SAAB 9 3 'Vert Shed
Discussion
I Got my 11 year-old mechanic to swap the air filter and plugs out at the weekend, also unplugged the battery for an hour to re-set the ECU
It turns out it had Denso plugs in there - the Trionic engine management system much prefers NGK plugs, so the correct ones are now in - quite an improvement overall smoothness and in pickup above 3,000 revs now, always nice when you get a big improvement for only £12 spent!
It turns out it had Denso plugs in there - the Trionic engine management system much prefers NGK plugs, so the correct ones are now in - quite an improvement overall smoothness and in pickup above 3,000 revs now, always nice when you get a big improvement for only £12 spent!
Well, I have performed probably my most cost-effective performance upgrade ever!
I swapped out the 4 vacuum pipes (and broke my breather pipe
)fo rthe new 4mm ones and it has transformed the performance! It now pulls cleanly all the way to the red line and the torque continue way beyond the 3,000 rev fall-off it had before.
Most of the hoses just disintegrated as I tried to take them off, so obviously just leaking and collapsing left, right and centre. It would have taken me about 30 minutes end to end If I hadn't broken the breather, but I had to epoxy and gaffer tape that back together at the start (also fixed a leaking turbo/rocker cover breather pipe too)
will take a photo in daylight over the weekend, well worth the £3.19 investment!
I swapped out the 4 vacuum pipes (and broke my breather pipe
)fo rthe new 4mm ones and it has transformed the performance! It now pulls cleanly all the way to the red line and the torque continue way beyond the 3,000 rev fall-off it had before.Most of the hoses just disintegrated as I tried to take them off, so obviously just leaking and collapsing left, right and centre. It would have taken me about 30 minutes end to end If I hadn't broken the breather, but I had to epoxy and gaffer tape that back together at the start (also fixed a leaking turbo/rocker cover breather pipe too)
will take a photo in daylight over the weekend, well worth the £3.19 investment!
Hi simon, no I didn't, I think they were done when it had the Promax upgrade
Hallsey, there are a bewildering array of badge sizes/shapes, I douldn't find anything other than proper SAAB ones on ebay when I was looking as the convertible has a curved boot and the rest have a flat area where the badges go
Hallsey, there are a bewildering array of badge sizes/shapes, I douldn't find anything other than proper SAAB ones on ebay when I was looking as the convertible has a curved boot and the rest have a flat area where the badges go
I did a 5 hour round trip to Surrey on Friday and on the way there I started to get a funny whining noise that rose and fell with the revs, when I came out after lunch to drive home, I flipped the bonnet and realised that it was one of the belt pulleys, so crossed my fingers and headed to the M25...I got home fine, but decided to minimise the use until i could figure out which of the pulleys it was. Listening to it at the weekend I was fauirly certain it was the Belt tensioner pulley
Well with the pulley noise issue and the rear mount getting worse and a couple of long drives coming up I thought I had better get my sleeves rolled up, so ordered up a secondhand mount, a belt tensioner pulley and a Thermostat from Neo Brothers yesterday which were delivered just after lunch. I had an appointment at work cancelled so I booked the afternoon off, wrapped up warm and got the spanners out.....
First things first, got the nose in the air and took one wheel off to get access to the rear engine mount:
You have to get it reasonably high as you have to undo the bottom nuts through the 2 holes in the subframe:
The 3 nuts that hold it on came off easily, but then I had to jack the back of the engine up to quite an angle to get the mount out, and wiggle the new one in.
The old one was very compressed, the cable bit was completely slack:
The new one went in OK on the bottom mounts, but wth bracket would not slide down the thread of the top studd easily, so I tried jacking it up and down a few times, which got me to the stud just poking through the bracket, then I just "persuaded" it down by whacking the side of the bracket with a hammer...then just did the nuts up
I dropped it back onto its wheels and later on tried shunting up and down the drive which was fine at first but then sounded like it fully settled and is slightly loose, so will tweak it up tomorrow, job 1 of 3 done...
I then looked at the noisy pulley, following instructions on here about using a socket bar and a drill bit to ease the belt tension i then spun the idler and the tensioner pulley, and whilst the tensioner pulley sounded OK, the idler was awful! Of course I had ordered the tensioner pulley, so put the belt back on and ordered the correct part from Neo to be delivered tomorrow
I then tackled the thermostat, a couple of the bolts are a bit tricky, but not too bad really, I tried and failed to remove the big rad pipe, 15 years of being on and it wasn't going to release its grip, so I decided to try an ddo it with it on, which actually worked out fine.
popped the new one in and tightened it all up, topped up with antifreeze and fired it up, let it warm through - the temp gauge started moving earlier than normal and went up to mid-way and stopped, the pipe to the radiator stayed cold until it reached temperature and then suddenly went hot, so the thermostat seems to be working fine.
