saablog

When we got home from Mexico, there was a big puddle of power steering fluid under the 900, standing on top of the cardboard I’d put under when I parked it in the garage before we left on vacation. Ani asked me how long the 900 would be in the garage. I was wondering the same thing.

On Monday afternoon, I was waiting for some information from a client to complete his project, but all I was doing was waiting. With steering fluid drip-drip-dripping out of the car, I decided that it was the right time to replace the hose.
 I started by pulling jacking the car up in the front and putting it on jack stands. Then I pulled off the passenger-side front wheel, as the power steering reservoir is above that wheelwell, and I’d need to get in behind the wheel to reach up to route the replacement hose.

After the car was all jacked up, I worked on getting the old hose off.   The lower end of the hose attaches to a nipple on the bottom of the power steering pump, which is essentially inaccessible. From the top, it’s located behind the exhaust manifold, so a hand can’t reach in. While the power steering pump is located at the back of the engine against the firewall along with the other belt-driven mechanicals, the return hose is on the forward-part of the pump, made inaccessible by the pulley and its proximity to the firewall. I was eventually able to crawl under the car, and reach up under the exhaust manifold rearward to put the socket onto the hose clamp, then I reached straight up between the gearbox, steering rack, and frame rail to operate the wrench to loosen the clamp.

  The lower hose clamp is down there behind the rusty exhaust manifold… the first “V” in “16 Valve” is pointing right down at the locatation where the hose clamp is located… it’s probably 8 inches down into the murkiest-looking part of that hole

It took a significant pulling force using both of my hands to free the hose from the pump, allowing the 0.8 litres of fluid to drain, mostly into the disposable plastic container I’d thought to get out. This process was incredibly messy, as the power steering fluid has coated everything around the pump as it seeped out of the hose. Everything I touched had either clean oil or oil-soaked dirt on it. I went through a half-roll of paper towels and a few rags wiping off my hands, my tools, and parts of the car.  

Next I loosened the reservoir and pulled it away from the fender, so I could get at the upper hose clamp. This fitting had weeped fluid as well, and there was PS fluid creating a sheen down the top of the inner fender down to the front right mudflap. Removing the reservoir then the hose, I managed to pull the hose off of the “vacuum reservoir” which sits just aft of the PS reservoir in the fenderwell. I have no idea what the vacuum reservoir is for.  In any case, when I was pulling out the old power steering hose, I saw the upper mounting point for the right-front shock absorber. I’d searched for it a little when Erik and I put on the rear shocks in December, but hadn’t really found it.  Realizing that I’d need to remove the hose again to replace the shock, I decided to go ahead and put in the new shock as well.

  That little bolt down there is the upper mounting point… 

The instructions for replacing the shock state to loosen the upper mount first, then the lower mount. But the upper mount bolts were frozen, as Erik and I experienced with the left-rear. Also, there’s very little room between the fenderwell and the firewall to get at those bolts, even with the PS hose not in place. I decided to try the lower mount, figuring that if I couldn’t get that undone that I would have to just leave the shock replacement for another time. But I lucked out… the lower bolt loosened after just a few minutes soaking with Simple Green. Then I decided to hacksaw the upper rod.

When we hacksawed the rear shock, it was tough to get the rubber bushing out, and there was very little room to use the saw. In this location, the bushing wasn’t under pressure so it took less than 10 minutes to hack it out, but there was even less room to use the hacksaw, because of the proximity of the suspension spring. I ended up using the hacksaw blade without its handle. As a coworker recommended, I need to get a Dremel or other rotary cutting tool. It took about 30 minutes of one-inch strokes to saw through the thing.  You can see in the photos how the lower shock mount is shot. This could account for some of the looseness in the handling up there.   

The instructions for reinstallation are to attach the lower shock mounting point, torquing the nut to some amount, then the attaching the upper mount. Fairly straightforward, but I couldn’t get the lower nut to torque because it was digging in to the rubber bushing of the shock. I got it otherwise assembled, then cleaned up and went to pick up Luisa.   The old shock removed. All of those dark areas you see are power steering fluid that has leaked everywhere… Old vs. new. I set the Konis to their firmest setting before installing this one… 

I phoned Erik from the Volvo (actually he phoned me back, he had been quite surprised to hear I was working on 2 projects simultaneously by myself on the car). We were discussing why I couldn’t get the bolt torqued properly, when I realized I’d forgotten to put on the washer behind the nut that would keep the nut from digging in to the bushing. Oops.

When I returned home, I tried to loosen the nut but without luck. Finally this morning I was looking at it and realized that I could change the angle of the lower mount by jacking up the suspension a bit, which I did, allowing me to get a socket on the nut. I successfully removed and reinstalled with the washer, but still couldn’t get the torque, it seems that the bolt has reached a section where it won’t get any tighter, it just spins. I need to get a second bolt, maybe a nylon locking bolt, so that the first one won’t back out at all. I’ve used LubroMoly 508 Anti-Sieze on these bolts so that I can loosen them again sometime in the future if need be.   

After getting that washer on the lower shock mount this morning, I fished the new hose through and connected it to the power steering pump, situating the hose clamp in such a way that it can be more easily reached from under the car. Then I attached the upper hose to the reservoir and reattached the reservoir to the car. A quick trip to the local Chevrolet dealer got me a quart of GM Power Steering Fluid (called out by Saab for this car’s system), and I filled and bled the system (bleeding is accomplished by turning the steering wheel 3-times lock-to-lock without the car running, then again with the car running). Finally I re-installed the wheel, got the jack stands out, and pulled the car out into the driveway.  

