SAAB 9-5 Wagon Shed
Discussion
I could do a readers car about my Impreza, however it turns out I could do a readers car about shedding and that’s way more fun to post about.
So back in January my wife’s 207SW was doing it’s usual trick of being mainly rubbish, until it became completely rubbish and refused to Start/Work/NotBeRubbish.
Incredibly sadly this coincided with my father in law passing away and to ease cheeseslicequeens burden and list of many many many other things to do/think about I took over looking for a replacement for the 207.
Not wanting to use our Impreza for commuting, and needing something quickly and cheaply until a long term replacement could be found/decided upon I decided a shed was needed. Shed needed to be able to fit two mountain bikes in the back, shed needed to have roof rails and be an auto, because why not.
After spending at least 15 minutes browsing auto trader I found a big blue SAAB, it fitted the criteria above. So shed was bought.
For the SAAB beards, it’s 2007 SAAB 9-5 1.9 TiD Vector Sport Wagon. ( or “Sport-Combi” if you’re murikan.. or German) or a Vectra in fancy dresss for everyone else.
Firstly, the good shed things, roof rails...it has them.
Another good shed thing, the boot is pretty damn big. It can fit two mountain bikes in with the seats down.
And another good shed thing, if you take a pic really close of the front corner and put a filter on it looks pretty cool... ish.
Another good shed thing. Parking... you can park it like a t
t and not worry about it.
(ps I pay monthly for a space in this car park so i’ll flipping well park in there, oh and the empty space wasn’t there when I parked...)
Last good shed thing, you can fill it up with what seems like all of the tiles in the world. Or actually all you would need to tile an entire bathroom and an entire kitchen and it still moves. Impressive.
There’s more good shed things that I don’t have pictures of.
It’s pretty comfy, the leather is nice. The AC is amazing, it’s really smooth on the motorway, there’s lots of room in the back for passengers ... the rear cup holders are nifty. If you squint a bit and look at the instrumentation etc it’s kind of like being in an aeroplane... my 9 yr old treats it like a giant Wendy house.
Can’t think of anymore and im scraping the barrel a little.
Bad shed things.
The gearbox, it’s auto ( because why not ), it has an “S” button on it, which I assume from what happens when it’s pressed means. “Slightly quicker” I don’t press it much.
Every so often the gearbox likes to go into limp mode and throws up some pretty warning lights which equal:
It this does about once every two/three weeks, and always on the motorway... it drives ok but the revs are limited to something like 2500 ish, I clear it with the OBD reader, restart and it’s happy again for another fortnight or so.
I’m assuming it’s lying to me and the solenoid isn’t actually dead, otherwise it wouldn’t work again... I could at some point check the switch on the top of the gearbox as I have my suspicions it’s that or some random wire or plug some place. But that’ll have to wait until I can be arsed, which won’t happen soon.
Another bad shed thing with no picture, fuel consumption. It’s a diesel... it does about 35mpg on a good day, Which isn’t that surprising considering my commute goes in and out of Leeds and it’s an auto, it’s still better than the Subaru so can’t complain.
Another bad shed thing, although only slightly serious. Had to change one of the HID bulbs, as it was flickering and it looked like it was winking at people in traffic, this was awkward.
Swapping the bulb involves removing most of its face and “mucking” up cheeseslicequeens best old spare knackered cushions from the shed. (actual wooden shed)
PS I paid £19.99 for a pair of HID bulbs, 5 months later... still working. I’m doing shedding right yep??
PPS it does have an engine cover.. it’s just drying out after being jet washed (seen next bad shed thing)
Another bad shed thing, diesel leak off pipes... yes they can split when they get old and they did.. squirting diesel all over the hot running engine. Which makes an alarming amount of smoke.
The smoke as it turns out makes other commuters panic along with cheeseslicequeen, I have to admit I panicked initially then remembered i was supposed to check the pipes in case they needed replacing....I’d read about this being a problem on these engines but hadn’t quite got around to checking it.. oops.
£15 quid later and new pipes fitted, no more smoke. Still kinda smells diesely under the bonnet though.
Final bad shed thing,
Headlamp self levelling... turns out they don’t. Or at least they did... then they didn’t & the self levelling warning light came on.. then went off. Then came one. Then went off. Then came on. Then went off. Then stayed off. I’ll stick my head under the rear at some point and check the levelling sensor.. maybe.
And lastly, this happened... I can only assume this means I’m in for a splendid run of good luck.
Thanks for reading, I’ll be back to update whenever the next thing breaks/flashes/snaps. Which I have the feeling won’t be very long.
So back in January my wife’s 207SW was doing it’s usual trick of being mainly rubbish, until it became completely rubbish and refused to Start/Work/NotBeRubbish.
Incredibly sadly this coincided with my father in law passing away and to ease cheeseslicequeens burden and list of many many many other things to do/think about I took over looking for a replacement for the 207.
Not wanting to use our Impreza for commuting, and needing something quickly and cheaply until a long term replacement could be found/decided upon I decided a shed was needed. Shed needed to be able to fit two mountain bikes in the back, shed needed to have roof rails and be an auto, because why not.
After spending at least 15 minutes browsing auto trader I found a big blue SAAB, it fitted the criteria above. So shed was bought.