Hopefully get the pulley done tomorrow and then do a shake-down 35 mile round trip to pick my son up from school before I go to Bracknell on Friday and Heathrow on Monday!
Well with the pulley noise issue and the rear mount getting worse and a couple of long drives coming up I thought I had better get my sleeves rolled up, so ordered up a secondhand mount, a belt tensioner pulley and a Thermostat from Neo Brothers yesterday which were delivered just after lunch. I had an appointment at work cancelled so I booked the afternoon off, wrapped up warm and got the spanners out.....
First things first, got the nose in the air and took one wheel off to get access to the rear engine mount:
You have to get it reasonably high as you have to undo the bottom nuts through the 2 holes in the subframe:
The 3 nuts that hold it on came off easily, but then I had to jack the back of the engine up to quite an angle to get the mount out, and wiggle the new one in.
The old one was very compressed, the cable bit was completely slack:
The new one went in OK on the bottom mounts, but wth bracket would not slide down the thread of the top studd easily, so I tried jacking it up and down a few times, which got me to the stud just poking through the bracket, then I just "persuaded" it down by whacking the side of the bracket with a hammer...then just did the nuts up
I dropped it back onto its wheels and later on tried shunting up and down the drive which was fine at first but then sounded like it fully settled and is slightly loose, so will tweak it up tomorrow, job 1 of 3 done...
I then looked at the noisy pulley, following instructions on here about using a socket bar and a drill bit to ease the belt tension i then spun the idler and the tensioner pulley, and whilst the tensioner pulley sounded OK, the idler was awful! Of course I had ordered the tensioner pulley, so put the belt back on and ordered the correct part from Neo to be delivered tomorrow
I then tackled the thermostat, a couple of the bolts are a bit tricky, but not too bad really, I tried and failed to remove the big rad pipe, 15 years of being on and it wasn't going to release its grip, so I decided to try an ddo it with it on, which actually worked out fine.
popped the new one in and tightened it all up, topped up with antifreeze and fired it up, let it warm through - the temp gauge started moving earlier than normal and went up to mid-way and stopped, the pipe to the radiator stayed cold until it reached temperature and then suddenly went hot, so the thermostat seems to be working fine.
Hopefully get the pulley done tomorrow and then do a shake-down 35 mile round trip to pick my son up from school before I go to Bracknell on Friday and Heathrow on Monday!
The pulley that was sent was wrong, turns out they started making some changes to the B204 in late '99 so mine has a B205 idler pulley...
Once I got that sorted I did a 230 mile trip on Friday and the car is a lot better in terms of the chassis, but still something still moving so may just do the other two mounts to be sure, but the car now warms up straight away and stays warm! it is also a lot quieter with the new pulley, so I would say about a 75% success on the past week's mucking around!
Will do the the other mounts in mid December which will then base-line the chassis as back to a good standard
Once I got that sorted I did a 230 mile trip on Friday and the car is a lot better in terms of the chassis, but still something still moving so may just do the other two mounts to be sure, but the car now warms up straight away and stays warm! it is also a lot quieter with the new pulley, so I would say about a 75% success on the past week's mucking around!
Will do the the other mounts in mid December which will then base-line the chassis as back to a good standard
Edited by Fat Albert on Sunday 30th November 16:16
So with the engine still shunting around the engine bay I decided to do the next most likely (and next most expensive/difficult) mount; the offside one, had my mechanic do some of the donkey work for me, it took us more time to remove the plastic bits than it did to change the mount. I used a good secondhand one, but the one coming off didn't seem too bad:
New one on the right:
On the test drive it had improved things, but there was still a definite thump as I pulled away, so decided to order the third and final mount (£28 delivered), this was meant ot be the easiest one to fit, but I think everyone means the manual one, becuase the two bolts on the rear of mine were an absolute S*d to get to and undo, still, 1.5 hours later I had a transformed car, driving just how it should1
The two difficult bolts:
The mount was a bit broken:
I also then treated the car to a pre-christmas bucket of dirty water:
Convertibles are much easier to clean the inside of!
