Date: Sun, 28 Apr 2002 18:02:54 +0100 From: "Pidgeonpost" <pidgeonpostnopsamail.com> Subject: 9000 - check that gearbox oil level
About a month ago I posted to the group that the speedometer had failed on my '96 9000 2.3LPT (108K miles). About 40 miles after the speedo failure I lost the ability to select 1st and second gears on the manual gearbox. The car was recovered to my dealer, who diagnosed the problem as a breakup of the speedometer drive within the gearbox, and the broken parts dropping into the 'box, jamming the selection mechanism. The car was undriveable, so no option but to get it fixed. This cost just over £700, which included the cost of replacing a number of bearings, as a precaution I guess, but on top of that was the cost of replacing clutch components while the box was out. Over £850 in all. I was 'lucky', as the car was still under warranty (3rd party - not Saab), and they picked up some of the tab, but it still hurt. A number of sources, including Saab Customer Relations, have suggested that this failure can occur if the gearbox is over or under filled with oil. I don't know how this can have been the case with my car, as it doesn't drop any oil, and has been dealer-serviced since new, but there you go. I was very, very deeply pissed off by this failure - especially since I'd sold my previous 9K automatic because of horror stories about transmission failures! I'd never heard about this problem before, despite owning Saabs (classic 900, 9000, new900) for around 20 years. So...get that oil level checked folks!