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Re: STILL runnin' hot @ idle Posted by Ari [Email]  (#2847) [Profile/Gallery]
(more from Ari) on Thu, 6 Jul 2006 10:02:34
In Reply to: Re: STILL runnin' hot @ idle, knoxjoe, Thu, 6 Jul 2006 07:21:52 Members do not see ads below this line. - Help Keep This Site Online - Signup |
The air dam is the plastic thing hanging down below the front bumper. The purpose of the air dam is to guide air to the sides of the car, and smooth the air going under the car. On the driver's side, tucked right behind the lowest edge of the plastic, you should see a piece of bent metal with the outside air temp sensor. You can tell because it has two wires connected to it.
How hot is 'tolerable'? In your year of car, the temp gauge reading was interesting. The coolant temperature sensor is modified by circuitry in the ECU, but was still pretty representative of temperature changes. In later years Saab smoothed the signal out so much that it basically said "great" or "buy new engine".
"Normal" for the temp gauge reading of a car of your vintage would be with the needle at about 9:00 (level, pointing to the left), or maybe around 9:30 - a little above mid range. That would be for a car moving along the highway at speed. The temp gauge will move around - if the car is idling, the gauge will go up, then drop down when the fan comes on. It definately doesn't just sit. The question is how close it gets to the red.
If the engine temp is reading higher when the AC is on, a few questions -
Does the AC fan (front of the radiator) spin when the compressor clutch pulls in? If it doesn't, that is a problem.
When the AC clutch pulls in, does the temperature gauge immediately jump up (like in less than a second), or does it creep up over time?
If the AC fan isn't running, fix it. If the temp gauge jumps up immediately when the clutch pulls in, that implies a grounding problem, and the sensor is lying to you. The extra current load of the AC clutch is messing up the temp sensing circuit. I'd check the engine grounds and clutch grounds. If the temp gauge comes up slowly over a minute or so, then I'd say the sensor is OK and you are seeing a real temp rise.
If all the airflow systems are working - the big fan comes on when it should, and the AC fan does too, then I'd suspect the radiator may be getting old. But again, the 9000 temp gauge tends to show the car running hot.
posted by 192.249....
, Thu, 6 Jul 2006 05:15:45, Thu, 6 Jul 2006 10:02:34 <-- Viewing This Message
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