Gear lever squeaky noise

[Piotr]

Greetings Saab Drivers,

This is my first post on this forum. I’ve spent quite some time here and I must admit the community here is great!

I’m a happy user of rather old Sabb 9000i. Despite the age of the car is keeps amazing me with its general robustness. There are only a few minor signs of the time taking its toll on the car.

There is something I’m not very comfortable with: the gear lever produces weird squeaky noise when moving it to 1,3,5 (front) gears and neutral position. This is especially annoying when accelerating, driving over uneven surface or changing gears.

If I can relay on my ears I’d say that some parts beneath the lever call for a drop of oil.

When I removed the piece of rubber (around the lever) I saw something I wasn’t sure my mechanics skills would be capable of dealing with so I resorted to spraying some WD40 but that didn’t help.

Has anyone seen this before? Is there some easy fix available? Are there any specific skills and/or tools required to go further down the gearbox?

Many thanks in advance,

Regards

Piotr

[Titiksu]

Hi Piotr and welcome to SAAB Scene,

I had this problem. To the left of the clutch pedal (on a UK Saab) there is a carpet panel just above the exhaust pipe tunnel. After removing it one can see the gear linkage rod from the bottom of the gear lever to the place where it exists through a rubber gaiter to the engine bay.

This rod was rubbing (very slightly) against some soundproofing when changing gear. It may also have been squeeking through the rubber gaiter.

I used some spray grease along the length of the rod and some silcone spray lubricant where it goes through the gaiter and this cured it.

Tony

[Piotr]

Hmm, thank you for your advice. It appears I was on a wrong path. I'll give it a try!