I haven't done a tot-up recently, but I think I am still only about a bag in on this car in total and have done over 4,000 miles now
New one on the right:
On the test drive it had improved things, but there was still a definite thump as I pulled away, so decided to order the third and final mount (£28 delivered), this was meant ot be the easiest one to fit, but I think everyone means the manual one, becuase the two bolts on the rear of mine were an absolute S*d to get to and undo, still, 1.5 hours later I had a transformed car, driving just how it should1
The two difficult bolts:
The mount was a bit broken:
I also then treated the car to a pre-christmas bucket of dirty water:
Convertibles are much easier to clean the inside of!
I haven't done a tot-up recently, but I think I am still only about a bag in on this car in total and have done over 4,000 miles now
Finally swapped out the DI today, was delivered from a UKSAABs Member so stood it up for 30 minutes to settle the oil before fitting.
I disconnected the battery before I started to reset the ECU and swapped it out, the only drama was when i dropped one of the screws into the engine bay and took a while to find it!
Oh and the torrential hail storm as I went back out to re-connect the battery and test it after I had tidied up and washed my hands
Looks much better under the bonnet now:
Have only done a few short journeys and the weather/traffic has precluded any heroics to really test any difference, but the initial impression is that of smoothness, almost uncanny when it is on tickover.
I did have a moment on my first drive when sat waiting for some lights and I got a really strong smell of burning, but then that cleared, so not sure if that was just some oil burning off where it shouldn't have been after transit?
haven't smelled it since. Will give it a proper test later this week
I disconnected the battery before I started to reset the ECU and swapped it out, the only drama was when i dropped one of the screws into the engine bay and took a while to find it!
Oh and the torrential hail storm as I went back out to re-connect the battery and test it after I had tidied up and washed my hands
Looks much better under the bonnet now:
Have only done a few short journeys and the weather/traffic has precluded any heroics to really test any difference, but the initial impression is that of smoothness, almost uncanny when it is on tickover.
I did have a moment on my first drive when sat waiting for some lights and I got a really strong smell of burning, but then that cleared, so not sure if that was just some oil burning off where it shouldn't have been after transit?
haven't smelled it since. Will give it a proper test later this week
I have done 5,000 miles in it so far and my total expenditure (including the purchase cost) has just topped £1,000.
I wanted a Cosmic Blue one like my previous 9 3 , but at this price you just have to buy on condition.
I am half tempted to leave the wheels on, even if I go down the Re-map and suspension route (lowered springs and eibach shocks are £450 for a complete set!) as it will give it a Q-car image, as well as the fact that the ride is comfortable and tyres are only £65 a corner!
Saying that, I know what you mean with bigger wheels, I upped my previous 9 3 from 16" to 17" and it did look good:
You can pick up genuine SAAB 16" wheels for next to no money, so might do that when the fronts need doing again.
This weekend's jobs are engine and gearbox oil changes and the fitting of a new Alpine Bluetooth/USB head unit
I wanted a Cosmic Blue one like my previous 9 3 , but at this price you just have to buy on condition.
I am half tempted to leave the wheels on, even if I go down the Re-map and suspension route (lowered springs and eibach shocks are £450 for a complete set!) as it will give it a Q-car image, as well as the fact that the ride is comfortable and tyres are only £65 a corner!
Saying that, I know what you mean with bigger wheels, I upped my previous 9 3 from 16" to 17" and it did look good:
You can pick up genuine SAAB 16" wheels for next to no money, so might do that when the fronts need doing again.
This weekend's jobs are engine and gearbox oil changes and the fitting of a new Alpine Bluetooth/USB head unit
Nik Gnashers said:
Interesting thread for me, thanks for posting.
I am looking for another car soon, my last being a 328i coupe (E36) which was old and is now a drift toy. I looked at a few recently but have been offered an 04 plate 9-3 2.2TiD for £750, with 124k on it, hmmmm am seriously tempted now
Hi Nik, go for it, they are a serious amount of car for the money, if you get yourself over to UKSAABs there is a lot of good advice and help on choosing a car and un-doing the GM 'improvements'!I am looking for another car soon, my last being a 328i coupe (E36) which was old and is now a drift toy. I looked at a few recently but have been offered an 04 plate 9-3 2.2TiD for £750, with 124k on it, hmmmm am seriously tempted now
My CD player rarely worked and jumped like crazy when it did, so was stuck with Radio only, so decided to change out the head unit as a new SAAB one was £150 and was a bit outdated now
I managed to do my head unit swap out today, about 85% successfully, with two simple to resolve issues and two requiring a little thought!
