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Car Forum / Saab Cars / August 20062002 Saab 9-5 cracked heater valve
I found a big puddle of anti-freeze under my 9-5 which has about 50,000 miles on the odometer. Took it into the shop where they found a cracked heater valve. The mechanic told me that something like this shouldn't crack after 50,000 miles and that I should call the manufacturer. Guess what: The manufacturer is General Motors and that explains to me - who owned several crappy GM cars in the past - why this car is falling apart so soon. Does anybody know if there is a recall on these heater valves because, as I understand it, I am not the forst one to have this problem, Thanks for the help. BTW: This is my LAST Saab (GM) If you're talking about the valve just behind the block on the firewall, me too. My '03 Aero had this go (at just before 50K, thank you) about a month ago. It's called something like a "heater bypass valve" Mine was in the shop for OVER A WEEK getting this fixed since there is a nationwide shortage in this part, seems that there are lots of them failing. My dealer had to go get one from another dealer who wasn't terribly willing to give it up and had to be told by Saab USA to send it since they too had been seeing lots of failures. If the car has 50K, take it in and demand it be done under warranty On 8/27/06 3:23 PM, in article DimIg.73109$vl5.60099@tornado.ohiordc.rr.com, > I found a big puddle of anti-freeze under my 9-5 which has about 50,000 > miles on the odometer. Took it into the shop where they found a cracked [quoted text clipped - 8 lines] > > BTW: This is my LAST Saab (GM) As it turns out, this valve is also used in a Cadillac Catera and the Cadillac dealers should have this part. What gets me, though, is as soon as General Motors took Saab over, in my opinion the Saab cars have lost not only their sentimental value, but also their reputation. What a shame. How long ago was your car in the shop? > If you're talking about the valve just behind the block on the firewall, > me [quoted text clipped - 32 lines] >> >> BTW: This is my LAST Saab (GM) >As it turns out, this valve is also used in a Cadillac Catera and the >Cadillac dealers should have this part. What gets me, though, is as soon as >General Motors took Saab over, in my opinion the Saab cars have lost not >only their sentimental value, but also their reputation. What a shame. > >How long ago was your car in the shop? Griska: If this is that common, call Saab. They do still tend to fix "very obvious" cars out of warranty, unlike most of GM. A little of the Saab culture survives. Not much, but a little. "- Bob -" <uctraing@ultranet.com> wrote in message > Griska: If this is that common, call Saab. They do still tend to fix > "very obvious" cars out of warranty, unlike most of GM. A little of > the Saab culture survives. Not much, but a little. I called the Saab dealer this morning. The are not going to help. I was told that there is no recall on this defective heater valve - even though this valve failed on many Saabs and Cadillac Cateras. I was just about to buy a used Saab from the dealer for my wife but when this problem occured, she told me not to dare buy another Saab. I guess this settles it for me.No more Saabs for the family. The Saab culture no longer exists, at least not where I live. GM has a way to turn things around. Have you heard that they are planning to come out with that gas hog "muscle car" Camaro? I don't get their stupid logic. Instead of competing with the popular economic cars, they build tugboats to waste more resources. They deserve to go bankrupt if you ask me. >I called the Saab dealer this morning. The are not going to help. I was told >that there is no recall on this defective heater valve - even though this >valve failed on many Saabs and Cadillac Cateras. Try calling Saab directly. See if they will help. The dealer is not the last answer. Be persistent. >>I called the Saab dealer this morning. The are not going to help. I was >>told [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > Try calling Saab directly. See if they will help. The dealer is not > the last answer. Be persistent. Here is another tip: I just got the car back from Pep Boys. There was an $8.99 charge on my tab for a gallon of antifreeze (I had to keep pouring water into the overflow tank so that I could get the car safely to the shop and I new that the engine block had to be full of water). When I got the car home and checked the coolant specific gravity, there was no antifreeze in the system! It was colored water. It didn't even smell like antifreeze. All Pep Boys did is add water to more water. I called Pep Boys and told them that they ripped me off. I was told to bring the car back and they will fix what they screwed up. The thing is, there are so many unsuspecting people being ripped off by hole-in-the-wall places such as Pep boys > As it turns out, this valve is also used in a Cadillac Catera and the > Cadillac dealers should have this part. What gets me, though, is as soon as [quoted text clipped - 39 lines] > >> > >> BTW: This is my LAST Saab (GM) I don't know anything about the 9-5. Are you sure it has a heater valve? If there is a heater valve on the 9-5 it is indeed going backward. The c900 has a heater control valve. It is a mechanical device to regulate coolant flow into the heater core actuated by control inside the cabin. Any c900 owner knows the heater control valve is notorious for leaks. SAAB recognized this and changed the design in the 9000. The 9000 colant circuit for heating the cabin has no valves or any mechanical device to regulate coolant flow. Instead the heater core is enclosed in a box. Cabin temperature control is done by regulating air flow throught the box. Although the heater core still goes bad and leak the robustness of the design improves significantly over that on the c900. Maybe someone can clarify if indeed the 9-5 has this feature. I rather doubt it. >I don't know anything about the 9-5. Are you sure it has a heater >valve? If there is a heater valve on the 9-5 it is indeed going [quoted text clipped - 11 lines] >Maybe someone can clarify if indeed the 9-5 has this feature. I rather >doubt it. The valve in question does not control the heat to the cabin, it shuts the coolant flow off completely. It is either on or off. This is so that the A/C does not have to cool off heated air when the A/C is on full blast. You can bypass the valve with a piece of pipe and you will likely never know the difference - you would just have slightly warmer A/C on the coldest setting. The valve is actually used on all sorts of GM vehicles, and costs ~$40 from Cadillac dealers, as they sell just the valve. Saab sells the valve plus all the attached hoses for ~$300.... Kevin Rhodes Westbrook, Maine '00 9-5 SE v6t Wagon 67K, still on original heater valve > >I don't know anything about the 9-5. Are you sure it has a heater > >valve? If there is a heater valve on the 9-5 it is indeed going [quoted text clipped - 20 lines] > Cadillac dealers, as they sell just the valve. Saab sells the valve plus all > the attached hoses for ~$300.... So the 9-5 HVAC design is indeed going backward? The valve whether shuts off or regulates coolant flow introduces a source of coolant leak just like the c900. On the 9k although coolant is always circulting in the heater circuit it doesn't hamper flow of cold air if only AC is desired. The heater matrix sits in a box with flaps. The flaps are closed when full AC is on demand. "yaofeng" <yaofengchen@gmail.com> wrote in message -------------snip------------- > So the 9-5 HVAC design is indeed going backward? -------------snip--------- We don't know. All we know is that it can break down prematurely at any time :( >So the 9-5 HVAC design is indeed going backward? The valve whether >shuts off or regulates coolant flow introduces a source of coolant leak >just like the c900. On the 9k although coolant is always circulting in >the heater circuit it doesn't hamper flow of cold air if only AC is >desired. The heater matrix sits in a box with flaps. The flaps are >closed when full AC is on demand. It is what it is. The engineers decided that the risk and cost of an additional component was worth the benefit of better A/C performance. It's a $40 part that takes 20 minutes to change - I will probably do mine pre-emptively before it fails. Kevin Rhodes "Kevin Rhodes" <krhodes@nospam.maine.rr.com> wrote in message news:YKhJg.24102 > It is what it is. The engineers decided that the risk and cost of an > additional component was worth the benefit of better A/C performance. It's > a > $40 part that takes 20 minutes to change - I will probably do mine > pre-emptively before it fails. Do you mind posting a sketch of how to reroute the hoses? Thx. |
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