SAAB 95 Buyers Guide
Discussion
Buyers guide here:
http://www.saabscene.com/forum/index.php?showtopic...
If you need to ask any questions, ask here as all the mods have left Saabscene:
http://www.saabtechtalk.com/forum/index.php
http://www.saabscene.com/forum/index.php?showtopic...
If you need to ask any questions, ask here as all the mods have left Saabscene:
http://www.saabtechtalk.com/forum/index.php
Try www.UKsaabs.co.uk too.
Lots of very knowledgeable nutters, sorry Saab owners on there
What they don't know, you'll never need to know either!!
Cheers
Rob
Lots of very knowledgeable nutters, sorry Saab owners on there
What they don't know, you'll never need to know either!!
Cheers
Rob
BelperJim
You need to check the service history, it should have had fully synthetic oil in it from day one, semi-synthetic doesn't help the sludging issue. My car was serviced at the scheduled intervals and only ever had fully synthetic, I never had the sump dropped and never suffered from the sludging issue. I was quite a high mileage user, doing approx 25k per year, so oil changes were very frequent. If there is little or no service history, you must get the sump dropped and checked for sludging, build that into your negotiating price.
Although many have problems with rear shock absorbers, mine were original when I sold the car!
If the car has been used for lots of short journeys, then the turbo oil seals are another weak point. If it's had a turbo replacement thats fine, but most turbos go between 80k and 130k miles. Mine lasted to 187k miles, but I did a lot of long distance driving.
Head gaskets are known to fail around 140k, and Crank Position Sensor (CPS) are very prone to failure. It's worth buying one and putting it in the boot of the car, for the AA man to fit when the need arises. The DI cassette can cause issues, there were a lot of faulty ones made by Saab, but these days most have been swapped out.
The auto gearbox is strong (the 4 speed stronger than the 5 speed) unless the car has been chipped. I would recommend though doing a preventative oil change on the gearbox every 100k miles.
Generally they are well built cars (despite everyone telling you that you only have a fancy vauxhall). Do check that all the aircon (climate control) works properly, this is what killed my car in the end, as an internal flap broke, causing it to be permanently hot on the passenger side and rear, being climate control you had no control over temperature when it was switched off, I lived with it for a winter, before px'ing it against another Saab. The cost of repair exceed the cars value by a considerable margin as it was a dashboard out job.
Best of luck with it.
You need to check the service history, it should have had fully synthetic oil in it from day one, semi-synthetic doesn't help the sludging issue. My car was serviced at the scheduled intervals and only ever had fully synthetic, I never had the sump dropped and never suffered from the sludging issue. I was quite a high mileage user, doing approx 25k per year, so oil changes were very frequent. If there is little or no service history, you must get the sump dropped and checked for sludging, build that into your negotiating price.
Although many have problems with rear shock absorbers, mine were original when I sold the car!
If the car has been used for lots of short journeys, then the turbo oil seals are another weak point. If it's had a turbo replacement thats fine, but most turbos go between 80k and 130k miles. Mine lasted to 187k miles, but I did a lot of long distance driving.
Head gaskets are known to fail around 140k, and Crank Position Sensor (CPS) are very prone to failure. It's worth buying one and putting it in the boot of the car, for the AA man to fit when the need arises. The DI cassette can cause issues, there were a lot of faulty ones made by Saab, but these days most have been swapped out.
The auto gearbox is strong (the 4 speed stronger than the 5 speed) unless the car has been chipped. I would recommend though doing a preventative oil change on the gearbox every 100k miles.
Generally they are well built cars (despite everyone telling you that you only have a fancy vauxhall). Do check that all the aircon (climate control) works properly, this is what killed my car in the end, as an internal flap broke, causing it to be permanently hot on the passenger side and rear, being climate control you had no control over temperature when it was switched off, I lived with it for a winter, before px'ing it against another Saab. The cost of repair exceed the cars value by a considerable margin as it was a dashboard out job.
Best of luck with it.
Okay so the short of it is I walked away.
The long story is I got a puncture on the way down and ended up having to be towed to a local tyre supplier so I wasn't in the best mood when I arrived.
The SAAB on the face of it was okay. The service history was complete but the important 66k service didn't appear to have been carried out. It needed two new front tyres and a wing mirror and casing was smashed. The interior was okay but the SID had packed in. The main problem and the reason I walked away was the boot was leaking, the tyre well was flooded and it was very mouldy and smelly. I don't mind getting my hands dirty so saw this as an excellent bartering tool. I raised the issue with the seller who told me that he had jet washed it with the boot lid up and that's why it was wet. When I asked him to explain about 2-3 years worth of mould, leaves and crud. He said that happened overnight. That was it confidence lost and the journey home on my nice new tyre began.
Better luck next time I guess.
Thanks for the help from people who replied!
The long story is I got a puncture on the way down and ended up having to be towed to a local tyre supplier so I wasn't in the best mood when I arrived.
The SAAB on the face of it was okay. The service history was complete but the important 66k service didn't appear to have been carried out. It needed two new front tyres and a wing mirror and casing was smashed. The interior was okay but the SID had packed in. The main problem and the reason I walked away was the boot was leaking, the tyre well was flooded and it was very mouldy and smelly. I don't mind getting my hands dirty so saw this as an excellent bartering tool. I raised the issue with the seller who told me that he had jet washed it with the boot lid up and that's why it was wet. When I asked him to explain about 2-3 years worth of mould, leaves and crud. He said that happened overnight. That was it confidence lost and the journey home on my nice new tyre began.
Better luck next time I guess.
Thanks for the help from people who replied!
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