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Joe,
Hey, congrats on the nice 900TC!
I can say from experience that the reverse-shifting trick I learned on this board really works: when you need to shift into reverse, ALWAYS shift into first gear immediately before going to reverse. Why? Well, the C900 tranny does NOT have a synchronized reverse gear like some newer cars (don't know anything about the 9000 series myself, it may have synch'ed-reverse gear). Shifting into first synchronizes the gears and you may then go into reverse without gear clash (crunch!).
I hope that a front-end alignment takes care of your front-end shake; on my Mom's '90 900, it is in the shop as I write this for shimmying due to terribly worn inner driver. This type of shake presents itself to a greater degree when accelerating, but also upon decelerating, too. (The mechanic, Tom Townsend, said it's the WORST inner driver he's ever seen.) The shimmy almost went completely away when "feathering" the pedal--when not coasting but not accelerating, either.
On the oil, there has been great debate back and forth. I use Castrol 10W-30 in my '84S, but it's not a Turbo, of course. I've read synthetic is better for Turbos due to possibility of oil coking (crystallizing, I gather, but I'm no scientist) in turbocharger due to the high amount of heat given off by that part.
On the coolant, I'd highly recommend Mercedes-Benz Anti-Corrosion coolant (straw/beige color). Read all about it by doing a BB search here or visit the Townsend Imports site's Technical Documents section for strong reasoning for the M-B coolant.
I don't know anything about Turbos, but lumpy/racing idle might be an AMM (Air Mass Meter) fault. If the idle is lumpy at cold startup and becomes normal when engine warms up, I'd suspect AMM or perhaps a coolant temp. sensor.
Get the Bentley 16V SAAB 900 manual and learn to read the fault codes via the Check Engine light. These cars can (almost) diagnose themselves! My link below is to my fledgling site on a few SAAB maintenance topics, more specifically the code reading page (more picture than procudure, I'm afraid).
Good luck,
Micah in NC
'84 900S, 241K mi.
'89 900S, 108K mi.
posted by 65.80.1...
Click here to see photos of 900 code reading test plug.
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