I decided to go for a simple mech-less head unit with built-in Parrot Blue-tooth and Aux-in & USB on the front panel, the Alpine has always been a favourite brand and Halfords have this unit on Internet Price-match (which includes reserving for in-store collection) so I paid £69.48 for it instead of £89.99!!
I also ordered up a tray to fill in the gap left by the SAAB Head unit:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/251644647822?_trksid=p20...
I removed the old unit (got the removal tool off ebay for 99p) and then offered up the cage and tray and found that the lip at the top behind the filler panel impinged about 5mm into the space, so a hacksaw blade and dremel sorted that!
I then checked the cabling, etc and found that the SAAB has an ISO aerial plug, and the unit has a DIN socket, so issue one (Iso-DIN converter on order from eBay for 99p) so i will pop it out and attach that when it gets here (easy issue 1)
The shelf and cage were still a bit snug and we tried the 3 bezels that came with the shefl and chose the middle one, but the top interfered with the stereo fascia, so I got the dremel out again and chopped the top off, with a bit of jiggery-pokey it all fitted. For the time being I have run the microphone through a hole in the back of the shelf, I will have a think of where/how to run it this week (thoughtful issue No. 1)
I got it all together and tested it with a USB stick and blue-tooth from my old Samsung phone and it all paired up and worked really easily and well, very pleased with the sound quality from such a cheap head unit, and I am pleased with how it all looks in the dash too:
Now for thoughtful issue number two...I am sure I wired it all up correctly but it cuts off as soon as the engine turns off (whereas the SAAB unit stays on until you take the key out) and it loses all its memory and config when it is turned off, is there any trick to providing a power feed to enable it to keep its memory? Have I missed something silly?
and finally, easy/idiotic issue number 2, I left my Sneakerpimps CD in the old unit :wall: , so when I pul the new one to fit the aerial lead I will power up the old one and press eject !!
I managed to do my head unit swap out today, about 85% successfully, with two simple to resolve issues and two requiring a little thought!
I decided to go for a simple mech-less head unit with built-in Parrot Blue-tooth and Aux-in & USB on the front panel, the Alpine has always been a favourite brand and Halfords have this unit on Internet Price-match (which includes reserving for in-store collection) so I paid £69.48 for it instead of £89.99!!
I also ordered up a tray to fill in the gap left by the SAAB Head unit:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/251644647822?_trksid=p20...
I removed the old unit (got the removal tool off ebay for 99p) and then offered up the cage and tray and found that the lip at the top behind the filler panel impinged about 5mm into the space, so a hacksaw blade and dremel sorted that!
I then checked the cabling, etc and found that the SAAB has an ISO aerial plug, and the unit has a DIN socket, so issue one (Iso-DIN converter on order from eBay for 99p) so i will pop it out and attach that when it gets here (easy issue 1)
The shelf and cage were still a bit snug and we tried the 3 bezels that came with the shefl and chose the middle one, but the top interfered with the stereo fascia, so I got the dremel out again and chopped the top off, with a bit of jiggery-pokey it all fitted. For the time being I have run the microphone through a hole in the back of the shelf, I will have a think of where/how to run it this week (thoughtful issue No. 1)
I got it all together and tested it with a USB stick and blue-tooth from my old Samsung phone and it all paired up and worked really easily and well, very pleased with the sound quality from such a cheap head unit, and I am pleased with how it all looks in the dash too:
Now for thoughtful issue number two...I am sure I wired it all up correctly but it cuts off as soon as the engine turns off (whereas the SAAB unit stays on until you take the key out) and it loses all its memory and config when it is turned off, is there any trick to providing a power feed to enable it to keep its memory? Have I missed something silly?
and finally, easy/idiotic issue number 2, I left my Sneakerpimps CD in the old unit :wall: , so when I pul the new one to fit the aerial lead I will power up the old one and press eject !!
Edited by Fat Albert on Saturday 17th January 17:26
Busy day today! 2 out of 3 jobs finished successfully!
After the head unit change above the next job was meant to be an engine oil change as I have not done that since I bought the car, I have no idea when it was last done and I have done 5,000 miles in the car since I got it
ops:
But, it looks like someone before me tightened up the sump bolt with an 8' tommy bar as I broke two sockets, bent a spanner and part-rounded the nut before I decided to call it a day on that, I will book it into Offord for them to do it when I get back from my busines trips in early Feb.
