Date: Fri, 19 Aug 2005 15:56:02 -0000 From: Gary Fritz <fritzxxxnospamrii.com> Subject: "Throttle body" on 9-5 -- why!?
My 2002 9-5 Aero started dying when idling, and the "Check Engine" light came on. Oh boy. Take it to the dealer, describe the problem, and the service manager immediately identifies it as a faulty "throttle body." Tech II confirms it, and says the car is in "limp home" mode. So apparently this is a common failure -- the service guy knew instantly what it was, before even seeing the car, and the car has a special mode to keep functioning when it goes bad. Great. The service manager pops the hood and points out the part. "Oh $#|+," I say, "that's $500." He adds up parts & labor and it comes to $506. Do I know my Saabs or what? :-( The throttle body is apparently an electronic throttle controller. It wouldn't be cool enough to use a plain old mechanical throttle linkage like everybody used to (how plebian), so the 9-5 uses a "fly by wire" arrangement with a potentiometer on the gas pedal controlling the throttle body. Plus some kind of mechanical feedback so you can feel it. Questions: * Why does Saab have to replace the simple, cheap, near-foolproof mechanical linkage with an expensive and failure-prone subsystem? The only reason I can think of is the anti-skid controller, but geeze, wasn't there a simpler and more reliable way to do it? * Why is it necessary at all, since obviously the car can run just fine without it in "limp home" mode!? Except they carefully made the "limp home" mode inconvenient (dying at idle) so you'd have to fix it anyway. Grumble. Gary
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