900 Suspension
My friend Zane recently gave the saablog a little bit of free advertising on his blog. Thanks Zane. As a result of that, my first visitor from inzane.blog.com was George in Arizona (SexyArmo), who asked a question about the 900’s suspension.
I visited The Suspension Bible, and couldn’t really identify the exact suspension setup that my car has. But we’re all in luck, because I have the 1992 Saab 900 Form and Function book, a brochure that Saab published to expose all of the car’s innovative engineering solutions. Fortunately my obsession with Saab started in 1992, and coincided with my working at a Saab dealership that summer, which gave me access to all types of Saab promotional materials. It’s merely fate that I actually found my ‘92 on craigslist so that my car matches the literature. Below are illustrations of the suspension in the 900. Sorry about the crappy scan quality.
The front suspension is described as a double wishbone, with the spring not mounted over the shock absorber, but instead pivot mounted. The rear suspension is described as a Watt’s Link configuration.
Now we’re all just a little more knowledgeable about the 900. I still wonder why the stupid belts are facing the firewall though.
Great write-up. (Zane: eat your heart out.)
As for the belts facing the firewall: my curiosity would wander more toward why they didn’t mount the engine transversely since it’s FWD.
Anyway, good stuff! Let’s see some diagrams of the engine compartment.
oh yeah? i’m waiting for u to start posting about the A4 on H2O2Wine
Hahaha, Zane!
That blog is long-defunct. And why bother with my own blog when I can just post-jack at random. To wit: Audis rule! And: Someone buy my 2002 A4 Quattro 3.0 6MT - i’ll drive it to you!
I’ll trade you straight across… the 900 described in Saablog for your A4 3.0Q 6MT. What do you want instead, Herr Audi?
I actually bought its replacement already. Bright Yellow ‘98 A4 2.8 Quattro 5MT, GIAC chip, short shifter, Neuspeed springs/shocks, 18″ BBS CHs, Neuspeed rear anti-sway bar, A8 brake upgrade up front, and some other stuff…
You know, a ‘92 SAAB was my second choice.
This is the yellow ‘98 A4 I bought:
http://www.audizine.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=84780
Very cool. Seems like a really fun car. What ’s the deal with the Euro spec HID lights? Are they Euro Spec because HID wasn’t available in the US, or because they have a European light diffusion pattern rather than standard North American style?
My Volvo’s HID lights are for crap. The NA spec cars have different reflectors and aim than the lights in the same car in Europe. In Europe, there are Halogen supplemental lights for high beam, those are used for DRLs in NA, so there is no supplemental high beam, subsequently the high beams really suck. R some owners in NA have purchased the Euro light units, and have met with limited success making them work because the lights are controlled by an in-car lighting computer, which is coded to the VIN of the vehicle. You can’t upload European lighting specs to the car’s lighting computer if the car’s VIN is coded as North American. It’s totally ridiculous.
That’s why I’m curious as to what the Euro HIDs are on your Audi…
Good question. I thought the difference was in the “corners,” or turn signal/parking lights. In the U.S. version, the corners are clad in Amber plastic. The e-codes are clear with amber bulbs or bulbs that glow amber. Turns out there’s more to it. Kyped this from an Audizine thread:
[T]he difference between the DOT 1-piece lights and E-code 1-piece lights.
1. Projector lense - The DOT has etched rings to diffuse light output and prevent as much glare as possible (also refered to as fresnel). E-code lenses are perfectly clear.
2. Clear corner lights. This means that you have to have a bulb that produces amber light to stay legal. As we all know, DOT lights have orange corners (yuk! )
3. Cutoff pattern - The DOT lights are made to have an almost flat cutoff pattern which looks like this: _____~~~~~~~~. Ecode projectors have a more aggressive right side and look like this:
________/”"”"”"”"”"”"”".
I have no idea what #3 is referring to!
To answer you question, then, yes, diffusion is different as well as some other aspects.
I can’t believe you have to code your lights to your VIN. That’s crazy.
I know exactly what you mean by #3 in the E-code differences above. It’s about the shape of the shining of the light coming from your headlights. If you park in front of your garage door (or any wall for that matter) you’ll see that your E-code lights will shine higher on the right side than DOT ones will, and the cutoff line between illuminated and not-illuminated will be much sharper than with the DOT ones.
Gotcha.
damn! apparently i missed a lot in this conversation.
u made the right choice man. i still think the yellow one is tight. i’ll eventually have an audi post up george. i should steal that photo