Following on for my love of all things swedish, My Volvo V40, Ikea hotdogs, Dancing Queen, and dodgy 70's adult education films, i finally bit the bullet and got myself a sexy black 93tid. Had the car for 6 weeks now and been back to the garage twice. Not a good start (pun intended)
i had the car less that two weeks and it failed to start 4 times, it took a jump Ok from the Volvo. wasnt happy when i lost the power steering at 70mph on the M62, also lost the ABS and ESP, SID was bonging at me like a mental microwave. Took car back to garage and he "checked it" with a voltmeter and said battery was fine Checked battery at independent specialist and told that battery goosed. Bench charged battery and ok over Xmas period.
Driving home last night, and "battery fail to charge warning came on. Scariest drive ever across Leeds in the rush hour as one by one all systems went into shutdown. Speedo was last ot go on the motorway. Nothing worked as i pulled up to the garage. Mechanic diagnosed alternator failure.New one being fitted under warranty. Any of you techy guys out there know if that if the battery is at fault would it drag the alternator down? or vice versa.

Verdict on car so far:
Good points:
Incredible power, wife put foot down coming out of a roundabout and invited me to make love to her, her actual words were "F*** me!! this is quick"
Comfy ride
Its just a lovely car to drive and looks so good.

Bad points:
Not as well screwed together as i thought it would be for a preimum brand. It had this annoying buzzing sound coming from the drivers door. tried everything to trace it, door mirror, speaker grill, air vent, in the end it was a badly fitted trim panel at the end of the dash. repaired with a rolled up parking ticket jammed into the trim. Credit card holder on centre console just falls off when knocked.
Stiff gearbox when cold, crunch when going into second. My Volvo, which is now in my wifes custody has done 185K and the box on that is as new
Scared stiff with the electrical problems, can this car be trusted on a long run.

My 93 is a 56 plate vector sport, with 60k and FSH.

i may have bought this car with my heart and not my head, time will tell.

PS any recommended Saab independants in the Leeds area?

i have had my 93 2006 1.9 tid 9 (150) for about 4 weeks now and have had a new alternator (3 RD DAY OF OWNERSHIP) i understand the faults as mine gave no indication that the alternator was packing in. do a seach on alternators on here, it is a common fault something to do with the location of the alt.

however when i suspected i ran a altmetor across he battery and the alternator was only producing 12v at speed and the day after it stopped working. no indication from the car so AA called and back to the garrage it went.

From that day on the trust had gone and every time i go to start i think it wont.

however i had 500 mile trip to do this last sunday and to be honest i was realy nervous for the first 150 mile but waht a wonderfull relaxing drive and to be honest the car didnt miss a beat

The trust is coming back

hope this helps

Andy

I would be looking to buy one,

The batteries are never the same once completely flattened, once my alternator had gone the battery was finished.

That happened to me to driving along at night but everything went I had no lights or anything and auto too this proved a pain and eventually just died; that said this was back in Jan time last year and still going strong well touch wood.

battery problems are a pain, from what your saying sounds like an alternator failure but it could easily be both. if i were you, i'd get both alternator and battery changed. from what you said about 1 garage saying the battery was fine and the other saying not ......... last time my battery went i managed to jump start it and by the time i had driven 20 miles to my garage he tried it and said there was nothing wrong with it - it was replaced anyway and the next day he tested it again and it was in fact completely dead.

Thanks for the replies and the info guys. will monitor and save for new battery, although garage i bought it from should really stump up for it. Ilook forward to reading this forum to gain knowledge and share experience of what it is really like to own a Saab. the wealth of information contained is astounding.
Cheers

Good News! Once fixed, it seems the problem doesnt return! I had my 9-3 Vecta Sport for around 3 months when I was made aware that the battery was not charging. I took it to the garage and it was diagnosed as a common fault with the alternator. I was told that the alternator has 2 main components
actuator and the radial (I think that's what they are called). I was told that the actuator needed repairing. It was repaired, as apposed to having a new alternator fitted, and since then, 2 years later, I haven't suffered the same problem since! (New problems, but not that one)

To Markgs93

We all buy Saab's with our heart and not our head, Each one has its own distinctive rattle, its own distinctive character and at times they drive you crazy!!

But when you put your foot down and see Mr Audi's gutted little face when you leave him in a cloud of Saabpower dust you will smile.

Embrace the rattles and become a true Saab nut like the rest of us!!

Saabs rattle? new one on me that is, my 9-5 doesnt squeek or rattle it just keeps chucking electrcal issues my way lol current one being the good old abs ecu issue