Even with the trouble of forgetting the washer on the lower shock mount, I’m surprised how quickly I finished this double-project. Hopefully the workmanship of my repairs won’t turn out to be of low quality. Time will tell whether the power steering fluid leak is truly fixed. The shock should be just fine, as long as I can get that second nut on the suspension arm to make sure the one that’s there wont’ back out. Now I need to find time to replace the driver-side front shock. You’re really supposed to replace both shocks at the same time (front or rear) so that you don’t get funky handling; I need get to that. Perhaps next week I can find the time, as I’m scheduled to work from home for a few days.

Today I am finally back in town (for 2 days actually) and took the 900 over to pick up some test equipment from a coworker in Woodinville. Before I left I had to top off the power steering fluid reservoir, as I’m losing large amounts of fluid now. I’ve got the replacement hose, so I just need to make time to replace it.

In any case, on the way home I stopped to get my hair cut in North City, and on the 1/2 mile drive home the CHECK ENGINE lamp came on.  It hasn’t come on the entire time I’ve owned the car, but it came on when I was sitting at the light on 175th waiting to turn on to 10th. I pulled into the driveway ready to investigate, but the lamp went out as soon as I got to the driveway.

 While I was at the stoplight before the CE light came on, I was pumping the brakes due to a post I’d read on Saab Central instructing me how to test whether the ABS brake fluid accumulator needs to be replaced. If it takes less than 10 hard pumps for the ANTI LOCK and BRAKE FLUID lamps to turn on, then the accumulator needs to be replaced. The replacement accumulator is expensive, but a GM accumulator from the same era is a direct swap and is less expensive. In any case, it took about 6 or 7 pumps for my lamps to go on, and maybe 1 or 2 seconds for them to turn back out as the ABS pump quickly re-accumulated pressure. I’ve known that the accumulator is slowly on its way out, because when the car is started it can take almost a minute for those lamps to go out. Ideally they’re out within 10 seconds of starting the car.

 In any case, while I was pumping the brakes the CHECK ENGINE lamp came on. There are, of course, many different things that can cause the CE to illuminate: a broken/failed vacuum line, poor spark (like from a plug wire that needs replacement), loose gas cap, dirty/failed oxygen sensor, loose wire, bad luck, etc. Things I can think of causing trouble are (1) perhaps leaking power steering fluid is wetting some insulation and causing a short circut of some sensor, or (2) the broken-feeling gas cap isn’t properly sealing the tank. Erik could comment on the gas cap… it’s like whatever keeps cap tight and causes that “clicking” when the cap’s tight is broken. Time will tell. A gas-cap-swap with the 9-5 might help, too, if the problem resurfaces.

The next week will be a vacation for the 900, as it rests in the garage with the 9-5 while Volvo hangs out at Master Park and the family hangs out in Mexico. I’ll catch up with you all the week of 2/26.

I took two clients for lunch yesterday in the 900, on my final day of a 6-day project in Burlington, of which I commuted 5 days in the 900. One of those clients drives a 2-passenger early ’90s Ford Ranger. The other drives a 1991 Nissan 240 SX with a speaker box where the back seat should be.  So the 900 was really the only choice.

As we were getting in to the car, they were joking that the guy with the 240SX should put a stripe on his car. They said that the orange stripe really did look good on my 900. They were impressed by the story I told them about buying the car for $800 and autocrossing it. I explained that I’ve been driving it to Burlington so that it can “earn” money for upgrades. They thought it was a reasonable thing to do.

The new rear shocks kept the rear from sagging so much with 3 adults in the car; previously the exhaust would rattle pretty badly agains the rear suspension when the car was loaded.

On Wednesday I didn’t go to Burlington, and I discovered two new puddles under the 900. Coolant was leaking in two places from hose fittings. The hose clamps were very loose. I tightened them and have not seen any more coolant leaking. I imagine that the coolant hoses (and everything else) is getting more “stressed” my my 60-mile highway trips to Burlington than by the occasional around-town trips the car normally takes.

As I was on my back under the car, I was able to see that the power steering fluid leak has really gotten out of hand. I’ve ordered a new $29 hose to replace the likely culprit. It’s going to be a horrible mess to replace it. Everything in the lower right-rear part of the engine covered in power steering fluid. I see oily hands, tools, clothes and garage floor in my future.

 I filled up with gas at Costco in Burlington yesterday before I left to drive home. Regular gas there is $2.159/gal, whereas the Costco gas in Shoreline is $3.339 for regular… I don’t know why there is such a difference in price, as I would expect Costco to have equal pricing at all locations. In any case, the calculated economy over 360 miles between Shoreline and Burlington was 28.4 MPG. I was really impressed, as the 1992 Saab advertising poster in my garage shows that my 900 is rated 26 MPG highway. It’s not quite as good as the 31 MPG the 9-5 can get, but it’s still pretty impressive in my opinion.

Here’s a photo of the 900 I took yesterday, driving through the beautiful Skagit Valley the scenic route instead of on I-5 for a bit of the drive home from Burlington. Enjoy. Thanks for reading the Saablog! Leave me a comment to help  me feel fulfilled!