Date: Fri, 30 Jul 2004 06:27:52 GMT From: another one <anynospamly.org> Subject: Re: Saab 9-5: Another DI cassette story
In article <_2SMc.26904$eM2.3151nospami_s51>, Robnospamalkin.com says... > Hello all: > > I've gotten a lot of information from the group here since I bought my SAAB, > a 2000 9-5 SE (V6) wagon, so I thought I'd add my latest experience to the > group knowledge. > > My SAAB wagon has 55,000 miiles on it and is maintained well. The > maintenance schedule is strictly adhered to and I change the oil every 3,000 > miles. Last week we're on vacation at north shore Lake Tahoe, 235 miles from > home. We're on our way to dinner when I lose power and the throttle won't > respond. I pull over, put the engine in neutral and rev it up - it revs up > great with no load but as soon as I put it pack in gear it stumbles badly > under throttle. After letting it sit for a while I tried to restart it - no > go. It turned over beautifully but wouldn't catch. Like one person > described, it was as if it was starved for fuel. There are no SAAB dealers > in north shore Tahoe. There are no independent SAAB mechanics there either. > The car ended up being towed 116 miles to the nearest dealer in Sacramento. > We ended up renting a car and continuing with our vacation. > > The dealer says it's the DI cassette which was on my list of suspects since > I follow this newsgroup. Has anyone ever heard of a DI cassette failing this > young? Now I know why some of you recommend carrying a spare! > > One final observation. Mine failed without warning. No sputtering or poor > performance in the days preceding the failure. She ran great right up to the > point where she died. Had I been turning left in front of oncoming traffic > or passing a big rig uphill when the failure occured the consequences may > have been catastrophic. It seems to me that if SAAB can't signal the driver > of an impending failure beforehand than a DI cassette replacement should be > on the maintenance schedule. What do you guys think? > > - Rob Malkin > I was going to post roughly the same story to this newsgroup about my 2000 9-3, but you beat me to it. My story is a little more complex. The trouble started last April when the car had only 24,000 well-maintained miles on it. Precipitous, sudden, dangerous failure on a California freeway. The ignition cassette, tow and rental car cost me about $800. Then the car failed again, just one day after I got it back. This time it ran but weakly and with the 'check engine light' on. Stranded again but closer to a dealership, I limped the car into a nearby dealership. I will save this newsgroup the complete sad story and skip to the bottom line: Six weeks. Six trips to the dealership. Blown catalytic converter. Blown cassette. Cracked flywheel (!!) Cracked brake rotor. Replaced gas tank fuel pipe ($900 right there). Total: $6500. $4800 under warrantee. This is outrageously bad build quality for a car that thinks it is a compeditive upscale brand. I don't give a Cheney how bad VWs or BMWs are: I bought a Saab. I am still alarmed over these problems. I need to trust my car. I still don't know if I can trust this car at this point. I can't enjoy driving this car any more. I am dismayed for the Saab brand, which I had had great respect for until now. brokenDown
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