So I'm poor but I got got this 2000 93 Saab convertible dirt cheap. And I love it! I have about 2k USD I can spend on repairs and limited experience fixing cars
The Good:
The price
20k original miles
engine and tranny are in great shape (according to the mechanic anyway. He also said the compression was excellent)
looks great outside and in (if you don't look too closely that is )
so cozy with the heated seats and the stereo is great!
once warmed up, she idles so quietly you can barely tell shes on
drives straight and smooth even at 110mph (havn't taking it past that yet)
The power! Even over 100mph it will put you in your seet when floored. WOW!
Not only fast, but also both comfortable and reliable on my recent 2 day 600 mile road test. A real pleasure to drive!
OK now for The Bad:
There's a loud mechanical whine comming from the passanger side of the engine bay until fully warmed up. This whining (not a squeal) slowly diminishes until, when the car is completely warmed up, you only barely hear it at higher (2.5k+) rpms in the lower gears. Usually its immediately after startup, but sometimes there will be no whine for about 2-5 seconds, then it kicks in and the car tries to stall. The stalling lasts 30 to 90 seconds depending on how cold it is and only happens in neutral. It also makes shifting rough during this time (bog-shudder-go) if you don't really baby the clutch.
The mechanic (the only Saab specialist in the area besides the dealership) thinks the whining is from one of the three pullies going out ($50x3 plus labor) but had no comment on the stalling which it seems to me it is related to? At least, for the rare times that the whinning doesn't start right away the car also doesn't try to die until the whinning starts. He never saw it cold, but did test drive it with me and said the turbo was fine and it wasn't the oil uptake or IAC valve (although he didn't check anything).
Also the gas mileage is lower than it should be. About 15mpg in town and 25 highway if you stay under 80 and lay off the boost. When you dip into the boost you can smell gas fumes inside, and on cold starts my friend (outside the car) said the exhaust smelled really rich. Even with the gas fumes the car pulls incredibly hard for just 185 hp.
Of course thats not it, but those are the main issues I'm looking for help with. There's also some frame damage, a new front clip, the top won't go down (soft top error), there's a 1 inch gap between the passager side windows and top even when rolled all the way up, lots of overspray on the paint, no A/C, no remote, CEL comes on every few days then turns itself back off, a missing foglight (wires to it are taped to the bottom of the front bumper), lots of missing pixels on the display, one headlight wiper is stuck half up, the plastics around the ignition and rear cupholder are loose and the tabs that hold them in place are mostly broken off (which I think is causing a key not accepted error because by moving the electrically wired plastic ring around the ignition and trying again the key will usually be accepted). The Saab dealership replaced the DIC for free for me, the key not accepted error used to be much much worse before then.
I've been driving it for about 3 weeks now and despite the problems I'm really loving my first Saab! Really I just want to solve the cold start issues and poor mileage. The key not accepted error doesn't seem to happen to much and I can usually get it to take it the second or third time by moving that plastic ring around. I've read every cold start stalling thread here but I don't any quite fit. I'm havn't had much experience working on cars but am more than willing to get my hands dirty, so I felt asking here would be better than blowing what little extra money I have on a wrong repair and having to live with something I could have fixed. Any help will be greatly appriciated!
The Good:
The price
20k original miles
engine and tranny are in great shape (according to the mechanic anyway. He also said the compression was excellent)
looks great outside and in (if you don't look too closely that is )
so cozy with the heated seats and the stereo is great!
once warmed up, she idles so quietly you can barely tell shes on
drives straight and smooth even at 110mph (havn't taking it past that yet)
The power! Even over 100mph it will put you in your seet when floored. WOW!
Not only fast, but also both comfortable and reliable on my recent 2 day 600 mile road test. A real pleasure to drive!
OK now for The Bad:
There's a loud mechanical whine comming from the passanger side of the engine bay until fully warmed up. This whining (not a squeal) slowly diminishes until, when the car is completely warmed up, you only barely hear it at higher (2.5k+) rpms in the lower gears. Usually its immediately after startup, but sometimes there will be no whine for about 2-5 seconds, then it kicks in and the car tries to stall. The stalling lasts 30 to 90 seconds depending on how cold it is and only happens in neutral. It also makes shifting rough during this time (bog-shudder-go) if you don't really baby the clutch.
The mechanic (the only Saab specialist in the area besides the dealership) thinks the whining is from one of the three pullies going out ($50x3 plus labor) but had no comment on the stalling which it seems to me it is related to? At least, for the rare times that the whinning doesn't start right away the car also doesn't try to die until the whinning starts. He never saw it cold, but did test drive it with me and said the turbo was fine and it wasn't the oil uptake or IAC valve (although he didn't check anything).
Also the gas mileage is lower than it should be. About 15mpg in town and 25 highway if you stay under 80 and lay off the boost. When you dip into the boost you can smell gas fumes inside, and on cold starts my friend (outside the car) said the exhaust smelled really rich. Even with the gas fumes the car pulls incredibly hard for just 185 hp.
Of course thats not it, but those are the main issues I'm looking for help with. There's also some frame damage, a new front clip, the top won't go down (soft top error), there's a 1 inch gap between the passager side windows and top even when rolled all the way up, lots of overspray on the paint, no A/C, no remote, CEL comes on every few days then turns itself back off, a missing foglight (wires to it are taped to the bottom of the front bumper), lots of missing pixels on the display, one headlight wiper is stuck half up, the plastics around the ignition and rear cupholder are loose and the tabs that hold them in place are mostly broken off (which I think is causing a key not accepted error because by moving the electrically wired plastic ring around the ignition and trying again the key will usually be accepted). The Saab dealership replaced the DIC for free for me, the key not accepted error used to be much much worse before then.
I've been driving it for about 3 weeks now and despite the problems I'm really loving my first Saab! Really I just want to solve the cold start issues and poor mileage. The key not accepted error doesn't seem to happen to much and I can usually get it to take it the second or third time by moving that plastic ring around. I've read every cold start stalling thread here but I don't any quite fit. I'm havn't had much experience working on cars but am more than willing to get my hands dirty, so I felt asking here would be better than blowing what little extra money I have on a wrong repair and having to live with something I could have fixed. Any help will be greatly appriciated!