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Hummm, a 2003 9-5 Aero with almost 120,000 miles with piston failure, not totally out of the ordinary, but certainly not every 9-5/Viggen is like-wise affected. Did you buy it new or used? What did you do, if anything, to cause this knock and kill the engine? Did you go too long between oil changes or use non-synthetic oil? Was it something else? I'm interested, not being accusatory, just wondering. Maybe it has nothing to do with the engine and oil delivery design? Just poor maintenance? Either way you have my sympathy! Let me see if I can offer any alternatives to your situation... If it was the engine and oil system's design, then yikes, another one bit the dust, oh man.
It's too bad, another 9-5 Aero down the drain, perfectly good car, but owing to GM's age old concept of the "planned obsolescence" for thier version of a saab engine in a Saab you are in a pickle. I'm guessing the issue causing the knock was sludge related, if you trace the problem backwards? IMHO, putting another used engine is a real gamble since you don't know how sludged the used engine is! And sludge (and the basic engine design/ oiling system amongst misplaced catalytic converters and poor PCV design) killed your first engine like alot of others have experienced. There's still plenty of 9-5's on the road and Viggens too (shared the same engine). But that doesn't help you out now, as you owe over $5500 on your dead engine, nor does it help all the other 5-10% of these 9-5/viggen owners who had similar poor design problems manifest and kill their engines too. If you buy the older 9000 model as you pointed out, that'll be a gamble too, who knows how well it was taken care of, although the engine and overall design is better than the 9-5/viggen at least. What if you spent $5000 and actually rebuilt your own 9-5 Aero engine using stronger 9000 Aero parts and then religeously used the full synthetic Mobil 1 in 0-W40 weight every -5000 miles? You'll owe $10,000 at that point, but your excellent car will have a brand new rebuilt engine! Taken care of from the start, I'd think you could get 200K miles out of it, maybe more. Depending on how many miles you put on it every year, that might only cost you $1000/year for ten years over the life of the car. And that's cheaper than buying a new $42,000 Saab or other similar car. Buying new is always a jolt to the bank account and buying used can be a real gamble costing hard earned money if you buy a lemon. There's lots of posts on this Bulletin board even just a few days ago about engines problems, everyone has there two cents, so feel free to read them to help make your choice and be informed. Some folks can get very heated about these issues, but I think it is best to keep it calm and not get "into it" with problematic other posters, though most are helpful and kind as I try to be (just a cautioning).
posted by 207.224.49...
, Tue, 3 Aug 2010 08:52:12
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