[duecebravo]

hey everyone

unfortunate event have brought me back for a second time. it started two days ago, i was driving to work. when idling at a red light my 2001 auto se with about 104,000 started vibrating moderately and emitting a sound similar to a serpentine belt slipping . ive had misfires on all four cylinders for a bit now and i was sure my DIC was about to fail. (procrastinated on buying a new one.)

at the next light "saabastian" shuts off and i cant restart it. after single handedly pushing it up and hill and into a 45 degree parallel park. i fetch two old dic's and give it a whirl with no sucess (not to mention my out of date battery)

so here i am this evening i located a brand new genuine saab DIC from CARQUEST for $301 and a new battery. so i start cranking and its not working i try on and off for about ten minutes until it finally turns over. (NEVER TAKES THIS MUCH EFFORT even with my old POS battery) within 5 seconds i can tell something is wrong, the vibrations return and then tear jerking sounds of metal grinding and cracking around arise . i turn it off and i smell my belt burt and just under the main belt drive there are pieces and shaving of metal on the ground.
and there is a noticable amount of oil starting just above the oil pan

i check insensitively and cannot find any components that aprear to have suffered damage nor did my belt seem burt or torn but there was light smoke coming off the main belt drive. i tested it again and can see its not an altenator lock up.
so i am left with water pump, power steering pump, A/C comp (of which i had replaced last year), or the main belt drive its self.
i had not codes but my oil light was on.

does anyone have any ideas? im soo afraid there are pieces of metal swimming around my oil pan that i dont have time to drop again.
i dont think i can out this thing in the shop again.

please check out this video i recorded of the sound (visual is basically usless)
note that start up had never sounded so "windy" or taken so long (NEW DIC AND BATTERY)
http://youtu.be/dVZY3kNe70E

 

[KaMiKaZi_t0M]

Ohhh boy, this doesn't look good. Looks like the shavings are aluminum from the timing cover. Something is causing the crank pulley to grind through the timing cover; did you recently take the crank pulley off?
Also, while it seems you got a good price for the DIC I can almost guarantee you it is aftermarket and is going to fail. Pull the belt and pulley off and take some pictures for us, unfortunately I don't think you will see good news .

 

[jakejm79]

Pull the belt off and see if it still makes the noise, if so its the crank pulley if not its one of the belt driven accessories, probably the water pump.

 

[soccerrplyr]

Ohhh boy, this doesn't look good. Looks like the shavings are aluminum from the timing cover. Something is causing the crank pulley to grind through the timing cover; did you recently take the crank pulley off?
Also, while it seems you got a good price for the DIC I can almost guarantee you it is aftermarket and is going to fail. Pull the belt and pulley off and take some pictures for us, unfortunately I don't think you will see good news .

I believe the dic that carquest sells are oem and not the proparts, etc aftermarkets

 

['97 Saab SE Turbo]

Check to see if your passenger side motor mount has failed or the aluminum support bracket for the motor mount has broken and has let your engine fall down where the crank pulley is rubbing on the subframe.

A quick test is to jack the engine up 1/2" or so on the passenger side with a jack under the oil pan. Of course, put a piece of wood between the jack and oil pan... Ron.

 

[grkguy89]

the harmonic balancer in the crank pulley looks to be bad.... time to replace it and the front main seal
maybe even look to see if the tensioner is functioning correctly
if it gets stuck with too much tension then it will stress the whole system

Check to see if your passenger side motor mount has failed or the aluminum support bracket for the motor mount has broken and has let your engine fall down where the crank pulley is rubbing on the subframe.

A quick test is to jack the engine up 1/2" or so on the passenger side with a jack under the oil pan. Of course, put a piece of wood between the jack and oil pan... Ron.

that cant happen.... the oil pan would sit on the subframe if the mount/bracket was bad

 

['97 Saab SE Turbo]

I had it happen, that's why I mentioned it. I can post pictures of two broken brackets... Ron

 

[grkguy89]

wait you had more that one broken mount?
if so then I can see it happening.

 

['97 Saab SE Turbo]

When my son bought the car, the mount was already broken. I didn't know about it because it was hidden down under the water pump & a/c unit. When he was backing out of the driveway one day and turned hard to the right, I heard the crank pulley rub the subframe. I'm assuming that the hard right turn forced the engine over to the drivers side and allowed engine to drop and the pulley to rub.

I replaced the bracket and all was fine for about 3 months, when the clutch plate went. It vibrated so bad in reverse, that the second bracket broke. That's when I bought the car, since he can't afford to miss work. He's an IT manager with the State in a building where around 1500 troopers report.

Since I've had the car (for over four years) it's been fine... Ron

 

[duecebravo]

Ohhh boy, this doesn't look good. Looks like the shavings are aluminum from the timing cover. Something is causing the crank pulley to grind through the timing cover; did you recently take the crank pulley off?
Also, while it seems you got a good price for the DIC I can almost guarantee you it is aftermarket and is going to fail. Pull the belt and pulley off and take some pictures for us, unfortunately I don't think you will see good news .

i talked to my mechanic yesterday and he also thinks the water pump has gone, and that the shredding may be damage to the valve cover, which i have not removed nor the crank pulley.

the DIC IS oem (SEM 55559955) $301 only one in stock

 

[duecebravo]

Check to see if your passenger side motor mount has failed or the aluminum support bracket for the motor mount has broken and has let your engine fall down where the crank pulley is rubbing on the subframe.

A quick test is to jack the engine up 1/2" or so on the passenger side with a jack under the oil pan. Of course, put a piece of wood between the jack and oil pan... Ron.

as you can see in the picture with the splash guard removed the crank pulley is not rubbing the sub frame. had some mounts replaced last year.

grkguy89- i had the tensioner replaced last year along side the a/c compessor. not to mention all the seals i had replaced late summer.

my mechanic said water pump replacement and possible valve cover repairs would be around $450, sound reasonable?

 

[jakejm79]

If that includes an OEM pump (or at least an aftermarket one they will warranty for a year or two) that is a great deal, are they changing the thermostat or any hoses in that price? It's a real 4 hour job the first time you do it so I'd expect to pay more than that without any timing cover repair.

 

[rameleg]

I believe I had the same issue!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

on my car the bolts that hold the balancer to the pulley backed themselves out(no reason... they just did)

as they got longer they ate away the timing cover and finally destroyed it... and the oil pump housing... and the oil pump....

pull the crank pulley off and check it immediately...