[Rogozhin]

I have been reading about it here and on the 'other' saab board and have been carefull about changing the oil every 5000 on my 3dr MC yellow Viggen. I've put 12000 miles on her in 3 months and have changed the oil twice using Mann filters and mobile synthetic 10/30.

My question: have all 903 owner with the requisite cars received this mailing?

Rogo

 

[earthworm]

I have been reading about it here and on the 'other' Saab board and have been careful about changing the oil every 5000 on my 3dr MC yellow Viggen. I've put 12000 miles on her in 3 months and have changed the oil twice using Mann filters and mobile synthetic 10/30.

My question: have all 903 owner with the requisite cars received this mailing?

Rogo

I'd say you are doing things nigh perfectly.

Saabs, as thorough-breds ,are meant to be driven !
This problem is caused by too short of runs during too cold weather(Sweden).. Toyota also has this problem, people jump in , warm up the car for five minutes, drive for five minutes, and then think they just need to drain the oil once a year !!
These same people should be driving an electric hybrid vehicle...

 

[Fast_Ed]

Rogo,

I just got my notification of this warranty in the mail. There is a list of types of cars covered, and yours should be on there.

SAAB scares me a bit though.. They send out a sheet showing that we should change our oil every 10,000 miles!!!! And say we should consider every 5,000 miles if driving conditions are bad. I change every 5k and my knowledgeable friend says I should consider 3kmi because we live on near the ocean and I do short drives... No way I'll let it get to 10kmi at least!!

 

[Whiteyfoo]

I also got this notice (for my 3dr MC Yellow Viggen).
I will take my car in and see what the dealer does (soon as I get my car back anyway).

 

[fabric]

The reason for the sludge problem is the exhaust design. The exhaust runs right under the oil pan, which helps to warm it up quicker when it's cold. great idea, except the oil pan gets really hot and you get sludge. If you change your oil regularly, and drain it well, you're probably fine. Synthetic oil will help. Turbo's should be on a shorter time interval than NA engines. 10K may be a on the high side. I've advocated that interval before, but after further research I've settled on no more than 7500 with the synthetics on the turbo, but you can still easily go past 3000 miles. 5K is probably a good number with all those short trips. No oil should be in the car more than a year.

Short trips are bad for the engine, but I have a sneaking suspicion its affects on sludge may be minimal, due to the fact that you never really get the exhaust super hot.

I know Toyota is having real proplems with this, even with people who change the oil regularly. I'm not sure if Saab's problems have been as bad. And they've at least owned up to them to some degree. Doesn't seem like Toyota's been nearly as generous.

 

[SPATL]

The reason for the sludge problem is the exhaust design.

While that might be true to some extent, the design was in part to help the oil warm up quicker in the harsh swedish environment.

I think the issue has also been related to the oil pickup screen being too fine. This gets clogged and oil can't leave the pan and make its way up to the top.

I have the .pdf style TSB if anyone is interested.

This is only for the 205 and 235 engine.

I do wonder if the pcv situation in any way exacerbated the issue at all. They had a fix then took it off the shelves in search of a new fix. Maybe not related but...

With the latest report, I pulled off my valve cover over th weekend and was surprised to see a decently clean upper engine. I have used full synth since I bought it, but the first 48K miles are questionable. There is hard residue on the inside of the valve cover which looks like it is old and possibly being cleaned off slowly by the use of the full synthetic oil.

Part of the TSB is to recommend full synth so I would dare to say it is time to fully promote the use of full synthetic oil regardless of whether one is modifying their car for increased performance. 5K mile oil change even on full synth needs to be reinforced to all. I really don't think straight dyno oils should be talked about with these cars anymore.

 

[Nick Danger]

So, what's the sludge notice all about? I haven't received anything in the mail yet.

 

[Rogozhin]

Thanks for the feedback fellas.

I'm going to pop the valve cover and take a look.

I'm in the process of acquiring all the service records.

Rogo

 

[fabric]

While that might be true to some extent, the design was in part to help the oil warm up quicker in the harsh swedish environment.\

I did mention that.

Part of the TSB is to recommend full synth so I would dare to say it is time to fully promote the use of full synthetic oil regardless of whether one is modifying their car for increased performance. 5K mile oil change even on full synth needs to be reinforced to all. I really don't think straight dyno oils should be talked about with these cars anymore.

Seconded. I think using dino oil with any turbo is ill advised.

 

[lotus54]

I'd like to get that pdf.

I know when I pulled the pan on my 97 900 2.3 the oil pickup was almost totally plugged with a hard 'coke-like' substance. It took me a good 30 minutes with a wire brush to clean it. I would have replaced it if I had one.

How do I get the pdf?

Mark

I have the .pdf style TSB if anyone is interested.

 

[16volt]

I also got the notice for my 99 Viggen.

