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Car Forum / Saab Cars / January 2005Info to keep your turbo running A1?
I just agreed to purchase my very first saab off of a guy here in indianapolis who's moving cross-country and doesn't wanna take his 85' C900 Turbo(171K Miles) with him. I drove it today, and aside from the silly squeaky sound of the clutch pedal(Will WD40 clear this up?), and a squeaky alternator belt(It's been really wet here lately, many areas flooded.. it stopped after I had the car running for 10 minutes), I agreed to purchase it for $1000.00(With all service records, and a few other goodies) The engine runs awesome, no hesitation, no oil burning, fluid leaks, 5 speed, all gears found without a problem, clutch is great, and turbo runs strong enough to throw me back in my seat. So now, I'm just very curious of things I should look out for for when owning one of these beasts? Are there any tips of the trade other than letting the turbo wind down for 2-3 minutes before shutting the car off...? I also had a few curiosity Q's. 1. Will an oil additive such as slick 50 help maintain engine life in a C900 Turbo? If not slick 50, any other additives? 2. If I wish to drain and re-fill the gear lube... where is the drain plug, and what is recommended to replace it? I would appreciate any info you guys might be willing to give a first time saab owner. Thanks in advance! -Larry > squeaky sound of the clutch pedal(Will WD40 clear this up?), and a squeaky > alternator belt(It's been really wet here lately, many areas flooded.. it You might want to make sure it's not the crankshaft pulley that's squeaking. It's a common failure point on these cars. The squeaky clutch could be superficial, or it could be a master cylinder problem. > 1. Will an oil additive such as slick 50 help maintain engine life in a > C900 Turbo? If not slick 50, any other additives? I've never used slick 50 or any other additive, but people say bad things about it. I'd steer clear of it. You might want to consider switching to synthetic oil though, especially since you have a turbo to cool. > 2. If I wish to drain and re-fill the gear lube... where is the drain plug, > and what is recommended to replace it? c900 gearboxes stopped having drain plugs at some point, though I'm not sure exactly when. I'm sure someone here knows. Regarding gear lube: the factory lube is 10w30 engine oil. I would recommend a synthetic MTF to replace it. I'm currently running BG SynchroShift, which works well. > I would appreciate any info you guys might be willing to give a first time > saab owner. You might want to get yourself a copy of the Bentley shop manual (search for it on Amazon.com). John John, Thank you for the tip on slick 50. I use the fuel system cleaner religiously, and it seems to work wonders on my normally asperated engines. I hate to be assumptious, but I figured if 1 slick 50 product worked, the other should be just as good. Then again, you know what you get for assumptions. I wanted to re-comment about the things you said might be wrong with the vehicle... 1. The squeaking is coming from inside the vehicle, not in the engine compartment, so I'm assuming a superficial nature of the sound. Also.. The clutch pedal travel is normal, and It didn't miss a shift, or pop out of gear, anything out of the ordinary. 2. The squealing of the alternator belt went away after about 5-6 (if that) minutes of driving time 10 minutes total runtime. It wasn't even a loud squeal either.. just a small noise for a second or two, and then nothing.) I tend to get paranoid too damned easily. Especially with used cars. As I said earlier, it's been really wet here, and even my wife's 2003 neon has had its belts squealing a ton, and those are at least somewhat covered. Being a turbo idiot, I'm curious if your crankcase oil is also what lubricates and cools the turbo? If so, I'm definitely switching to a synthetic, or at least a syn/conv. blend. I appreciate your suggestions, and look forward to hearing from you all more in the future. >> squeaky sound of the clutch pedal(Will WD40 clear this up?), and a >> squeaky [quoted text clipped - 37 lines] > > John > 1. The squeaking is coming from inside the vehicle, not in the engine > compartment, so I'm assuming a superficial nature of the sound. Also.. The > clutch pedal travel is normal, and It didn't miss a shift, or pop out of > gear, anything out of the ordinary. The clutch master cylinder spans the firewall, so it could be audible from inside. But that said, if it's working fine, no need to mess with it I guess. Maybe you could try lubricating the pivot point where the clutch pedal attached to the master cylinder. > 2. The squealing of the alternator belt went away after about 5-6 (if that) > minutes of driving time 10 minutes total runtime. It wasn't even a loud > squeal either.. just a small noise for a second or two, and then nothing.) That would be typical of the crankshaft pulley separating. But if you think it's a belt, you could try tightening or replacing the belts, and see if it goes away. No harm in that. > Being a turbo idiot, I'm curious if your