Saabeth – my son’s Saab 900 Turbo – has seeked asylum in my garage. With the ULEZ expansion 2023 it does not make sense for him to keep the car in the UK. The last couple of months it occupied one on my rented garage lots and I have been using it occasionally. Like many 35-year-old unrestored cars it has several quirks that need to be addressed eventually. Most of those are optical but a rusted exhaust silencer cannot be ignored.
A few weeks ago, my son found a good used silencer on an online platform, which I picked up two weeks ago. As my workload at work is quite high right now – I thought a quick exhaust exchange is something I could do on a Friday evening. But deep insight I already knew that I am not the type of DIY mechanic that just exchanges one required part.
First challenge was to get the Saab into the garage and on jack stands. My garage is just five meter deep. With a length of 4.68m is just fits into it – but as the bonnet slides open in front of the bumper – so there are just a few centimeters left front & rear. Jacking the car up, finding the right spots for the jack stands and so one took quite a bit. And when I was done – the rear bumper had to come off – otherwise I could close the garage.
After getting under the car – the surface rust on all rear suspension parts was the first to jumped at me. As the Saab is front wheel drive – the rear axle is just a simple piece of steel tube. Held by two support arms, an Anti-rollbar, Panhard and torque rods – so just a few bolts and I could get everything blasted and powder-coated. Additionally, it is a good chance to replace all rubber bushes which have seen better days.
The brake lines were replaced by the previous owner about 4 years ago and look good. After disconnecting those, the Panhard came out easily – but I could not find a position for the impact driver – so a bit of elbow grease was required. There is no need to replace the KYB shock absorbers – I therefore just disconnected the lower bolts oj the support arms. While the left torque rod came out easily – the nut on the upper bolt on the right side is hard to access. The fuel tank limits accessibility and none of my 17mm wrenches fits. After lowering the axle – which I supported with the jack in the middle I could easily remove the springs.
Saabeth has a lower kit – which we even got into the TÜV papers with a lot of hassle finding the right documents. Frankly speaking – I hate them. Sure – the 35mm lower ride height might look a bit better – but ride comfort is not that pleasant. Well, it is my son’s car – I guess I need to keep those. At 9pm – two hours after I started – I did not want to use the impact driver anymore. It is really loud and there are too many neighbours that could be annoyed. It will be a bit more Köttbullar and Knäckebröd for the next couple days.
Fixing C6622 
Looks GREAT for a 35 year old unrestored car!!!!
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