saablog

On Monday I stopped by Europa, because as I was driving by I saw the 900 in the open work bay. The head was on, and Tien expected to have the car finished later in the day. I told him that I was leaving for LA and that I would pick the car up on Wednesday morning.

On Tuesday he phoned and said that the CHECK ENGINE light is on at idle, he diagnosed it as failed Oxygen sensor. Those usually get fouled by the coolant when a head gasket fails. Since I’m accustomed to the intermittent CE light (and since I’ve just passed emission test anyhow) I told him to leave it as is.

I walked over yesterday morning about 8:45 and picked up the car. Total including tax was $1329. Ouch. Time to start putting the miles on the car to earn some of that money back at 50.5 cents per mile. So I drive home, loaded up my test equipment, and headed down to Tumwater for a project… the second-farthest trip I’ve ever taken the 900 on.

It was great to be back in the 900. It sounded better than before (I’d had a lot of valve noise which was fixed when the head was machined and valve stem seals were replaced). The belts were properly tensioned so didn’t make any noise. About halfway there I decided to try the cruise control which has always been inoperative, and IT WORKED. That will make it a bit nicer to use the 900 on longer freeway drives where I tend to creep up in speed.

After my project I got lunch in Olympia near the capital, where I stopped for this nice photo. While I was taking it, the Pontiac Vibe that is parked behind me pulled into that spot and went back-and-forth about 15 times to get crookedly parked in the spot. The heavy-set middle-aged female driver fit my imagined demographic perfectly.

I also put the car seat in the 900 when I got back, to go pick up Luisa. She told me repeatedly that my black car with orange stripe is “cool”. She’s quite an arbiter of good taste, so I take that as quite a compliment.

I finally have an appointment for the 900 to be fixed, it’ll go under the knife next week on Tuesday. I chose Europa, which is on 175th very close to my house. I stopped in and chatted with them today, and got an estimate of $850-900 which is fair. I’ve walked by there and seen classic 900s in for repair so I know they are familar with Saabs. The mechanic was quite knowledgeable about the 2.1 engine in my car.

I’ll be glad to get the 900 on the road again. I renewed the license last week, but haven’t driven it for a long time.

Despite information on SaabCentral, to the contrary, I’m afraid that the head gasket  is the source of BSOS woes. I found the following information on www.thesaabsite.com when searching the FAQs under Engine Smoke:

A problem that will cause your car to smoke or steam after sitting overnight could be a faulty head gasket. A faulty head gasket will allow the cooling system pressure to bleed coolant into the combustion chamber overnight causing the vehicle to blow white smoke and create a sweet smell from the exhaust until the exhaust has become hot enough to burn all of the antifreeze away. The gasket usually blows between Cylinders # 2 and # 3.

If the engine is only smoking during cold start and you have a sweet smell coming from the tailpipe check the headgasket to see if it is leaking down overnight. You can often check this by pulling the spark plugs and looking at the piston tops. If they are silver then they are likely getting steamed cleaned because coolant is leaking into the combustion chamber during the cooldown process.

The first paragraph very accurately describes what I’ve got. I’ve just called my repair shop and gotten a quote for replacing the HG: $1850 with rebuilt head, $1400 without. The necessary gaskets themselves purchased online are $72.50 plus shipping.

I’m afraid I don’t have the skills to replace the HG myself. It looks like my cherished, fun project car is dead unless I can find some friends or family members willing to help me undertake replacement of the HG.

Friends of BSOS 900, please comment or email me with your thoughts. Thanks.