crankcase oil is also what > lubricates and cools the turbo? If so, I'm definitely switching to a > synthetic, or at least a syn/conv. blend. I drive a naturally aspirated 900, but I am led to believe that the turbo is oil-cooled, with additional cooling by water in the later models. People on this group generally seem to suggest synthetic for turbos. > I appreciate your suggestions, and look forward to hearing from you all more > in the future. Sure, no problem. John John, Yikes! Okay.. so you've scared me a bit, and I'm somewhat reconcidering the car. I know what my wife would do if I bought another car and it broke down on me right away! I'd be sleeping alone for the next 6 weeks. I have a few questions for you about the crankshaft pulley problem. I'm not sure if the owner had it replaced or not. He told me he was pretty certain the belts were getting loose. He's a saab guy, and belongs to saabnet They are also 5 yrs. old. 1. What causes the pulley to seperate? Can anything be done to prevent it? 2. How hard of a job is this as a DIY? (Remember, you're talking to a computer geek here) 3. How much should I expect to pay someone to do it? 4. What is the worst that could happen if I don't do it right away? The owner is adamant that there are no fluid, oil, trans fluid, etc. leaks whatsoever. Looking in his driveway and under the car after driving it, I didn't see anything. I read something about when replacing crank pulley, there is a point where you replace some oil pump O-Rings, and reseat the pump, etc? Shouldn't there be an oil leak of some type that goes along with this problem? Thanks for your help! -LC >> 1. The squeaking is coming from inside the vehicle, not in the engine >> compartment, so I'm assuming a superficial nature of the sound. Also.. [quoted text clipped - 38 lines] > > John > John, > [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] > > 1. What causes the pulley to seperate? Age. Oil contamination. > Can anything be done to prevent it? Make sure that the oil seal is not leaking. > 2. How hard of a job is this as a DIY? (Remember, you're talking to a > computer geek here) It's a bit tricky for a home DIY guy to do. The nut on the ned of the crank is pretty tight, so you need big tools and a way to hold the crank from turning. You also need a big torque wrench for reassembly. > 3. How much should I expect to pay someone to do it? Dunno. I'v enever paid anyone. Just did it myself. > 4. What is the worst that could happen if I don't do it right away? If it goes completely slack you will not drive the alternator or water pump. > The owner is adamant that there are no fluid, oil, trans fluid, etc. leaks > whatsoever. Looking in his driveway and under the car after driving it, I > didn't see anything. I read something about when replacing crank pulley, > there is a point where you replace some oil pump O-Rings, and reseat the > pump, etc? Shouldn't there be an oil leak of some type that goes along > with this problem? Nope. There does not have to be a leak. Hey, who knows, maybe it is just a loose belt? -Fred W I talked with him today. He left out of town thursday, and won't be back until next week. He wrote me as he checked it out after I drove it the other day, and here's what he said. ---- From owner ------- I think the hb/Crankshaft pulley was replaced at some point around 100K (I'll have to check the records to be sure) The belts were definitely loose. I did tighten up the steering belt but wasn't exactly sure how to do the alt belt. The sqeaul did temporarily disappear after the steering belt tightening so I didn't follow up on it. --------- END ------ So I think the problem may be solved. To make refrence to your questions... there are no oil leaks. After looking at the guy's driveway and how clean it was would be a testament to that. Besides, I figured if it was going to leak, I'd see something on the ground at one point or another. I stopped twice to check the ground at other various points.. nothing on the ground. So if the pulley is damaged, it's due to just pure age, and nothing else. Otherwise, I just need to get the belts tighter, and hope for the best. I love the turbo, and hoping I'll get a good car for a decent price. =) >> John, >> [quoted text clipped - 41 lines] > > -Fred W > ---- From owner ------- > > I think the hb/Crankshaft pulley was replaced at some point around 100K 100k miles is about right for the crankshaft pulley in my experience. John > John, > > Thank you for the tip on slick 50. I use the fuel system cleaner > religiously, and it seems to work wonders on my normally asperated > engines. Try using Chevron Techron fuel system cleaner instead. It works much better IMO. The Slick in Slick 50 refers to their marketing IMO. It is snake oil. -Fred W >> squeaky sound of the clutch pedal(Will WD40 clear this up?), and a squeaky >> alternator belt(It's been really wet here lately, many areas flooded.. it [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > The squeaky clutch could be superficial, or it could be a master cylinder > problem. To be fair, a master cylinder is about a 15-minute job on this car. So