the engine and the gearbox, but interesting is, that I don't know where they come from... (?)
Nevertheless I didn't think that things will go so wrong as they did today. On the way back from work changing gears started to be more and more troublesome and finally I could hardly set off. After I managed to get back home I left the car on the street and tomorrow a friend will have to give me a lift to work.
Does anyone have an idea what might have gone wrong and what to do? I am thinking about buing a new clutch and replacing it over the next weekend by myself. Problem is, that I am not sure whether this will be a proper solution. The bulkhead problem itself is a different matter now...
