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A newbie to this BB post from Maine… sorry for the long post.. After a somewhat short but exhaustive search for the best bang for my buck that a $3,000 ish car could buy us for my short daily 50 mile round trip commuter car that would give me a nice ride in summer and winter and decent MPG, I settled on the 99 SAAB 9-5 sedan.. looked all over the net for what was available locally and within a 400 mile ish range and started seeing what was out there and how much they were going for.. also read about costly horror stories and issues with 4 and 6 cyl.. 4 cyl sludge blowing motors, 6 cyl timing belts destroying top ends, turbos on both motors blowing often, many other problems that could cause a limp home, direct ignition cassette, throttle bodies, etc.. This site actually gave me confidence to overlook what may have been some lemons or poor maintained cars from some long time owners posts and comments and I started looking.. decided wanted an SE 4 cyl standard but 5 speeds hard to come by in SE.. found one on ebay but was an auto.. looked to be and was described in really nice cond with disclosed dented front fender and rock hole through headlight, bad SID, and slight wetness but not dripping leak around oil pan gasket.. but am a DIY er so thought minor things.. had clean title and carfax but with 165K miles and no service history :( Carfax showed corporate lease in NJ for 3 years and one NJ owner after till recently traded and auctioned.. took my chances and waited to the end of auction to bid late and happened to win it by $1 for $3,101 + 250 doc fees.. (I think was an OK price?) first large item I ever bought on ebay.. scary.. drove down to NJ with family in a one way rental to pick up and drive home, found it to be in my opinion almost immaculate and overall nice cond car for the year… typical small size road debris paint chips on front of hood, few surface scratches here and there.. to me was real nice cond for a 9 year old car.. steel grey/blue black leather in very, very good cond.. vent and heat seats.. wow.. first luxury car I have owned being a truck guy! All options/function I tried out worked.. Motor top end with hood up sounded a bit louder than I thought it would like maybe loud timing chain? Not sure how they are supposed to sound but not overly loud just chainey.. oil was recently changed but not synthetic.. dip stick was clean no accumulated debris.. no smoke whatsoever at start up or after hitting throttle hard.. tranny seemed to shift smooth and nice.. small oil wetness at right of valve cover but motor looked overall dry and not recently steam cleaned.. underside dry and clean looking Thought it was very nice for $3K car with this many luxuries and appeared well maintained in and out… bought it and drove to New York city to spend night and next day with family.. first time in NY, WOW.. drove very nice and smooth and cruising at 80 was a true pleasure.. drove rest of the 430 mile trip back to Maine and about 100 miles heard a ding and saw “info display”.. couldn’t read what was on SID.. no other warning lights on dash came on, still ran fine and after stopped for rest, info light went off and rest of drive went smooth?? Still OK now a day after.. I am going to try and get service history if I can contact last owner, but most likely will change/flush all fluids, filters, spark plugs, etc.. saw a few “must do’s” on this forum for new owners of high mileage cars with no history, changing fluids included.. oh yea, the cabin heat/cool climate fan sounded very loud on high like jet starting up.. climate control flap issue?? Ouch??!! Also strong smell of what seemed to smell like melting crayons?? Anyone have any idea what this smell could be??
Planning to be a long time member and contributor to this forum and will have a-many ?? I’m sure.. I would appreciate any opinions of these hopefully minor issues of melting crayon smell and loud cabin fan and any recommends for DIY or pro maint to do at this just bought and 165K mile stage not knowing what was down recently.. so far very happy and real nice driver and head turner.. hope to get another 165K out of her!
Thanks
posted by 64.222.202...
, Tue, 3 Jun 2008 04:57:34, Tue, 3 Jun 2008 19:11:25, Tue, 3 Jun 2008 20:18:39, Tue, 3 Jun 2008 05:19:22
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