Cheap Bodges

53181 Views 36 Replies 26 Participants Last post by wobbler1, Feb 22, 2012

MartinR

Discussion Starter · Apr 12, 2006

Inspired by this thread in the 9-5 forum, I encourage all 900 and 9-3 owners to share their quick fixes.

I'll start with my top-tip: when your ACC cabin air temperature sensor fan gets noisy, pop it out and replace it upside-down. It'll give you another year or so of quiet motoring .

1 - 20 of 37 Posts

NickWhite

· #2 · Apr 12, 2006

Headlight Relay

This is sgould's fix, but it worked for me:

For failure of the headlight relay (the orange one), simply open it up and re-solder where the circuit board meets the external pins.

Symptoms include intermittent loss of one or more headlamps, possibly including the main beam indicator.

reasonrj

· #3 · Apr 15, 2006

Noisy ACC sensor fan:

Remove and oil spindle at both ends. Seems to have worked, but for all I know I may have put it back in upside down (see above).

PeterH

· #4 · Apr 17, 2006

Not so much a cheap bodge, but one that saves a lot of time.

Clutch cable adjustment using washers at the bulkhead end.

The official modification to get the clutch to bite slightly higher up the pedal travel is to remove the clutch cable and slide 1 or 2 2mm washers over the locating spigot on the cable and refit the cable. Any one who has done this will know how difficult it is to disconect and re connect the cable to the pedal.

You dont need to !

Just disconnect the clutch end of the cable and and pull the outer away from the bulkhead and fit wahers with a slot cut in them (just wide enough to get over the inner cable). They cant come off when the cable is back in postion.

To release the cable at the clutch end, back of the pedal height adjustment nut,(Haynes dosnt mention this). It allows the top of the pedal to move nearer the bulk head and gives you plenty of slack.

See less See more

Hartz777

· #5 · Jun 16, 2006

Messy looking flexi joint on your exhaust front downpipe? Just use a large "Jubilee" clip round the end(s) of the joint to push all the fraying bits back into position again. Seems to work a treat! This is assuming that it's not leaking of course!

Nicko

· #6 · Aug 4, 2006

Should this one be included here?

http://www.saabscene.com/saabforum/showf...1&fpart=all

Not so much a bodge but seemingly a good, economical repair!

squashed93

· #7 · Oct 13, 2006

To fix the SID pixels another way:
I was too scared to risk the soldering method as my soldering skills are not great. I saw somewhere on the net that you can dismantle the SID and increase the pressure between the ribbon and the board to fix the problem.
I did this by using a couple of strips of thin foam (taken from some old packaging) and positioning them between the screen and the board before re-tightening the screws for the screen.
I went from having only around 30% of the pixels working to 100% pixels working with minimal risk of ruining the unit.

Ben.

Raymond UK

· #8 · Jan 24, 2007

I've had the same problem with my SID2 and sorted it by putting more pressure on the ribbon cables as mentioned by Ben.

A usefull website with pictures: http://www.thesaabsite.com/93/Saab-Sidrepairs.htm

Best regards

Raymond

LDREGO

· #9 · May 3, 2007

chipped windscreen - use crack attack - you can get it on ebay - does a cracking job!

j90lby

· #10 · Oct 14, 2007

Inspired by this thread in the 9-5 forum, I encourage all 900 and 9-3 owners to share their quick fixes.

I'll start with my top-tip: when your ACC cabin air temperature sensor fan gets noisy, pop it out and replace it upside-down. It'll give you another year or so of quiet motoring .[/b]

Great tip with the ACC cabin air temp sensor. That had been annoying me for some time so had a go at replacing upside down. Took 10 mins and is working well again. Thank you!

robbins

· #11 · Mar 2, 2008

My front suspension clonked (2001 2.2 TiD). I cured it by simply nipping up the anti roll bar's drop links. The key is to hold the lower link still with a size 11 spanner whilst tightening the nut that hangs down underneith (size 13 socket) - result - silence over bumps and better handling.

However, i have ordered 2 new links - you never know, it might et better still!

topgear

· #12 · Apr 3, 2008

I'll start with my top-tip: when your ACC cabin air temperature sensor fan gets noisy, pop it out and replace it upside-down. It'll give you another year or so of quiet motoring .[/b]

I've just bought my first Saab and joined this forum and came across this old post.
Mines only just started making a noise too!

How do you actually remove this from the dash?

Thanks, :thumbsup:

leigh.p.

· #13 · Jul 11, 2008

Great idea,i used a jubilee clip but upon reading this post looks good

leigh.p.

· #14 · Jul 11, 2008

Great tip for you all.i own a saab ng900 convertable 1998,now i am sure we all know about the top idler pully bearing being noisy(£40.00 a pop),well i took mine off yesterday for inpection and found it to be ok and decided to check the bearings more closely,so i took a small flat head screwdriver and leaverd out the rubber seal,now with the bearings exposed i applied some high melting point grease to the bearing cage,carefully replaced the seal and now all is quite.
It is a 10 min job(you have to slacken the drive belt first,easy,check out the forum)and it will save the bearing from siezing up thus destroying the drive belt,my next job is to do the same with the center idler pulley(more difficult to get to and looks like a hexigon type nut)anyway if i can get that off i will do the same.

B_Cal

· #15 · Aug 14, 2008

I've just bought my first Saab and joined this forum and came across this old post.
Mines only just started making a noise too!

How do you actually remove this from the dash?

Thanks, :thumbsup:[/b]

I've just done this "repair" myself - seems to have done the trick.

Realistically cannot see any way of doing this other than to take the side panel off, push the sensor unit through the panel, rotate 180 then push it back through

Taking the side panel off it the time consuming bit, but beats a replacement sensor at £50+ plus

B_Cal

Astra Dan

· #16 · Sep 9, 2008

Sloppy GM900 Clutch pedal? Biting point wrong?
Ditch the stupid auto adjusting cable and pedal, and simply fit the pedal, cable and spring from any Mk2 or 3 Astra, Mk3 Cavalier or Calibra. Presto, manual adjustment.

mark e

· #17 · Sep 10, 2008

Realistically cannot see any way of doing this other than to take the side panel off,[/b]

There's an easier option- remove the ash tray assembly. It's only held in by clips top and bottom that easily yield under insertion of a screwdriver.

saz1058

· #18 · Oct 22, 2008

Thank you so much Astra Dan!!!!!!!!!

I always belived there was a GM. alternative to the F*****G stupid Saab clutch cable.

I run a 97 convert. and boy is the clutch a pain!!!!!

Do you have GM. numbers or do I need to go hunting in the breakers??

Again a big thankyou and look forward to your reply.

Cheers!!!!!!!

Alwyn Magee.

See less See more

Astra Dan

· #19 · Oct 22, 2008

Sure, the cable is 90209335.

ViggenNut

· #20 · Oct 24, 2008

Realistically cannot see any way of doing this other than to take the side panel off, push the sensor unit through the panel, rotate 180 then push it back through[/b]

There is a much easier way to get at the sensor unit if you have a ACC panel. Just remove it and its dead easy to get full access to the sensor, did my Viggen sensor last Monday, but didn't turn it through 180 deg just cleaned it with a fine artist paint brush and used a vacuum cleaner about an inch away to suck off all the accumulated dust. Works better now without the noise

1 - 20 of 37 Posts

This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.