I recently had a problem with the engine management light coming on, eventually found a mechanic g with a gizmo to tell me it was the air flow meter, so got him to put one of them on, then the car started burning diesel and leaving a smoke trial behind, not oil burning but unburnt diesel!

went back to mechanic, he did the normal hmmmmm raised eyebrows etc, and said the tubo intercooler was leaking and this would explain it.

I asked him to fix it, so far and after 14 days he has still not go the ordered part, so I went on line and got one delivered next day. He has had the car in all day and said hesnt yet got the hoses off!!

Now im not an expert by any strectch, but I would imagine I would have managed to get two hoses off in a day!

Can someone tell me what is involved in removing and replacing a TI unit and how many hours would one expect it to take if taken to a saab dealer and of course how much.

also is it something i could reasonably do in my drive or do you need ramps and special tools etc... ?

cheers

Mark S

He's an idiot! Take your car away from him and leave very quickly!

The two hoses are easy to remove (flat head screwdriver to unscrew clips under bonnet........).

If you PM me your e-mail address I can send a PDF of the procedure. You have remove the intcooler from underneath (drop it out the bottom after removing the retaining brackets).

2 hours job max!

Andy.

The black smoke, the illuminated engine management warning light, limp home mode, etc, etc, etc - yep, it all sounds very familiar and is almost certainly an intercooler-related fault.

Reluctant to change an intercooler myself, and fearing a massive bill from my local Saab dealership, instead I initially opted to replace the Air Mass Sensor and EGR valve. All hoses (albeit only those that were visible from above) were checked too for signs of a split. Unfortunately, none of the aforementioned made a blind bit of difference. In the end I had to accept that it was most likely a fault with the intercooler afterall.

So, I purchased a replacement intercooler for £85 (salvaged stock) and then fitted it over the Bank Holiday weekend. I'm not a mechanic, although if you have a measure of common sense and a little determination, then this is certainly something that can be done by an enthusiastic DIY'er. As mentioned in the previous post, the intercooler drops out from underneath the vehicle - so you'll need to jack the front up to at least a height of approximately 0.5 metres. Yes, removing the old jubilee clips from the intercooler hoses can be a right pain - however, I opted to cut these off with a hacksaw (very carefully obviously) and replace old clips for new ones. It took me about three hours to remove the old intercooler and another couple of hours to replace it with the new item. A trained mechanic should have no problem - and with a ramp, or pit, and the correct tools I would imagine the process should take not more than a couple of hours from start to finish.

Once the old intercooler had been removed, it was clear that it had blown! The bottom section had ballooned under pressure and ruptured spectacularly.

Now that it has been replaced - there's no more black smoke upon acceleration, my fuel economy is up, and no further problems to report.

My local Saab dealership quoted me £380+VAT for the part alone (it's the same as a Vauxhall Vectra intercooler by the way - the crooks) and told me that it would take the best part of a day to fit; at an hourly rate of ????

Have a go yourself, it's not the easiest of jobs - but if you're methodical it can be done over a weekend.

Good luck - I'm also happy to offer a "blow by blow" account of what's involved if you feel that this would be of any help.




Derek Achora

Thanks very much Derek, this is reassuring. I've been quoted £1700 today for having the intercooler and EGR replaced at the local dealership. The most I've ever done with the car was replacing the headlamp bulb so I'd rather not do the intercooler myself, but your post suggests I should be able to find some garage that will charge reasonably for this job.

Regards,
Maciek

WHAT THE **********

I had the intercooler, turbo and catalytic converter replaced in under two hours!

RIP OFF MERCHANTS!

You really need to go somewhere else!

below is what I posted back in May 08 when my 04 plate 2.2 TiD intercooler went.......

just dug out the invoice to give you the run down

'a genuine Saab intercooler was £242.28 and with 2.5 hours labour came to £362.28 the vat man added another £63.40

Total £425.68.

Must say it transformed the car. I only really noticed the thick black smoke on a night drive when suddenly the car following had no lights due to the cloud produced when I pulled away from a set of lights. Later in the trip the engine management light came on and it went into limp mode, again only doing this on M way journeys and clearing on low speed town trips'.



£1700 I'd tell them to keep the car and to FOXTROT OSCAR at least you would nearly have the scrappage price on a new one!!!!

All done at SAABTECH at Stevenage.....

Hi mark,

I can confirm that it costs about 400-450 from main dealer (all in) as I had mine done last year and eventually solved many of my problems.

Good luck, (although the post date is July)

Dan.

I've got black smoke pouring out of my 04 2.2 TiD, have any of you guys experienced a misfire as well, cos I've got that too! I've only done just less than 59,500 miles so I wouldn't expect the intercooler to have gone so quickly, or am I being naive?

Wattski, stop driving the car, seriously!

My intercooler went at 60k...