My question is just how official does the oil change documentation have to be? I mean I do my own changes but I also do it at a real shop where I have use of the lift. Do i need to have reciepts for this or can it only be documented at a dealership, which is how the letter sounds to me. If thats the case you can forget about the warrenty if you change your own oil.

This also relates to my scheduled service thread below.

 

[earthworm]

I'd like to get that pdf.

I know when I pulled the pan on my 97 900 2.3 the oil pickup was almost totally plugged with a hard 'coke-like' substance. It took me a good 30 minutes with a wire brush to clean it. I would have replaced it if I had one.

How do I get the pdf?

Mark

How many miles, Lotus, and do you have the oil change history ??
.
I advocate, for other people, that the oil be changed every 4 months (was every 3) - regardless of mileage..Be it 1,000 or 10,000 miles !!

GM has something better, the cars computer measures the RPMs, the temperature and starts and from that determines (thru a light) when the oil should be changed..
They have been using this since '88 on some engines !!
I think the newer Saabs have this feature which should be well proven by now....

 

[lotus54]

The car had about 60 or 65 K miles (I'd have to check my records to make certain).
I don't know the exact oil change history, the previous owner said they followed the recommended changes, but I don't really know if that is the case.
I change it by 5k miles and run Mobil 1.

Mark


Still looking for the PDF of the service notice...anyone?

How many miles, Lotus, and do you have the oil change history ??

 

[gman2560]

99 SE Conv. I have been using a syn blend with a minimum 50% synthetic, ILSAC GF-4 and changing every 3000. I got the car with 42K. The first 30K oil was changed by a saab dealer. The last 12K unverified. I immediately changed the oil with the syn blend and have changed it twice 45 and 48K.

Am I ok with this schedule and oil type?

Has anyone gone to a larger volume filter from the standard? I have tons of room for a longer filter vs the short one spec'd.

 

[TurboRush91]

I have yet to recieve this, I have a 2000 Viggen with 65k... I can probably show an oil change trail back to about 35k (when I bought the car)... is that going sufficient? Does my car even qualify?

 

[FlyPenFly]

Which cars are covered?

 

[lotus54]

This certainly sounds fine to me. Are you doing mostly shorter trips? (under an hour). This is where the main problem happens (so I understand). It takes the engine a good hour to fully get everything up to temp and 'burn off' a bunch of the nasty stuff.
If you are worried, I'd pull the cam cover and see how it looks. If everything is nice and clean, I really doubt you have any problems. If not, I'd think about pulling the pan and cleaning everything out.
I wouldn't think most shops would charge that much, I pulled it in about an hour, about the same to clean, about the same to reinstall. They may charge more...
Make sure to get new ball joint boots, the 'O' ring on the pan oil gallery and I'd consider a new oil pickup.

Mark

99 SE Conv. I have been using a syn blend with a minimum 50% synthetic, ILSAC GF-4 and changing every 3000. I got the car with 42K. The first 30K oil was changed by a saab dealer. The last 12K unverified. I immediately changed the oil with the syn blend and have changed it twice 45 and 48K.

Am I ok with this schedule and oil type?

Has anyone gone to a larger volume filter from the standard? I have tons of room for a longer filter vs the short one spec'd.

 

[earthworm]

Lotus: This certainly sounds fine to me. Are you doing mostly shorter trips? (under an hour). This is where the main problem happens (so I understand). It takes the engine a good hour to fully get everything up to temp and 'burn off' a bunch of the nasty stuff.
If you are worried, I'd pull the cam cover and see how it looks. If everything is nice and clean, I really doubt you have any problems


I'd define a shorter trip as being one of 10 to 20 minutes.
A trip of 20 to 30 minutes of real running should keep the engine clean, that and oil changes every 3 to 4 months..
BTW, I do NOT think their is any direct correlation between the turbo and sludge..
The worst possible scenario is the man driving all short (15 minutes and less), using dino oil, and having it changed cold at the dealer every 10,000 miles..
And if we change that 10K to 5K, this would be as per the manufacturer !!!

 

[gman2560]

My trips are for the most part 1hr 15 mins; 10 mins start/stop 50-55 min @ 75 mph followed by 10 mins start stop, twice per day 5 days a week. 3000 miles per month commuting.

This certainly sounds fine to me. Are you doing mostly shorter trips? (under an hour). This is where the main problem happens (so I understand). It takes the engine a good hour to fully get everything up to temp and 'burn off' a bunch of the nasty stuff.
If you are worried, I'd pull the cam cover and see how it looks. If everything is nice and clean, I really doubt you have any problems. If not, I'd think about pulling the pan and cleaning everything out.
I wouldn't think most shops would charge that much, I pulled it in about an hour, about the same to clean, about the same to reinstall. They may charge more...
Make sure to get new ball joint boots, the 'O' ring on the pan oil gallery and I'd consider a new oil pickup.

Mark