1994-2002 [Subscribe to Daily Digest] |
Just get down on one knee and have a look. You can see the bottom of the bell housing just fine. If if leaks, you can see it. Get it on you finger tip. If it smells like engine oil or fuel, its the engine seal. If it is bad, you will see oil blown back over other things. The expansion joint in the exhaust system can get this oil on it too, and it can stink, especially with synthetic oil.
Maybe you can find a vehicle where some of the work has already been done.
95SET, 115000 miles, rear oil seal, did the clutch and trany seals & Saab synthetic gearbox oil for good measure while things were out. Abbott rescue kit. The stock bits were getting rather nasty. My tie rod ends, ball joints and strut tops are fine. Stock shocks seem ok so far. Still lots of life in the original front brake pads (highway commuter). Back brakes were a loss after the inboard pads became rust bound in the caliper slots. Scrape out the rust and apply grease to the pad backing plate edge contact points and this will never happen again. Engine was always on Castrol synthetic. With the new seals, giving Mobil One a try. I think that the engine feels better with the Mobil one. Using Purolator Pure One oil filter.
Manual boost control, 15 PSI, ported the throttle body transition casting... a must do!. Saab Sports SS exhaust. Removed turbo compressor discharge silencer, modfied air box and K&N, insulated intake and turbo pipes, piston bypass valve ... quiet!. Contemplating Viggen intercooler. Vehicle is still at thrill to drive, even when not on boost. Seems very smooth and quiet while on boost. The ported throttle body transistion casting actually provide more power and makes the engine smoother at the same time. Which is a measure of how badly the intake flow is messed up in the stock configuration. The turbulance leads to uneven fueling. So you have to get over the seat of the pants inclination to associate roughness with power!
So yes the rear oil seal is a liability, and the front suspension will be inadequate at some point. I don't see the point of putting in Saab replacement parts. The Abbott suspension components are expensive. The front suspeention is still bogus on new production.
Avoid the 1994 model year and some of the early 1999 production. They changed the front sway bar configuration after that. It is easy to tell which it is by looking underneath without raising the vehicle. One the new production, the sway bar attaches to the same lower control arm as the ball joint. Early production had it attach to the radius control arm, that has a fork that fits over the bushing on the lower control arm.
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