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Going out to dinner with a friend after work tonight. Arrived at the parking lot of the restaurant in my 95cse turbo there was some resistance in the car movement. Opened the hood. Found the serpentine belt loose. Not good. I didn't want to look closely and was afraid to. Since we were there might as well enjoy our dinner first. But I could not enjoy the dinner at all. Throughout dinner I was thinking how do I get home.
I decided to at least give it a try going home 20 miles away coming out of the restaurant. Strangely, when I started moving, the alternator light did not come on. The engine temperature needle stayed at 8 o'clock. And the voltage reading was at 14.1 volt. I sensed nothing much different except when the car slowed down near a traffic light there was some slightly rough noise in the engine compartment. Since all indicators were normal when the car picked up speed I kept driving and made it home.
After sending the friend back to his hotel and came back home I immediately raised the front passenger side. Removed the front wheel and wheel arch. This is what I saw. The top tensioner bolt was severed.
Three 9k's out of four I own(ed) have had the bolt broken. Only the 94cde has not but I only drove it less than 5,000 miles after the 5 speed conversion. The previous two luckily were spotted parked inside my garage. Even though this time it happened 20 miles from home I lucked out again. I was able to limp home with the belt loosely looped in the 20 mile journey.
Looking at the severed bolt, there are clear beach marks on the shank for about 1/4 of the way followed by sheared surface. There should be no question fatigue plays a major role in the bolt failure. The bolt is under constant jolt while the car is running.
I hope SAAB fixed this deficiency in 9-5.
posted by 69.248.96...
, Fri, 20 Jan 2006 07:42:49, Thu, 19 Jan 2006 07:17:19, Thu, 19 Jan 2006 11:48:20
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