1994-2002 [Subscribe to Daily Digest] |
My car was leaking oil all over the drive way and smoking. I steam cleaned the engine and found the oil was leaking from the back of the engine above the oil pan. It was comming from a small item that looked a little like a spark plug. This turned out to be the oil pressure sending unit. A new one cost me $35 but took about 7 hourse to replace because it was really tuff to get to. I had to take off part of the exaust system and partially remove the starter so I could move it out of the way and get a socket up to the unit. The main problem with the removal and instillation was that the unit has an undetatchable wire come from it that goes to the starter. I ended up cutting off the wire and using a 15/16 deep socket to get it off. But to install the new one I could not use a socket because it would crush the wire. I had to use a 15 /16 crows foot and attach it to the socket. This worked with an adjustable rachet. But was very slow going and difficult to accomplish. I would highly recommend trying to track down a special socket with a open grove in it that you can feed the wire through. I did see one at the auto parts store but it was 1 inch and I think used for a oxygen sensor or something. Another difficulty was trying to unclip the end of the sending unit from the starter. Because the wire is short and way behind the engine I used a long screw driver to open the latch on the clip. Again very hard going because I could only feed one hand through the mess of wires on the top of the engine to grab the unit. I was not able to install the wire from the top of the engine so I went under the car and used a third hand type device to grab the female part of the clip that goes to the starter while if fumbled with the other male side with one hand to attache the two together. I am not sure if I tightened the sending unit enough to the block because again it was really hard to reach with any tool. I don't remember the metal seal crushing but I've driven the car since and no more oil is leaking from the unit. Hope this helps. One more thing. I did not have stands to get the car up on so I drove the car up on some blocks and this worked but did not give me a ton of clearance to move around under the car. In hindsight I would have purchased some stands. This may have allowed me to use both hands on the tools.
posted by 71.198.9...
No Site Registration is Required to Post - Site Membership is optional (Member Features List), but helps to keep the site online
for all Saabers. If the site helps you, please consider helping the site by becoming a member.