Ebay Saab 9-5 Aero (bubbly, yes. Mint.. Eer .. No) £450..

Ebay Saab 9-5 Aero (bubbly, yes. Mint.. Eer .. No) £450..

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Discussion

battered

4,088 posts

147 months

Sunday 2nd August 2015
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You can get most of your money back by parting it out, if you can be bothered. I had a 2.3 non-aero for a year, it was great. It did suffer from the clogged oil strainer problem, which went away with an engine flush then came back a few months later and I couldn't be bothered fixing it. It also had the coil pack problem (£200 parts, new), a rattly camchain and the heater blowing hot air all the time. They All Do That Sir. When the MoT ran out I couldn't be bothered, I traded it in for £300 against a scruffy Mondeo that's still trucking along, the guy retailed it around £550-600 with a new test.

So before you scrap it, a used coil pack is £70, you have wheels and tyres, leather seats, good brake calipers will fetch £20 a pop all day, the cat £40-50. That's just the easy stuff, you can get money for alternators, starters and anything else if you can unbolt it. Then weigh in the remains for £100 collected. You're only out of pocket the petrol it cost to go and fetch it.

Fattyfat

3,301 posts

196 months

Sunday 2nd August 2015
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Buff Mchugelarge said:
Used the car for the first time properly after getting it home. Managed about 40 miles before it developed a rather nasty sound bottom end knock.
Nice to look at for a week. Will proberly chuck it on eBay with no reserve, £450 gamble lost.

You win some, you lose some.
I think these suffer well documented oil starvation issues from a poor breather design and incorrect oil specs. When I had my non aero 2.0 I had the sump dropped and cleaned, my mechanic said we'd got it in the nick of time as the oil pickup was almost completely blocked.

A shame for you but you should be able to part out a few pieces to ease the blow.

battered

4,088 posts

147 months

Sunday 2nd August 2015
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AIUI the oil starvation problem on the 2.3 is due to a strainer with very fine mesh. This gets clogged with obvious results. Mine did this, fortunately without damage. The fix (other than soaking the thing in diesel or another solvent) is to take the sump off, remove the gauze and fit a slightly coarser one. It's a known fault and solution apparently.

This is what happens when you stretch oil change intervals.

surveyor

17,817 posts

184 months

Monday 3rd August 2015
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battered said:
AIUI the oil starvation problem on the 2.3 is due to a strainer with very fine mesh. This gets clogged with obvious results. Mine did this, fortunately without damage. The fix (other than soaking the thing in diesel or another solvent) is to take the sump off, remove the gauze and fit a slightly coarser one. It's a known fault and solution apparently.

This is what happens when you stretch oil change intervals.
Also Saab cocked up and originally specified semi-synthetic when it should have been synthetic...

BricktopST205

898 posts

134 months

Monday 3rd August 2015
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surveyor said:
Also Saab cocked up and originally specified semi-synthetic when it should have been synthetic...
All Saab Aero's were specified with fully synth from the get go. It was only the lesser models that were specified semi synth.

johnnyBv8

2,417 posts

191 months

Monday 3rd August 2015
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Buff Mchugelarge said:
Used the car for the first time properly after getting it home. Managed about 40 miles before it developed a rather nasty sound bottom end knock.
Nice to look at for a week. Will proberly chuck it on eBay with no reserve, £450 gamble lost.

You win some, you lose some.
Massively bad luck, or do you think previous owner knew?

bakerstreet

4,763 posts

165 months

Tuesday 4th August 2015
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Oil starvation issues were fixed on 04 onwards cars.

OP should get a good few hundred back if he breaks the car. The seats will be worth £150 at least as the VW Camper boys and gals want them. The Di Cassett is also worth £100 at least as new ones are £250 (+VAT) if you can find one.

The Saab 9-5s are great cars. I bought mine in March with 202k on the clock and so far all its had is two new tyres and a £200 service. The service highlighted some things that need doing, but I probably won't get them done as it will make next to no difference to the car.

The OP was right about the saloons Vs the estates. The estate autos are very desirable especially with the 04 facelift. I recon they have reached the bottom of their depreciation curve and give it a few years, they may even go up in value smile

Buff Mchugelarge

Original Poster:

3,316 posts

150 months

Tuesday 4th August 2015
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Unfortunately I just don't have space to break it. I have to park it on the road so having a parted out car wouldn't make me the most popular person in my close?!

I'm going to put it on eBay and let the bidding go, if I get over £150 I'll be fine with that.
Shame really, but as nice as it is, it's not nice enough to warrant spending £800 getting it sorted. frown