9-3 Sid repair, DIY?

[paul99]

My 9-3's SID is slowly dieing, The clock is barely visible and ive lost 40% of the pixels.
I have found a few websites with varying guides on how to 'fix' them, and they look pretty straighforward, Is it worth trying to fix it myself, Has anyone on here done it?.
I see a couple of people on ebay fix them for ~£45, it it worth just sending it off or a waste of money?

[Piglet]

I'll watch this, mine is on its way out as well...

[softtop]

I have tried to fix them but generally once they are on their way out just get a new one.

[Wadeski]

reconditioning is pretty common now, a lot of garages will do it for about £90.

[J4CKO]

There is a guide somewhere on Saabscene, a sticky on GM 9-3, I improved mine from about 50% working to 99% most of the time, all seems to be down to the pressure on the ribbon cable,I used a thing strip of rubber put in between the contacts and the cable, also used a biro to carefully press each contact down, wasnt perfect but miles better after.

[Aerofoil]

I fixed mine the first time myself and it lasted about a year. Second time round, not so lucky, and I got a bit confident and ended up pulling the entire ribbon off the connections, dead as a dodo after that. Its worth giving it a try as things like this really bother me. Ended up buying a brand new unit for £120. I haven't had it programmed yet, but am finding no down side to this other than an intitial message telling me that fact. if the mpg figure is out by 1 or 2 mpg, I'm not bothered.

[leighp]

My problem wasn't with the SID but the ACC panel,i lost 50% of the display,but searching around i found a repair shop based in nolfolk u.k that specialise in this fault.
My saab93 has done just over 100,000 miles when the fault occured,Saab want aroud £400.00 for a new unit and around £260.00 with oher companies,from a car breaker your looking at £120.00+(and it may go the same way in time,apparantly it is a design fault),anyway i found this repair service that totaly reconditioned my unit for only £65.00 with a 3 year garantee,basicly it is an upgrade to the components and they say it will last the life of the car.I am very impressed with the service they have provided and i recieved my ACC back within 4 days of sending it.
If you want to save time and money they are called:Cluster repairs uk,tel number:07934345959.
They will even repair your unit if you have tamperd with it fo an extra £10.00.
I belive they do the 95 ACC panels as well.

[paul99]

I had a crack at DIY reparing it at the weekend with a partly successful result.
I used a cocktail stick to press down on each connector on the ribbon and I now have 95% of the pixels working again. However the back lighting of the panel isn't right now, The clock up to the center of the panel is very dull. Ill have to open it up again and see whats going on.