For the SAAB beards, it’s 2007 SAAB 9-5 1.9 TiD Vector Sport Wagon. ( or “Sport-Combi” if you’re murikan.. or German) or a Vectra in fancy dresss for everyone else.
Firstly, the good shed things, roof rails...it has them.
Another good shed thing, the boot is pretty damn big. It can fit two mountain bikes in with the seats down.
And another good shed thing, if you take a pic really close of the front corner and put a filter on it looks pretty cool... ish.
Another good shed thing. Parking... you can park it like a t
t and not worry about it. (ps I pay monthly for a space in this car park so i’ll flipping well park in there, oh and the empty space wasn’t there when I parked...)
Last good shed thing, you can fill it up with what seems like all of the tiles in the world. Or actually all you would need to tile an entire bathroom and an entire kitchen and it still moves. Impressive.
There’s more good shed things that I don’t have pictures of.
It’s pretty comfy, the leather is nice. The AC is amazing, it’s really smooth on the motorway, there’s lots of room in the back for passengers ... the rear cup holders are nifty. If you squint a bit and look at the instrumentation etc it’s kind of like being in an aeroplane... my 9 yr old treats it like a giant Wendy house.
Can’t think of anymore and im scraping the barrel a little.
Bad shed things.
The gearbox, it’s auto ( because why not ), it has an “S” button on it, which I assume from what happens when it’s pressed means. “Slightly quicker” I don’t press it much.
Every so often the gearbox likes to go into limp mode and throws up some pretty warning lights which equal:
It this does about once every two/three weeks, and always on the motorway... it drives ok but the revs are limited to something like 2500 ish, I clear it with the OBD reader, restart and it’s happy again for another fortnight or so.
I’m assuming it’s lying to me and the solenoid isn’t actually dead, otherwise it wouldn’t work again... I could at some point check the switch on the top of the gearbox as I have my suspicions it’s that or some random wire or plug some place. But that’ll have to wait until I can be arsed, which won’t happen soon.
Another bad shed thing with no picture, fuel consumption. It’s a diesel... it does about 35mpg on a good day, Which isn’t that surprising considering my commute goes in and out of Leeds and it’s an auto, it’s still better than the Subaru so can’t complain.
Another bad shed thing, although only slightly serious. Had to change one of the HID bulbs, as it was flickering and it looked like it was winking at people in traffic, this was awkward.
Swapping the bulb involves removing most of its face and “mucking” up cheeseslicequeens best old spare knackered cushions from the shed. (actual wooden shed)
PS I paid £19.99 for a pair of HID bulbs, 5 months later... still working. I’m doing shedding right yep??
PPS it does have an engine cover.. it’s just drying out after being jet washed (seen next bad shed thing)
Another bad shed thing, diesel leak off pipes... yes they can split when they get old and they did.. squirting diesel all over the hot running engine. Which makes an alarming amount of smoke.
The smoke as it turns out makes other commuters panic along with cheeseslicequeen, I have to admit I panicked initially then remembered i was supposed to check the pipes in case they needed replacing....I’d read about this being a problem on these engines but hadn’t quite got around to checking it.. oops.
£15 quid later and new pipes fitted, no more smoke. Still kinda smells diesely under the bonnet though.
Final bad shed thing,
Headlamp self levelling... turns out they don’t. Or at least they did... then they didn’t & the self levelling warning light came on.. then went off. Then came one. Then went off. Then came on. Then went off. Then stayed off. I’ll stick my head under the rear at some point and check the levelling sensor.. maybe.
And lastly, this happened... I can only assume this means I’m in for a splendid run of good luck.
Thanks for reading, I’ll be back to update whenever the next thing breaks/flashes/snaps. Which I have the feeling won’t be very long.
Great shed.
Just got myself a 2002 sheddy estate... Although mine is a manual Aero HOT.
It went to the tip at the weekend with a room's worth of old flooring. I'm breaking it in gently.
Love that colour - not a fan of the Dame Edna headlight trim but someone else on here has replaced theirs with black trim and it looks way better.
Just got myself a 2002 sheddy estate... Although mine is a manual Aero HOT.
It went to the tip at the weekend with a room's worth of old flooring. I'm breaking it in gently.
Love that colour - not a fan of the Dame Edna headlight trim but someone else on here has replaced theirs with black trim and it looks way better.
toastyhamster said:
Nice shedding, I'll miss Saabs, is Volvo the only left field choice these days? Are they even left field now?
What could possibly go wrong?
Funny you should ask, the gearbox did it’s usual trick of going into limp mode on the to work and annoyingly on the way back too.What could possibly go wrong?
It’s sensed I’ve been bad mouthing it.
GeordieInExile said:
Great shed.
Just got myself a 2002 sheddy estate... Although mine is a manual Aero HOT.
It went to the tip at the weekend with a room's worth of old flooring. I'm breaking it in gently.
Love that colour - not a fan of the Dame Edna headlight trim but someone else on here has replaced theirs with black trim and it looks way better.
Good choice, and manual is very sensible !! Just got myself a 2002 sheddy estate... Although mine is a manual Aero HOT.
It went to the tip at the weekend with a room's worth of old flooring. I'm breaking it in gently.
Love that colour - not a fan of the Dame Edna headlight trim but someone else on here has replaced theirs with black trim and it looks way better.
Yeah the colour is probably the nicest bit about it tbh.
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