Definite candidate for a boost leak, possible intercooler, boost pipes etc. You will damage your turbo driving it like that over a long time!

I found an intercooler on ebay for just over £200 delivered... unfortunately mine got a whole lot worse (blown turbo, intercooler and knackered cat) before I could have it fixed!

Andy.

Thanks for the warning Kae!!

Looks like money is going to be pouring out of my wallet like the smoke from the exhaust, ah the joys of motoring ;o)

After my 2.2TiD being off the road and my Mrs moaning that I'm using her car all the time, I decided to take advice from posts on this forum and try to take the intercooler out myself. In no way can I be called a mechanically minded and I have very little knowledge of diesel engines, which is probably why it took me so long to decide to sort the problem out myself. So with the posts saying it'll take around two hours to do the job, I was banking at least four, especially when one post said take the bumper off to make things easier.

Got the morning cleared of doing all those crappy jobs that get in the way then started. Opened up the bonnet, which is always a good start for things like this, took the top cover off the engine and straight away I saw the problem, a hose was split. I've no idea what the hose is called but it fits slightly above the ERG valve and to the right, the other end fits onto a plastic tube which then feeds into the intercooler. Great I thought, I don't need to buy really expensive parts.

I went off to the main dealer for the part, with the part number on a scrap of paper, spent 20 mins in a queue and a further 20 mins persuading the parts guy that the number I gave wasn't wrong and describing where the part fits (I was right, the part number they had was different). Any how, £31 later I was to proud owner of the new hose. Took me about 5 mins to swap then I took the car out for a test drive.

Amazing, the old girl was back to her speedy ways!! I nipped onto the motorway, up to the next junction and came back really chuffed!!

Then the inevitable happened.

I was coming up the slip road and the engine management warning light came on and power dropped right off, I had to stop and give way to some traffic and there was no power at low revs so it took an embarrasing amount of time to pull away. Once I got going it seemed OK, still under powered but at least I was moving. The car is now booked in to see what else is wrong, does anyone have any advice as to what it could be?

It was the EGR valve, what a surprise!

I hope you have invested in a Code Reader from ebay. It will pay for itself the first time you use it.

Which garage have you taken it to? I live in Aldershot, I just want to know where to stay away from.

The main dealer I got the hose from is in Greater Manchester but I did the work on the car.

I've taken the car to an Indy to get the engine management light and fault codes cleared, I have preferential customer status with him because I've spent so much money there with this car, so he might do this as a favour!

I've since learnt that the EGR valve fault is so common that it's the first thing to check if there's any loss of power or engine warning light appears. It doesn't take that long to remove, clean and replace, but most mechanics would probably charge you for a new one as it's quicker to sort out and they can make more money that way.

If there are any mechanics reading this and I've offended them with that last comment then you must be one of the few good ones who'll spend 10 mins cleaning the valve out and giving that extra bit of service to your customers - well done!

(Phew, did I cover my back enough there?)

Wattski, if you can make it out to Hadfield (Glossop way), about 30 mins from the centre of Manchester, Saabtec are very good independents - I can recommend. Saab specialists and enthusiasts - you can't go far wrong.

Nice one S44BT4ST1C, I'll check them out.

I'm new here and prompted to join by my attempts to replace a blown intercooler on my 05 plate 9-3 2.2 tdi Vector Sport and a decision to revert to maintaining my cars myself. Any advice is gratefully received! I've got the hoses off and they're very lightly coated in oil. Should I be worried? you folks talk about cleaning EGR valves. where is this located? Is there anywhere on the internet where I can get free to download exploded diagrams?

I have the same problem,i have a 04 93 2.2 TDI vector sport.Only had it since Jan this year, first took to my local Saab dealer where they did a health check and it came up EGR valve,so i took it bits and cleaned it! Worked ok for a couple of weeks then same problem again,Limp mode,management light on etc. Next i replaced the map sensor still same problem.I called the rac out and he told me it was the EGR valve so i got a new one last week fitted it took it out for a test drive and still the bloody same!!
She was due her mot yesterday and Saab had offered me a cheap one so off she went for that,i told them about the problems and they said they would look. 3pm yesterday i got a phone call from Saab saying good news car has pasted MOT but we have found the problem.Intercooler had gone and would cost me £516.64 and possible fuel leaking past injector seals £413.05.
I could not belive it i have alreday spent over £300 trying to fix the damn car!!
So i now have her back with me still not fixed, i am going to have ago at the intercooler myself,does anyone have any tips on how to do this?
I would be very grateful.

Cheers Guys

Greg,

The intercooler comes out the bottom of the car, it's a bit of a faff but something you can do at home with patience and a few basic tools. You can also buy them off ebay for a lot less than Saab prices.

PM me your e-mail address if you want the WIS print out on how to do it.

Andy.