In a few days we will be heading to the UK for my son’s bachelor celebration. Due to the London ULEZ extension his Saab 900 Turbo (aka Saabeth) is still here with me, and I am occasionally taking for a spin. While I feel to know one of two things about MGs, Minis and the Morgan – the engine compartment of the Saab is nothing I even feel getting into. After my trip with Saabeth to the UK in January we were fortunate to get a service appointment at HFT in Windeck. Mr Händel is officially retired but he and his wife Christine (who I believe could repair anything on a Saab blindfolded) are just amazing. His direct and sometimes harsh sense of humor might not be everyones taste – but there is no doubt that he knows what he is talking about.
Christine Händel serviced the distributor – which was one of the main issues we had in January. As far as I understand a failed oil seal in the distributor is quite common. Vaccuum leaks, degraded engine mounts, rusty exhaust down pipe and a few other bits-&-bobs were sorted as well. Even with more than 330000km on the clock, the engine is still super responsive and you cannot help but smile when the Turbo kicks in.
The plan for next week is to take Saabeth back to the UK. After his graduation celebration my son is to embark on a ferry to France. A road trip via Dieppe, Bordeaux, San Sebastian towards Barcelona is on his agenda. However the are some annoyances left which I wanted to fix before I am giving back his car.
Top on the list is a piece of Aero trim that feel off two year ago. I was told the only way to get in back on is to slides it from the door side. For this the drivers door had to come off. This is not easy one-man backyard garage job – but I had the idea to use my engine hoist ar support. This worked out well. On a saab the alignment of door hinges is usally quite easy, as there is a dowel installed from the factory for perfect fitting. But on Saabeth the lower hinge was replaced by a previous owner. I used a pen to trace the hinge and add some markers. I was concerned that the cable for the eletric windows where going to be an issue, but there was enough additional length left – something I will copy for Mildred’s loom (did not think about this before.
The reason why the trim piece feel off became clear as well – the lower bracket that holds it to the body was missing. I tried to copy this with a piece of 3mm alloy piece I had at hand, which I shaped into roughly the same form. With the optical issue out of the way I headed to the right side of the car. The screw that holds down the door handle was missing. Removing the door trim on a Saab 900 turns out to be a piece of cake – seven easy to locate screws and I was able to locate and access the loose bracket. A short M6 screw pull the bracket onto the handle – another job of my list.
The original sun roof switch (Saab 95 50 617) isn’t working anymore. Spare parts are hard to find. Mr Händel already provided me with a spare windows switch. This has the same connector – but the frame around it to mount in the center console is missing. I tried to get it out the ould plastik frame/bracket to see if I could fix it – but I cannot find how this is locked. A friendly soul on the Saab Forum offered to send me a spare switch – that should take care of the issue. There are a few other issues I could not fix – but only one that is a real problem – which is the the fuel gauge. This is not working partly due to a faultly sender unit and partly due to contact issues of the circuit on the instrument. But I won’t be able to address this anytime soon.
All fluids have been changed this year and are topped up. Tires still quite new and they have good pressure. Brakes are decent and all lights are working fine – I sincerly hope that Saabeth will tackle the upcoming 3000km without problems.
Fixing C6622 
When a lovely car has 300k kms then surely a trip of 3k should not be a major hurdle for sure….
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