that's not all that major either. >> I would appreciate any info you guys might be willing to give a first time >> saab owner. > > You might want to get yourself a copy of the Bentley shop manual (search for it > on Amazon.com). Yes. The Haynes is, well, not nearly as good. Bentley manuals are also (or were, at least) sold by Saab dealerships. > I just agreed to purchase my very first saab off of a guy here in > indianapolis who's moving cross-country and doesn't wanna take his 85' C900 [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] > speed, all gears found without a problem, clutch is great, and turbo runs > strong enough to throw me back in my seat. Great car, sounds like a heck of a deal too. > So now, I'm just very curious of things I should look out for for when > owning one of these beasts? Are there any tips of the trade other than > letting the turbo wind down for 2-3 minutes before shutting the car off...? 2-3 minutes is probably excessive, give it 15-20 seconds after typical driving, a minute or so if you've just run it really hard. If the turbo is water cooled then just a few seconds is enough. > I also had a few curiosity Q's. > > 1. Will an oil additive such as slick 50 help maintain engine life in a > C900 Turbo? If not slick 50, any other additives? > 2. If I wish to drain and re-fill the gear lube... where is the drain plug, > and what is recommended to replace it? Slick-50 is snake oil, there's a number of teflon containing oil additives out there and they're all junk. If there was a magical ingredient that made oil better then you can bet oil companies would offer premium overpriced oils containing them. Plain old full synthetic changed at reasonable intervals will help ensure long life of your engine and turbo. I recommend quality oil filters as well, personally I use Mann W917's, but OEM Saab filters are quite good as well. Avoid Fram, they're about as crummy as they get. > I just agreed to purchase my very first saab off of a guy here in > indianapolis who's moving cross-country and doesn't wanna take his 85' C900 > Turbo(171K Miles) with him. Sounds like a great car and a good buy. > 1. Will an oil additive such as slick 50 help maintain engine life in a > C900 Turbo? If not slick 50, any other additives? Nope, the only thing Slick-50 and it's relatives are good at is separating money from your wallet. If it helped with mileage, Saab and all the other automakers would use it from the factory, with the federal mileage requirements being what they are. If it cut down on wear, then DuPont (makers of Teflon) wouldn't have told Slick-50 to stop claiming that their product would help that. > 2. If I wish to drain and re-fill the gear lube... where is the drain plug, > and what is recommended to replace it? It's at the far back, bottom of course, on the gearbox. Back where the driveshafts come in the sides to the differential. Should have a magnet on it; a little filings on there is normal, big chunks of gears would not be but it sounds like yours is healthy. > I would appreciate any info you guys might be willing to give a first time > saab owner. It's a great car, and you're going to love it. I'm driving an '85 900 for the winter, and to be honest, I think I enjoy driving it more than I enjoy driving my '99 9-5. You'll have more questions, and there are a bunch of people here who know an awful lot about the c900. Dave Hinz (near Milwaukee) The squealing sound I heard was just a loose belt. The owner tightened it up and voila... a week later, and still no sound. Thanks for the help guys! -LC >I just agreed to purchase my very first saab off of a guy here in >indianapolis who's moving cross-country and doesn't wanna take his 85' C900 [quoted text clipped - 25 lines] > Thanks in advance! > -Larry > The squealing sound I heard was just a loose belt. The owner tightened it > up and voila... a week later, and still no sound. Sounds good. Just so he didn't overtighten it putting too much axial load on the alternator bearings... Would be a good thing to have checked next time it's in. Dave, True. However, there's a difference between tight/taut and super tight. The belt deflection looked fine to me. Thanks guys! -LC >> The squealing sound I heard was just a loose belt. The owner tightened >> it [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > axial load on the alternator bearings... Would be a good thing to > have checked next time it's in. > Dave, > > True. However, there's a difference between tight/taut and super tight. > The belt deflection looked fine to me. I'm just trying to help. It's an important point. New belts and proper tensioning are cheaper than a new alternator, is all I'm saying. Dave, Sorry if I came off wrong. I seriously do appreciate the help you give on this forum. And believe me, I know the cost of a new alternator. Thanks again for all your help! -Larry >> Dave, >> [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > I'm just trying to help. It's an important point. New belts and > proper tensioning are cheaper than a new alternator, is all I'm saying. |
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