However, the sump nut for the gearbox came off very easily and litres and litres of thick black treacle came pouring out:
I had heard that only 2 litres would come out each time, but it looked more like 3-4. I then poured a little new stuff in to wash some more cruddy stuff out, then fitted the plug and topped it up
I then took it out for a test drive
After the head unit change above the next job was meant to be an engine oil change as I have not done that since I bought the car, I have no idea when it was last done and I have done 5,000 miles in the car since I got it
ops: But, it looks like someone before me tightened up the sump bolt with an 8' tommy bar as I broke two sockets, bent a spanner and part-rounded the nut before I decided to call it a day on that, I will book it into Offord for them to do it when I get back from my busines trips in early Feb.
However, the sump nut for the gearbox came off very easily and litres and litres of thick black treacle came pouring out:
I had heard that only 2 litres would come out each time, but it looked more like 3-4. I then poured a little new stuff in to wash some more cruddy stuff out, then fitted the plug and topped it up
I then took it out for a test drive
- WOW* what a difference that makes!!! eager/urgent off the line, super smooth gearchanges and much more eager to rev, tellingly my average mpg was starting to go up whilst driving around the village, so I will give it a proper test tomorrow to see what impact it has on the economy.
Thanks John, I will try that when the aerial converter turns up!
Nik, that is a ridiculous amount of car for the money!!
The seats are fantastic, on a par with the ones in my old Jag, I used to do 35k miles a year in my old 9000s and 9 5s and used to regularly spend over 6 hours a day in the car and never had any trouble with comfort
Come over and show it off over on www.uksaabs.co.uk
Nik, that is a ridiculous amount of car for the money!!
The seats are fantastic, on a par with the ones in my old Jag, I used to do 35k miles a year in my old 9000s and 9 5s and used to regularly spend over 6 hours a day in the car and never had any trouble with comfort
Come over and show it off over on www.uksaabs.co.uk
Edited by Fat Albert on Sunday 18th January 00:22
Edited by Fat Albert on Sunday 18th January 08:01
Looks a good colour combo, and she's scrubbed up well
It's a good, helpful forum that has saved me some dosh, I even had one of the guys from Neo Brothers message me to tell me that they had some good second hand parts when I was discussing doing my engine mounts on a thread, which saved me quite a wedge
It's a good, helpful forum that has saved me some dosh, I even had one of the guys from Neo Brothers message me to tell me that they had some good second hand parts when I was discussing doing my engine mounts on a thread, which saved me quite a wedge
Djw John said:
Just in case you've not sorted it yet you just need to swap the yellow and red wires over on the Alpine wiring to keep the memory. So red to yellow and yellow to red.
Spot-on John, thanks!Did this yesterday when my ISO-DIN Aerial Converter turned up and it holds its memory/config now.
the only issue is that it goes off when you turn the engine off, but if i am waiting in the car for the kids I will turn the engine off and then turn the ignition back on to listen to it
Not much to report other than I can't get the sump plug out to do an oil change, it is now round, so may have to resort to a sump-drop so that I can get it on the work-bench and apply some intellect and philosophy to it (or extreme violence)
The car has now crested 150k miles, and I have done 6k since I bought her, my total spend including purchase stands at just under £1100!!
I have managed to get my Sewede topless a couple of times recently (after I did a little top-up of hydraulic fluid for the hood) and the Hydraulic vertical Load extender feature came in real handy when I picked up my Son's new bike for his Birthday!!
The car has now crested 150k miles, and I have done 6k since I bought her, my total spend including purchase stands at just under £1100!!
I have managed to get my Sewede topless a couple of times recently (after I did a little top-up of hydraulic fluid for the hood) and the Hydraulic vertical Load extender feature came in real handy when I picked up my Son's new bike for his Birthday!!
My front brakes started making that nice metal-on-metal graunch and were feeling a little soft anyway, so thought it a good time to do something.
looking around on UKSAABs forum showed that reasonable disks and Ferodo pads were the favourite choice, so this arrived in the post last week for £73 delivered:
I got my 12 year old mechanic to get cracking and we soon had the calipers off
The pads were down to the metal on the inside on both sides, so a good call, although it was odd to see single pot calipers after the 4 pots I am used to my old Porsches!
Everything went smoothly apart from finding i needed an 18mm socket to get the caliper mounts off (all of the internet guides said I needed a 10mm alan key or a torx bit which I had), I have loads of 17 and 19mm bits but no 18, so a dash to Halfords and I bought a set of 12 professional sockets for £20 as a single 18mm one was £5, and I know that a number of my 13 and 17mm sockets had seen better days anyway.
