SAAB 9000 Heater control stepper faulty (NOT!)

[mersontheperson]

I love my SAAB 9000CSE. I had to take it in to the local SAAB garage for its annual service before I delivered it to my friends who have just bought it off me. The only issue I was having was the heater blowing hot all the time. I thought that maybe this was something to do with the aircon running out, but after charging me £50 to investigate the garage said it was the heater control stepper motor that was faulty, and quoted me £627 to fix.

I asked him to show me what he meant, he took out the control unit, fiddled around and talked some rubbish and put it back in. I thought I would check out some forums and found a great guy on SAABING dot com who said to try re-setting the unit by hitting the auto button and the vents button simultaneously. I did that, the unit reset itself and now works perfectly.

I hadn't driven the car for a few weeks and the seats and amazing soundsystem blew me away again. What a motor, the love I have for this amazing car is limitless, my decision to use the sale money to buy a cute but completely inferior E30 BMW 325i Touring is starting to irritate me.

[aeropilot]

Reset trick won't always work, it didn't on my old 9000, a new stepper motor was needed.

[mersontheperson]

Did you got the SAAB dealership to change it aeropilot? Or did you source a part and get a specialist to have a look?

[aeropilot]

mersontheperson said:

Did you got the SAAB dealership to change it aeropilot? Or did you source a part and get a specialist to have a look?

Was quoted a similar price to you by dealer, but I'd already had the car up for sale when it started playing up and was up front about the issue, and new owner was happy to take car based on fixing it himself.

[Squid Biker]

The stepper motor simply controls the flaps in the ducting. It's not six hundred quid plus to sort a stepper motor issue with a reputable Saab specialist.

[ClaphamGT3]

The trick works, but you do find yourself having to do it more & more frequently until, in the end, you're doing it every time you get in the car (as I did for about a year)

Still awesome cars though!!!