Date: Sun, 23 Sep 2001 00:24:58 +0100 From: danny <dannynopsamia-esprezzo.com> Subject: Re: Overheat: 92 9000 Griffin
Scott Yeager wrote: > -snip overheating tale of woe- > > So, to my more experienced SAAB friends, I pose the following... bear in > mind that this is the 2.3 Turbo with an automatic: > > 1. My gut tells me failed thermostat. Though my gut could be wrong, it's the > first step in my chain and the damn thing needs to be replaced anyway since > I'm the recent second owner and we're pushing 130K on the clock. Is it safe > to assume that changing the thermostat on this car is just like doing it on > any other (short, of course, of my girlfriend's 87 Porsche 944, which I'm > told is a complete disaster)? Thermostat is as easy to change as any other vehicle - but get the 82 degree stat in place of the stock 88? degree. Also consider a genuine Saab stat as they are slightly different, I'm told. > > > 2. Short of the thermostat, what else would be a common cause of overheat > failure in this model? I assume a water pump failure would be next, but I > would expect some other sign of problems if the pump was on it's way out, > such as noise or something obvious. Don't forget to check/test the cooling fan/relay/temperature switch. The temperature sender especially is prone to corrosion in the wiring at the sender connector (o/s of radiator in my 9k) - the wire is at the bottom of the radiator, access behind o/s foglight. Fan can be tested by shorting two points in the relay socket located in the plastic relay holder on the n/s wing. Remove relay and join the centre rear and front pin holes (anyone confirm exact loactions?) with a suitable jump wire. The fan should start. This is also useful for when the relay or the sender give up - wire the fan and it will stay on, handy as a get-you-home. Did the temperature guage suddenly shoot up, or was it a gradual rise? Shooting up suddenly would indicate a major failure in the cooling system or a head gasket, whereas gradual temperature rise in slow moving traffic is normal, until the sender cuts the fan in. If this doesn't occur, the temperature will happily continue to the red (as it did in my 9k). -- Regards, Danny http://www.gaggia-espresso.com (a purely hobby site) http://www.dannyscoffee.com (UK advert for my mobile espresso service) swap Z for above characters in email address to reply