"Get it out of my yard": 2003 Saab 9-5 Linear Rehab Thread

Progress!

This morning, I hit up a few junkyards in search of some odds and ends for the car. Came up with this stuff for $10:

A non-broken center console lid, a door speaker grille, and a SID. Also got a little change holder insert for the console that seems to be missing from most of these.

And check this out:

This SID has already been fixed! And yes, it actually works!

I cycled through all of the functions and they seem to work. I also tested out the stereo again today, and tried a CD out. Judas Priest sounds wonderful in this thing. And while I thought the rear driver's door speaker was out, it does work fine. I was dumb and had it adjusted wrong.

Next up will be an oil change and playing the waiting game for my exhaust pipe to arrive. I'm hoping to hAve it by next weekend so I can toss it in.

And XLR99, I don't need that SID anymore, but those NGK's sound great. I was planning on trying a set of plugs before replacing the ignition cassette. Shoot me a PM when you get a chance.

If the picking is easy, might want to grab the throttle body out of the JY car.

My sid had that same sticker and still didn't work!

I messaged you back about the rotors, just let me know. I have used the Weather Band in the SAABs a few times, once to get around a tornado in Nebraska.

One note about the plugs. In the 300k plus miles I have put on SAABs with a DIC I have only had one fail and I put it down to plugs. I only use NGKs and I gap them when I change the oil. Here is what I have seen recommended for the LPT cars Standard BCPR6ES-11 # 6779 .039

Another quick thing: I noticed after installing the SID, some lights came on in the gauge cluster that weren't there before. One of them is a gear icon with an exclamation point, and according to the owner's manual, that's the "transmission took a huge dump" light.

Now here's the thing: the car drove 100% fine when I drove it home. We've also moved it around my property a few times without issue. Why would this light come on now?

Only thing I can think of is that I did not disconnect the battery when installing the SID. Maybe it got weird when I tossed the working unit in. Or, could it be that the car it came from was in the boneyard because the transmission blew up, and the SID thinks it's still in that car?

Any ideas?

I wouldn't think the SID would cause trans codes, but I am not a Saab guy.... Might be worth disconnecting the battery for a few mins and see if it comes back?

The most common cause of the service gearbox code is the neutral safety switch. Often the fault can be corrected by disassembling and cleaning the inside of the switch. It's for sure the next-easiest and next-cheapest fix after disconnecting the battery to clear the code and hoping the fault indicator doesn't light back up.

The car may eventually go into limp mode. It'll shift hard and behave badly. If it does, you can help the trans a lot by pulling the gear selector back to first when you come to a stop and shifting to drive once you are rolling.

There are other reasons for the trans fault indicator but try simple first. There are write ups on the NSS fix on the various Saab forums. I'd link for you but am mobile at the moment.

Today, I finally had a few minutes to work on the Swedish Meatball. On the agenda was an oil change and to take a closer look at the exhaust.

Oil change went fine, and the oil didn't look all that bad. The oil filter seemed to have been put on by an impact gun, so it took some mangling to get loose. Running some Shell Rotella T6 full synthetic 5w40 in this to clean it out.

The exhaust, well, that did not go smoothly.

I went to remove that rotted flex pipe to install the new one, and the bolts were rusted by time and New England into non-standard shapes. As a result, only one nut would come loose. Also, the joint to the midpipe looks like this:

Yeah, that's not good. The flange rotted on the midpipe side and there's no longer anything to bolt it to. That pipe will need to get replaced too. I've found replacements for about $130 shipped. Still not that bad. I hope the rear muffler is salvageable, because that is pricey.

Also, that transmission light is still on, and I'm not sure if I trust it. There are a few other electrical gremlins going on, probably from sitting for so long. Maybe that NSS fix may get looked into.

I thought I would bug you one more time about the rotors before I push them back under the bench. Let me know if you want them or not.

It's been a busy month for me, so I haven't had much time to work on my projects. For a little while, I actually forgot I had this thing!

So, the next hurdle is getting the exhaust fixed. As you can see in my previous post, the front flex pipe and the mid-muffler/resonator pipe are both trash. I have the flex pipe, but need to order the mid-pipe. I'm hoping to salvage the stock muffler, because they are pricey. I noticed that there are two different styles of mid-pipe:

The OEM-looking one:

And the blatantly aftermarket-looking one:

The OEM-style is about $150, and the aftermarket-style is $30 cheaper. Which one would you buy?

EDIT: Google to the rescue! I found a post on SaabCentral that recommends the Starla one (the cheaper aftermarket one) just as much as the Bosal OEM-style one. So, that's getting ordered today.

Aftermarket. Because 30 bucks can buy a damned good steak.

In reply to Dusterbd13:

Or more car parts!

It's on order, and should be here next weekend. I'm hoping to have a few minutes to drop the old exhaust off this weekend.

Dusterbd13 wrote: Aftermarket. Because 30 bucks can buy a damned good steak.

I like the way you think!

Semi-local cheap parts car

I had some time to mess with the 9-5 over the long 4th of July weekend. First, I went to the local junkyard and grabbed a couple of those neutral safety switches to rebuild. I also picked up all the supplies to do the rebuilding.

Then, I decided to turn my attention to the exhaust. Oh, that was fun.

I left off with the center pipe having a giant hole from an "Italian Tuneup" and the flanges being rotted, and some replacement parts on the way. I just had to remove the old stuff.

First step was to get it up in the air. I drove the front onto some ramps and jacked up the rear enough to slip my other ramps underneath. This gave me enough clearance to slide under and get the old stuff out. While it was up there, I gave it a quick wash to the exterior and undercarriage to knock the grossness that has accumulated from sitting in my side yard under a pine tree, not to mention the bugs underneath.

