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My saab (1993 900 S, 16v non turbo automatic) has had an ongoing problem for months. We think it started in March when I could smell some kind of burning after driving it about 1/2 mile, but the burning smell would go away after a mile or so. Burning smell would be there and go away for the same length of time most days, but the car had no problems otherwise so it was ignored.
In May, I left the headlight switch on and the car was dead the next day. Jumped it, went to work (25 miles), got out of work, drove to the bank (10 miles) and the car was dead again when I came out of the bank. Jumped it, went home (15 miles), and got a new battery. At this time we found the interior switch was also on, but the overhead interior light is burned out so we didn't know the switch was on. (Checked for a switch in the trunk, didn't find one, lights in trunk don't work also).
In a week, car was dead and battery had no charge. We pulled all the fuses looking for a parasitic battery drain and couldn't find anything. Replaced all the battery cables as they had very little insulation left on them. Recharged the battery, checked alternator output and battery and both seemed to check out. In a week, car dead again.
We replaced the voltage regulator and alternator brackets. Again, car was fine for about two weeks, then dead. Car sometimes starts fine from a cold start, drive it somewhere, drive somewhere else, and the car is randomly dead. We never know when we've fixed it because the car will be fine for a little while and with no warning, be dead.
So we replaced the alternator. Two weeks and dead, car would get jumped and run long enough to get home, turn it off, and it would be dead already. I've lost count of how many times this car has died since May.
August 10, car died again. STRONG burning smell (same smell we could smell intermittently since March) when we got it running after jump, but the burning smell persisted and was the strongest on this day. Tested all the fuses again and found a small 22mA parasitic drain from the radio, so we pulled the radio out entirely.
Pulled the new alternator, had the battery load tested (battery checked out), got another new alternator and another new battery.
Today--burning smell after driving 1/2 mile, smell went away after couple more miles. Got home and found alternator not charging battery (battery read 12v). The car has been driven less than 100 miles since installing the latest alternator and battery.
The alternator/battery light is not on, but illuminates briefly at startup as it should. It has never lit up. We replaced the ground wire also...twice.
So two alternators, two batteries, two ground wires (we weren't sure the first ground wire was big enough), new battery cables, no obvious parasitic battery drain anymore, and the car keeps dying.
We also had to replace the fan sensor (don't remember the name) around the time we got the first new alternator, as the fan wouldn't stop running and we would have to unplug it everywhere we went for a couple weeks. Today, the fan ran about a minute after the car was shut off, which I thought was odd because it wasn't hot today and the fan running hadn't been noticeable since we replaced sensor.
It has a very bad vibration when making left hand turns, we thought this might be a motor mount, but the vibration got very bad with the last alternator when the burning smell was the strongest.
We have noticed the alternator pulley gets very very hot --we jumped the car to drive it to the garage (40 feet?) and it was so hot it burned my husband. This was when it had the last alternator and the constant burning smell.
What are we missing? Alternator pulley, harmonic balancer? We're shooting in the dark.
I also have a 1984 Saab 900 S 8v non turbo, if there are any compatible parts we could pull from that car to help with this one, that would be helpful to know before we go buying new parts. (If that car wasn't in such sorry shape body/rust wise, I'd be tempted just to fix that one because at least it never gave me THIS problem.)
posted by 204.14.18...
, Sun, 24 Aug 2014 00:47:01
, Sun, 24 Aug 2014 15:15:47, Mon, 25 Aug 2014 10:48:28
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