[rugbybrado]

My car is in for serivce to hopefully stop my smoke problem, yesterday i called a different saab dealer and talked cars with him for a while. He said he's had a couple in with porous blocks, and that they were common on these cars because of the aluminum blocks that werent properally heated when they were made. The synotoms of this is losing coolant and them not being able to locate where its going too. The only way to fix the problem is by replacing the block. My dealer said on the other hand that they've never had any with porous blocks in before.

Any one heard of this before ?

Even if something like this is out of warrenty shouldnt the manufacture still cover it because it was a casting problem in the engine?

 

[johnc_22]

If the "different" dealer is at all accessible I'd be there in a heartbeat to get more information and whether SAAB has acknowledged this problem. This is not the first I've heard of mystery coolant losses but never heard it attributed to this as the cause. It would be interesting to know how soon this issue shows up in affected cars and what percentage of blocks from each year might have this problem, or better yet if there is a way to look at a block and see if it suffers this problem.

If you do pay for a new/refurbed block and the install make sure you keep the receipts in case they extend engine warranties or something like that over this.

 

[Cojoroh]

that's how my car got replaced by saab. i found oil sludge in my coolant. they said it was block porosity, causing the oil to seep through into the coolant passages. after my car sat at the dealer for a month, i wrote saab corporate (1st step for the lemon law). they called me and told me they were prepared to refund the full purchase price or give me a new '04. seeing as how i got 0% financing, and the contract never got changed, i opted for the replacement.

 

[rugbybrado]

that's how my car got replaced by saab. i found oil sludge in my coolant. they said it was block porosity, causing the oil to seep through into the coolant passages. after my car sat at the dealer for a month, i wrote saab corporate (1st step for the lemon law). they called me and told me they were prepared to refund the full purchase price or give me a new '04. seeing as how i got 0% financing, and the contract never got changed, i opted for the replacement.

Can you expand on this,

-how did they go about finding the sludge in the coolant.

-What test did your dealer preform before they found out what the problem was.

Also how many miles did you have on your car when you found the sludge and what made you look for it in the first place ?

 

[Cojoroh]

i saw the sludge on the top part of the coolant reservoir. i got some of it out and sprayed some carburator cleaner and it disolved....so i knew it was oil. i have no idea what they did to determine that it was block porosity. it sat in the shop for quite a while because they didn't know what was wrong. i had about 8000 miles on it at the time.