After that it all went together nicely and I now have a very firm pedal, a smoother ride and hopefully some better braking when they bed in!
It is booked in for an oil change (the sump plug is round)and the power steering leak investigated the week after next, so we are slowly getting there, I am 8,000 miles into ownership and enjoying the improvement process
looking around on UKSAABs forum showed that reasonable disks and Ferodo pads were the favourite choice, so this arrived in the post last week for £73 delivered:
I got my 12 year old mechanic to get cracking and we soon had the calipers off
The pads were down to the metal on the inside on both sides, so a good call, although it was odd to see single pot calipers after the 4 pots I am used to my old Porsches!
Everything went smoothly apart from finding i needed an 18mm socket to get the caliper mounts off (all of the internet guides said I needed a 10mm alan key or a torx bit which I had), I have loads of 17 and 19mm bits but no 18, so a dash to Halfords and I bought a set of 12 professional sockets for £20 as a single 18mm one was £5, and I know that a number of my 13 and 17mm sockets had seen better days anyway.
After that it all went together nicely and I now have a very firm pedal, a smoother ride and hopefully some better braking when they bed in!
It is booked in for an oil change (the sump plug is round)and the power steering leak investigated the week after next, so we are slowly getting there, I am 8,000 miles into ownership and enjoying the improvement process
Put the 'Vert into Offord motor company yesterday for a few little jobs, first time I have been back there in 6 years (I bought 6 SAABs from them in the noughties), Phil is in charge now and the level of service is as good and friendly as it used to be.
My Courtesy car was perfect for the outbreak of sunshine yesterday:
They did an Oil Service and gave it the once-over, I also asked them to provide and code a new key as I only had one, and check into a Power steering leak.
I said to Phil that if the PAS leak was simple fix it, but if not it costs me £3/month in lost fluid so am not that bovvered.
When I went to pick the car up Phil suggested that I keep buying the fluid as the front PAS pipe that runs under the oil cooler had corroded and they were quite pricey to buy new (he quoted £300 all in to replace it), so I am either better off living with it or try sourcing a SH one.
He found that my headlamp relay had gone, it is a usual issue and he produced a big bag of relays from his desk! I had seen some strange issues over the winter and wondered what was going on, I had to replace a number of bulbs and occasionaly my main beam wouldn't work, now i know!
There were 4 other bulbs that had gone, so all replaced for £12
The total bill came to £314, the vast majority of which was for the new key & Coding, they only charged me 1.5hours labour (£46/hr + Vat) and the rest was parts/key coding.
the car now has its first service book stamp in 9 years and a shiny modern key! (The slug will now be put as spare)
The only other advisory was that the rear disks and pads would need changing in a few thousand miles, other than that a clean bill of health! Even the bulkhead seems OK.
They were very surprised how little I paid for the car, I know it has cost me a bit in time and parts, but I am still only around £1400 all in over 9 months and have covered over £8,000 miles, and of course the value of the car will not have gone down in that time, if anything it will have gone up a little so I am very happy!
My Courtesy car was perfect for the outbreak of sunshine yesterday:
They did an Oil Service and gave it the once-over, I also asked them to provide and code a new key as I only had one, and check into a Power steering leak.
I said to Phil that if the PAS leak was simple fix it, but if not it costs me £3/month in lost fluid so am not that bovvered.
When I went to pick the car up Phil suggested that I keep buying the fluid as the front PAS pipe that runs under the oil cooler had corroded and they were quite pricey to buy new (he quoted £300 all in to replace it), so I am either better off living with it or try sourcing a SH one.
He found that my headlamp relay had gone, it is a usual issue and he produced a big bag of relays from his desk! I had seen some strange issues over the winter and wondered what was going on, I had to replace a number of bulbs and occasionaly my main beam wouldn't work, now i know!
There were 4 other bulbs that had gone, so all replaced for £12
The total bill came to £314, the vast majority of which was for the new key & Coding, they only charged me 1.5hours labour (£46/hr + Vat) and the rest was parts/key coding.
the car now has its first service book stamp in 9 years and a shiny modern key! (The slug will now be put as spare)
The only other advisory was that the rear disks and pads would need changing in a few thousand miles, other than that a clean bill of health! Even the bulkhead seems OK.
They were very surprised how little I paid for the car, I know it has cost me a bit in time and parts, but I am still only around £1400 all in over 9 months and have covered over £8,000 miles, and of course the value of the car will not have gone down in that time, if anything it will have gone up a little so I am very happy!
Gassing Station | Readers' Cars | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff