1994-2002 [Subscribe to Daily Digest] |
I wonder if anyone has ideas on a vexing problem that has the Saab dealership stumped. My 1998 900S NG, auto with turbo, has approx 150k mi. I've had the car since around 20K mi and have all records. I drive as a middle-aged woman and am not tough on it. The miles are half-town and half-highway. Currently I don't drive it that much.
This summer, it's had its most nagging problems to date. It was running hot and stalling in traffic. They fixed a small vacuum leak, replaced the thermostat, replaced the contaminated turbo canister and replaced the broken crankcase valve. These problems mostly fixed the rough idling and stalling problems.
But it's still sometimes surging a bit when idling. I can see the turbo gauge needle move and feel it in the car. Sometimes when being driven for awhile in hot weather, it feels like it's running ragged and the turbo gets engaged and/or the engine is struggling with normal conditions. And a few times, after driving for a while, when I put it in park and was about to turn off the engine, it stalled out. It has behaved oddly even after being turned off, such as sputtering after the key was removed.
The battery is 4 yrs old, but they tell me it's not dying. I've switched to high grade fuel. For the last 2 yrs, I used the lowest grade, since I was told by a Saab mechanic that didn't matter. Yesterday they said it did matter, and the manual recomends mid-grade, which I mostly used before the past 2 yrs. Currently it has a full tank of high-grade, and it did seem to drive better, but then it had the same stalling in park problem after being drive for 2 hrs.
The car has become unreliable, although should have plenty of life left. I would like to keep it for another 50K mi, since all the major parts seem to be fine and I've invested quite a bit recently into keeping it running (new tires, etc, besides the stuff mentioned).
Any suggestions for what the mechanic could look for would be appreciated. I keep thinking it's something turbo and/or fuel-air mixture. Yesterday, when they couldn't get it to act out, I drove for a while with the service foreman. We heard it idle roughly only a little bit. It behaved until I drove it out again on my own, which is a pattern that's been happening this summer.
Thanks very much,
Wendy
posted by 66.61.29...
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