Any Pelican-like Saab sites?

[LeeH]

I just bought an '88 900S to fix up and sell and I have a few questions. Any suggestions where to go for quick and accurate info?

[stevepaa]

You know the old line,

not another Saab story? Is it an automatic?


just like Fix It Again Tony.

[84porsche]

Lee,

Take a look at this one - I used to go there when I had my SAAB.

http://www.saabnet.com/tsn/bb/

[LeeH]

Thanks. Yep, it's an automagic. It's running amazingly well for having been sitting for two years. Some critters chewed through some wiring and vac hoses. I think once all that's taken care of I think it will be a decent car for someone.

[84porsche]

Lee,

I will have to post pictures of my engine of Saab. I went on vacation for 3 weeks and came back to 4 or 5 hoses completely eaten by rats or something including the battery positive cable. I still think SAABs are some of the coolest cars mostly because of the distinctive features, central ignition, black panel and the shape/style. The newer ones are too GMish.

[stevepaa]

yeah, I like the older Saabs also. But they are not appreciated very well and the tranny is infamous for being unreliable. When I used to go looking at new Saabs, even the dealer would steer me away from AT.

[JavaBrewer]

I worked for 2 years saving money for my first car. I wanted a Saab 99 turbo (black 3dr hatchback) but at $8K brand new it was over my head. Settled for a 77 Datsun truck...in hindsight it was probably was probably for the best. I've seen a picture of a guy hauling MX bikes out the back of his Saab. They were uber cool.

[kaisen]

I've had two Saabs: 89 900S 16V 5spd and 88 9000 Turbo Auto. The auto in my 9000 was shifting REALLY hard on the 1-2 upshift, so I brought it to a Saab dealer for diagnosis and they wanted $2700 to replace the trans. This was 8 years ago.

I called Autosports Unlimited in Michigan to get a price quote on a remanufactured trans and the guy asked me a few questions about the symptoms. He told me I probably had a broken solenoid accumulator spring, so he sent me the original Borg Warner parts kit for $25 (unavailable through Saab) and sure enough, the spring was sheared and 30 minutes later (valve body is on the top of that trans- easy to do) my 'broken' transmission was shifting like new.

I would guess that a Saab forum, like this one, would be able to provide that type of support, and save you money and frustration, and helping you enjoy Saab ownership.

You'll never find a site exactly like Pelican

E

[LeeH]

This one is just an investment. It really runs pretty well for having been sitting for two years. I replaced the damaged vacuum lines this afternoon and now it idles perfectly. It's rough around the edges but will be good basic transportation for someone. After my trip to AutoZone for a battery and a few little things I'm in it for $350. I think I'll do OK.

[jyl]

Lee, say more about the car if you get the chance. My commuter car is getting very long in the tooth and I've been thinking about a cheap Saab 900.

Oh, you're in AZ. Not sure if an AZ car will smog in CA.

[LeeH]

It will if it was originally a CA car!

[LeeH]

I haven't had the car long enough to know if I'd recommend it or not. Some of its problems will be hard to fix. Whoever buys it will need to see it as transportation and not a restoration candidate or they'll be upside down pretty quickly.

It seems that this car suffers from common Saab problems. It's dash is badly cracked and the headliner is falling down in the back. If it weren't for those things I'd say it would be a pretty respectable driver. I've still got some wiring work to do to repair rodent damage.

I need to have it sold by the end of the month. My wife had a really strange schedule where she flies into Phoenix every night that she's working, so we bought another car for her to use this month. Five cars is just a bit much for two drivers - something's got to go!

[84porsche]

Originally posted by jyl
Lee, say more about the car if you get the chance. My commuter car is getting very long in the tooth and I've been thinking about a cheap Saab 900.

Oh, you're in AZ. Not sure if an AZ car will smog in CA.

John,

Look at the 96-98 900SE models - fairly reliable. My biggest problem with the car was a failure in the idler pulley which caused the serpentine belt to fail which caused the water pump to go. Had I stopped the car when I realized something was wrong, the extended problems would not have occured. This occcured at 53000 miles which was a little funny but a fluke problem nonetheless. As with any used car purchase if the car is looked over and a PPI is done then you should be fine. I loved my SAAB and I am sorry now that she is gone to car heaven. The SAAB turbo was so awesome. They however do look a little funny.

[Shaun @ Tru6]

Lee, Saabs are awesome cars. I've had 2:

88 900Turbo 236,000 miles at its death. I was sitting waiting to take a left into a parking lot, then I was 100 feet away after a big bang. The Mitsubishi doing 35 that hit me was unrecognizable as a car. The entire front end was gone. My car looked like it needed a new bumper. Real story is the engine jumped off the mounts and we totaled it.

I bought it for $2200 and drove the heck out of it for 70K mile iwth oil and brakes being my only major maintenance, I got $3800 for it from the insurance company after showing what other similar cars were going for on Saabnet.com.

92 9000T. What an awesome car! Haul's @ss and a ton of 911 parts at the same time. Head gasket went at 249K miles.

Saabs are amazing cars.

[LeeH]

The Saab is already gone. After I got it running I spent a day cleaning it up and fixing little stuff, then sold it on Craigslist this morning. There was still work to be done, but my profit margin would have gone down as I put more time and money in it. Not running to running = big increase in value. Fixing a sagging headliner = small increase in value.

I just hope it hold together for the couple that bought it. They were obviously very happy with it for the money, but I got the feeling it was all they could afford.

[beepbeep]

900 Automatic transmissions are to be avoided. They rarely last past 120000 miles. Falling headliner is common, so is crackd windshield if parked in the sun.

I have a 900 as daily driver, just hitting 230k miles...mechanicals are fine but rust will finally do it in.

[island911]

http://www.saabcentral.com is formatted more like Pelican.

[beepbeep]

P.S.

For you SAAB afficionados: A nice short video-clip with tuned SAAB 9-3:

http://www.93ssr.com/ssr/93ssr.wmv


It's a same engine concept that I'm trying to replicate (B234 + big turbo) and hopefully get rolling in our 911-chassis.