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Thanks to everyone who offered advice with the idler pulley change on my 2000 base model 9-3 (65k miles).
It was no big deal, but to help others in the future I’ll offer up what bits of wisdom I gained.
1. Michael Briand’s SAAB DIY website is very nice, but his 1998 Saab 900 is like my 2000 9-3 only in a general sense. The difference is in the details. For example:
a. His idler pulley uses a 13mm bolt. Mine is a 15mm. I bought a new 13mm socket before starting because I knew that if I didn’t I would have misplaced my existing 13mm socket. Now I have 3 13mm sockets and I had misplaced the 15mm. Don’t mess with the auto repair gods.
b. Having misplaced the 15mm socket wasn’t a huge deal because I couldn’t fit even a slim socket wrench into the space to work. On my car there’s a green metal tube in the way. I’d guess it is a brake fluid line or a gas line. I used a 15mm box end wrench which miraculously I hadn’t misplaced.
c. Michael’s advice to use a ½” socket extension to pull the tensioner assembly doesn’t work quite as well on my car because the strut tower brace is in the way. I had to make something up here than involved splitting a metal broom handle. You may need to come up with something. (I live on an island with no stores and so the broom handle was all I had … I don’t recommend it)
2. My existing OEM pulley bolt was not even finger tight. It was ready to fall out. I firmed it up nicely and used blue “threadlocker” which I think is the same as blue loctite.
3. It turns out that saab site sent me a Scantech pulley. I don’t know what to say about that. I am somewhat worried that it is a POS. I went ahead and used it because I felt a new Scantech was better than an OEM with 65k, but I also worry a little about the 8yr 100k sludge warranty that requires the use of OEM parts (although we all know an aftermarket idler pulley has zero to do with sludge)
4. My existing OEM pulley at 65k seemed fine. I still had that thick feeling when I spun it indicating the lubrication was till there. There were no visible or audible signs of impending failure.
When I finished, I took a shop towel and wiped up the top of the engine and I was full with pride. Then the dipstick exploded, no doubt the auto repair gods with some retribution for me actually finding the 15mm box end wrench. I ranted to myself for quite a while about that retarded dipstick and I’ll spare you the worst of it. In summary, of the three parts of a dipstick; the bottom, the wire, and the cap, SAAB totally screwed up all but the wire. It alarms me that they cannot master dipstick technology. Maybe they take their least competent engineers and move them to the dipstick department thinking they’ll do less harm there.
Thanks again to everyone for all of your help. I see now why nobody refers to using a torque wrench on the idler pulley bolt. It was a silly idea.
posted by 66.12.12...
, Mon, 3 Oct 2005 10:43:22
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