The center pipe was rotted so bad that I was able to pull it apart and off the car. A lot of the hanger mounts on the pipe were rotted on the pipe, so it made it easier. As you can see, it's nasty.

The muffler was touch and go, as the outer heat shield part had separated and rotted off, but it should be salvageable.

Now here's a problem. This is the flange at the cat pipe. I cleaned it the best I could, and this is the result. I'm hoping that it has enough structure to seal the pipe, but if not, I'll likely cut the old stuff off and split flange it.

Over the next week, I'll pick at mating the muffler to the new mid-pipe, mounting the exhaust, and refurbishing those neutral safety switches.

Since it's flush with no studs, pull off the cat (if you can without destroying) and run it on somebody's belt grinder.

Jerry From LA wrote: Since it's flush with no studs, pull off the cat (if you can without destroying) and run it on somebody's belt grinder.

It actually runs a donut gasket, so as long as it's in there and the remains of the bolt holes stay intact, I should be good. That cat pipe is really up in there and not easy to remove.

I've also thought about sistering in a split flange if I have to.

The split flange has been used by better New England mechanics than you, and it will be continue to be used long after we are all gone.

The only really truly shameful exhaust repair is the coke can with hose clamps sealed with muffler putty.

You should just toss the muffler and put on a cherry bomb. If it's still too loud, add a turbocharger.

Nice progress. Makes me want to fetch a cheap Saab of my own, but then again so does being awake.

ssswitch wrote: The split flange has been used by better New England mechanics than you, and it will be continue to be used long after we are all gone. The only really truly shameful exhaust repair is the coke can with hose clamps sealed with muffler putty. You should just toss the muffler and put on a cherry bomb. If it's still too loud, add a turbocharger. Nice progress. Makes me want to fetch a cheap Saab of my own, but then again so does being awake.

The wife is going to be driving this more than I am, and she wanted something nice and quiet, hence the retention of the stock muffler. If need be, it will get some concoction of a turbo muffler and some pipe. Cheapest stock style muffler I can find is around $175.

If it were me, this thing would be getting performance stuff from the turbo back. Also, even though the turbo is the smaller one, it's fairly new. It was replaced by the dealer (back when there still was a local Saab dealer) at around 80k miles. The car has 125k on it now.

After about 5 trips to the parts store and wrestling with the car all weekend, I was able to get the exhaust up and in! It's not pretty, but it'll do. Sorry for the potato pics, but you get the idea.

The hardest part was getting the old muffler to mate with the new center pipe. I rented a tailpipe expander and tried to cut the old pipe with my "best estimate" to get the length right. The muffler pipe was corroded so I had to do a lot of sanding and light BFH persuasion to get it in there. I wish I cut it a it shorter, but it's up and in there and has enough ground clearance. It's whisper quiet.

Next on the docket is the Neutral Safety Switch rehab. Stay tuned!

Small update: My wife's Mazda 3 was having some issues with the A/C, and I had to borrow a gauge set to diagnose it. When I was done with that, I hooked it up to the 9-5 to see what's up with that. It had zero charge. I tried adding refrigerant to see if I could get the compressor going, and it kicked on for a split second and died. It's leaking out somewhere, and that's not good.

Can you still get A/C parts for this thing, or are they made of unobtanium at this point? I have no idea what's wrong yet.

Get a can of refrigerant with dye in it and add it to the system. Run the system to circulate it then you can get a black light and find where it's leaking out. A few days later check any fittings with o-rings, surface of the condenser for punctures, and compressor seal/gaskets. Evaporator is tricky but if the system is running long enough you will get traces of dye around the drain where the water comes out if there is a leak.

Man, I've had a busy month. I FINALLY had about 15 minutes yesterday to take a look at one of the troubling parts of the car: that transmission fault light.

I tried resetting the codes, but they instantly come back. Hmm... but when I drove the car, it shifted and drove fine. What changed? And when did it change? Then I thought back to when the light came on. It happened after I replaced the SID with the re-manufactured unit I got at the junkyard. So, off to Google I went to see if they were related. It seems that YES, they are.

From what I read, the 2003 9-5 got a slightly different SID than the earlier ones, yet it looks the same and plugs in the same. The difference is paddle shifters were available on the 2003+ cars. My car has paddle shifters, and I noticed that the left one was making the volume go down on the stereo. I attributed this to wonky electrical gremlins, but this and a few other quirks happen when you put an earlier SID in a 2003. Two of the other quirks: the Low Washer Fluid warning on the SID at all times, and the transmission fault light.

Thankfully, the transmission is OK, but I'm going to have to either replace or repair the original SID. Someone on here said they had one, do you still have it?

I got a hold of XLR99 last week, and he sent me that SID he offered me (thanks BTW!!!) so I tried it out over the weekend. 

Nope, same problem as my replacement from the junkyard. All the pixels work, but the steering wheel controls and gear box fault light were on. I put in the original, and the steering wheel controls worked fine, but I misplaced my OBD2 reader so I couldn't shut off the light. At least it's a step in the right direction. The pixels are dead, the control panel doesn't work, and the clock likes to tumble back in time on its own, so I might use one of my spares for parts. I'm going to ignore it for now and move on with fixing everything else and getting it on the road. 

For anyone else that stumbles on this thread looking for a fix, the cars that have paddle shifters do in fact have a different SID than other cars. Here's the part #'s of both:

That is a paddle shift car's SID. Part # 12806123

1999-2002 car (or manual transmission car): Part # 5263249

They look the same and have the same buttons and functions, but they are different in how they interpret the steering wheel controls, paddle shifters, and the transmission functions.