1994-2002 [Subscribe to Daily Digest] |
Members do not see ads below this line. - Help Keep This Site Online - Signup
Hi all,
I need some advice and I am hoping that someone here can help me. Here is my story:
A little more than a 1.5 years ago, I bought a 96 Saab 900 SE Turbo - at the time there was about 56k miles on it. Now there is about 65k miles on it, and I have changed the oil 2 times since I bought the car.
One year ago, I started very sporadically having a very strange problem - sometimes when I would drive the car and get it good and hot, and then park it for about 20-35 minutes and then come out and start it again, it would run really rough. After 2-3 minutes, it would just start working fine again. I told my mechanics about it (I take it to a Saab dealership for maintenance/repair) and they said until it started happening more often they couldn't really diagnose it.
Well, within the last two months it started happening very regularly, but still with the same rules - I have to get it hot and then let it sit for 20-35 minutes and then crank it up to get the rough running. It has never had the problem, if it has sat for longer than about 35 minutes.
Finally, I had an incident where the problem didn't work itself out within 2-3 minutes, and I couldn't make it up a hill that I have to go up to get home. The car just had no power - I had the gas pressed all the way down, and I was just creeping along.
I took the car into the shop the next day and they diagnosed the problem as my ignition switch. They replaced that, and for about a week I didn't have any problems. Then the exact same weird problem started up again. I took it back and they said they couldn't find anything wrong, but they made a few adjustments and replaced some caps or something. (no charge)
That was last Tuesday - when I picked the car up on Tuesday night, the problem actually happened really bad - almost as bad as the time I couldn't get up the hill. I took the car back in on Wednesday, they gave me a loaner car and they assured me that they would get to the bottom of the problem.
Finally, on Friday I hear from them and they think they know what the problem is. Apparently I have so much sludge in my engine that they think that it is almost completely locking up when I am having these weird episodes.
The shop gave me 2 choices basically - 1) Spend $1400 and have them scrape out all the gunk, but they said that there was only a 60% chance that would work, and that the engine could end up being really loud afterwards, or 2) Spend 5-7k and get a new engine.
They also said the the person that had the car before me couldn't have changed the oil more than once in 56k miles and that they were amazed that my car was still running. I did go over and see the oil pan thing myself and it was very gunky, but at the same time I am just surprised that my car still works so well except under the precise circumstances I listed above.
I am thinking about trying the Auto-Rx stuff and hoping that works as I really don't want to get a new engine. Does anyone else have any thoughts/comments/suggestions on my situation? I really find it quite baffling.
Thanks!
Trisha
posted by 131.107....
No Site Registration is Required to Post - Site Membership is optional (Member Features List), but helps to keep the site online
for all Saabers. If the site helps you, please consider helping the site by becoming a member.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
