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Life with TCS/ETS/LHM....and without ! Posted by vtsnaab [Email]  (#26)  [Profile/Gallery]
(more from vtsnaab) on Sat, 25 Aug 2007 19:43:33
In Reply to: Re: My experiences..., oldsaab, Sat, 25 Aug 2007 15:52:29 Members do not see ads below this line. - Help Keep This Site Online - Signup |
SavannahDan and Rob:
Tip-o-the-hat to ye for the fine info offered !
My TCS stories....
Years back I had a gorgeous, green '93 Aero 5sp, of course w/ TCS+ETS.
It had been sold (read that 'pressed upon me') by my local Saab dealer
who happened to (then) be one of my close friends and my (then) GF - and
I was extremely ignorant of the whole system and trusted him enough in
my naivete to accept his word that this car I paid for with a loan also
just 'happened' to need a throttle body right away, but that it would
be fine after the almost $900 part was installed properly....golly was
I stupid ! (And did he ever fleece me silly too....)
WHEN it drove well, the car drove like a dream - and between those
times it needed frequent 'snacks' of $$$, usually in the $1000 range.
Finally, after a few years of this fun, I had been ill and it needed
(to start with) one of the ECUs that fit ONLY a '93 and ONLY an Aero
and that was going to be over $1000, and I was dead broke.
Not a happenin' thing for me right then, sadly.
I found a fellow TSN member (Hi Nat !) who had a lovely '88, mostly
restored, and I offered him an even trade - my '93 in permanent LHM,
poor starting, and needing that ECU, for his '88, and we did it.
Even with all his skills and a healthy dose of $$$ thrown at it in
his hands - that car resisted repair, and he turned it over to his
brother, and I lost track of it and him after that.
Fast forward, 5 or so years later, when I was visiting with another
TSN member (Hi Adam !), and found myself listening to the tale of
his acquisition of a green '93 Aero, and how it drove so well, and
then I found myself looking at it, and finding the repairs that I
fondly remembered doing (that had held somehow) and realized that
I was, at long last, seeing 'the end of the road' for that lovely
car - because a while after he got it he realized it was too badly
rusted to fix and he was parting it out. Wow. So somebody eventually
did manage to get that car back to a good running state after all !
Sometime after the green Aero I picked up a '92 9KT for temp use
while my '88 had a tranny/clutch job at my (then) ultra-slow indy's
place - and in the short time I had it that car gave me no trouble,
but the young guy I sold it to did end up dumping lotsa $$$ into
it soon after he got it from me - phew - I dodged THAT bullet !!!
By contrast, years later I was blessed to be the 2nd owner of a
non-TCS '94 Aero.
Words fail me in trying to describe how that car drove - it was sort
of like driving on a cloud with silent jet engines !
Having no TCS/ETS (and as a result no LHM), it was just amazing and
I shall always remember it fondly and it's end very sadly too.
Apaarently mother nature disagreed with my ownership of that car
and sent a momma and a baby moose to set the score right - and in
the process of keeping me reasonably whole that poor car gave it's
all, and was beyond repair. (For anyone curious, the before and
after shots are posted here in my gallery.)
My conclusions:
TCS/ETS can be a real pain in the wallet, and if possible avoid
buying a car with them in it - especially if the car is a '92/'93
because they really didn't do such a good job until after that.
(I know that we now have more resources than I had back then, and
some folks have even removed the TCS successfully, and that Ultima
is here and does great work on that system - but my wallet would
hide from me and never come out to play if I tried to pay for one
of those cars again !!!)
Finally I have a '91 9KT, which has all the best stuff and none of
the stuff which would eat my wallet alive, and THAT is one good way
to do it, for me...
Question:
Is the info that Rob posted the link to the same that Dan is offering ?
Best Wishes !
mark
, Wed, 13 Dec 2006 19:36:21, Sun, 3 Dec 2006 11:57:17, Mon, 30 Oct 2006 15:11:08, Sat, 25 Aug 2007 19:43:33 <-- Viewing This Message
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