Dreaded DMF?

[Petemate]

Got a rattle on the Swedish Sofa. Can't get on the Saab forums till I get home. Intermittent - ie, some days it does, some it doesn't. It is a steady metallic rattle on idle, engine speed-related. It does not go when I depress the clutch. All gear changes are silky smooth. No clunking on drive take-up. No clutch slip. As soon as I increase the revs, even before they go over 1000, the rattle disappears. Regarding the occurrence, today eg it was there until I made the last traffic light halt on our ring road, then the next time on idle on the A312 coming off M4, it had gone. Parked up in the car park - not a sound from it. Tonight I moved the car from the main car park to our front yard and it is back. Can't get a proper look until Sunday when I'm off next, and I can have a good check round the engine bay for anything obvious. I suppose it could be the aux tensioner; I'll get a listening stick on it in daylight on Sun. Car has 90k on, mostly m/way. Wife reported a rattle the other day; last night I asked her to start it up and confirm if that was it - she said yes.

ETA
If it lasts till the weekend, I'll be checking the aux belt tensioner & idlers.....

Edited by Petemate on Wednesday 11th January 21:43

Edited by Petemate on Wednesday 11th January 23:32

[Petemate]

Seems I have sorted it (watch the bleddy thing come back now....) Found a large wiring connector, the one leading to the PAS, against a pipe on the bulkhead - cable tie to the main loom - voila, rattle gone.

[Saabthinking]

That'll be your Electonic Stability Control sensor which would connect to your steering rack, if the steering rack was a ESC rack... get what I mean? Basically you car hasn't got ESC, or it did, until it need a new steering rack and possibly a previous owner just bolted a standard rack in there and turned off the ESC with a Tech II device... or its a factory fit standard rack with a wiring loom in place anyhow...

Anyhow I had the same issue and resolved it with a zip tie and just continued with my "don't drive like a prat, relying on driver aids" attitude...

[Petemate]

Saabthinking said:

That'll be your Electonic Stability Control sensor which would connect to your steering rack, if the steering rack was a ESC rack... get what I mean? Basically you car hasn't got ESC, or it did, until it need a new steering rack and possibly a previous owner just bolted a standard rack in there and turned off the ESC with a Tech II device... or its a factory fit standard rack with a wiring loom in place anyhow...

Anyhow I had the same issue and resolved it with a zip tie and just continued with my "don't drive like a prat, relying on driver aids" attitude...

The car has not had a new rack; the steering is electro-hydraulic (I see the panel lights flicker when parking at night as the rack is operating); the connector I mentioned is in the loom, still connected (pic later) - to get the alternator out when I was replacing it I had to disconnect said wiring block to get the wiring out of the way and when I reconnected it I failed to secure it back on its location at the bulkhead. Now it is strapped to the main loom all is deathly quiet..... peace.....

The connector metal retainer was the part which was rattling. I had to disconnect the two halves of the block to get all the wiring out of the way to drag the old alternator up out of the engine bay, and I didn't put it back properly. No doubt it fits on a bracket somewhere but the current arrangement is fine.

Edited by Petemate on Thursday 26th January 16:14

Edited by Petemate on Thursday 26th January 16:15