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Date: 09 Dec 1998 18:44:31 PST
From: "Kurt L. Brillhart" <kurtbrilnopsamanet.com>
Subject: Think twice- 1996 900S clutch problems


Subject says it all- I was driving my '96 900S in to work when all of a sudden the clutch went verrry lose and left about 1" of play at the bottom, enough to gently grind in and out of first gear and reverse. Had it towed in to the dealer, as it was still under warranty with 46,000 miles on it. Three days later they get to it (don't get me started); they tell me that the clutch is burned out, and its going to cost me $800 because its "normal wear". I've driven manual transmissions for about 20 years now, and never failed to get less than about 90,000 miles out of the original clutch in my trusty Honda Civics, so I mentioned that this seemed a little early. They agreed, but pointed to the "bumper to bumper" warranty and said again "normal wear". I either drove like a maniac or didn't know how to use a clutch. I pointed out that I had just recently had to replace the original tires, still had over 50% left on the brake pads. I'm not playing speed racer out there. Take it up with Saab USA- Fine. I insisted on getting the part. When I took a look I found that the semi-metallic "pad" showed a fair amount of wear, but it was fairly even and the rivets were no where near exposed. The disc looked terrible, heavily scored and mottled from heat. When I got in and drove it the clutch felt entirely different than it ever had and the car had about 10% more get up and go. I ran this by a mechanic, who said it sounded like it hadn't been adjusted properly at the factory, and so had always been partially engaged. Today the Saab representative called. I spent half an hour with this guy on the phone, and all he did was read the warranty back to me. Oh- he did take the time to cut me off, then accuse me of lying and abusing the car. But other than that it was pretty much reading the warranty back to me. I've found a few other notes around the net from people in '94-'96 Saabs that have also had clutches burn out at around 40K. When I mentioned this he paused for a moment, then told me that Saab had no way to track this. A car company uses durability as one of its main selling points, and it doesn't keep track of repairs on a vital part of the drive train? Give me a break . . . At any rate- any other owners of '96 Saab 900s have this problem? I'm beginning to wonder if maybe this is why they went to the hydraulic clutch. In the meantime, if I've got a $400 a year budget for clutches on this car I'm thinking maybe I should just go out and buy me a Camry. Yeah- they're ugly, wallow around the road, and are about as much fun to drive as my Pinto was, but at least I'll get some mileage out of it. Kurt

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