Never going to complain again.....

[peteracs]

Hi All

So according to my local and generally trusted garage the turbo on my diesel Saab 9-3 was starting to leak oil from the turbo bearings, not bad, but have heard horror stories of diesels consuming all the engine oil and as mine is automatic, no way of stalling it when it does choose to run away.

So, after a quote of best part of £1000 to replace, I decided to bite the bullet and have a go myself at changing it, how hard can it be?

I found what looked like a decent remanufacture company and located gaskets etc, all in less than £300, so thought that part of the equation was a winner.

Now on to doing the work, one full day later the turbo was out after a moderate amount of swearing (I had bought the Haynes manual which is actually ok, lacking in enough photos, but pretty comprehensive on taking the turbo out).

Having received the replacement I then set to installing it, which actually for the turbo itself is fairly easy, the really hard bit and very time consuming is to put the rest of the car back together. I put enough back to test the new turbo which appears to work fine (I did remember to prime the bearings before starting the car which is the big killer if you do not). Then I set to putting the rest back which I am still doing. So far 2 days to reinstall and counting, though hopefully will finish it all tomorrow, so 3 days to put it back, with a fair amount of cursing along the way as some of the bolts are seriously hard to locate.

I know garages will be used to all this and work much faster than me, but hard to see them doing the job in under a day, so can understand their charging.

So, I will never complain about working on the Beta again as so much room!

Peter

[smithymc]

Brave man Peter- well done. It's the not knowing where the job might end that makes some of these jobs so daunting and the fear that at some critical point there will be a special tool needed or some aspect of the ecu needs resetting.

Hope it all works out.

Mark

[droptop]

A customer of mine has a Range Rover V6 diesel twin turbo yoke and when one of the turbos failed, he wisely (?) decided to get both replaced
SEVEN THOUSAND EUROS LATER, his truck was back in perfect condition with no signs that the garage had to actually remove the body from the chassis entirely to carry out the surgery!
PLENTY of room in the Beta engine bay!
Congrats on tackling the Saab Peter!
Oh, and a couple of months later, the air ride suspension failed on the RR so that was a few more grand.
After all that, he wisely traded it in for a newer bloody Range Rover with a V8 oil burner
The price of prestige motoring is high apparently whereas our 14 year old Jap yoke just passed it's NCT (Irish equivalent of Uk's DOE) after I fitted one front bushing and drove the nuts off it prior to the test as Wifey does mostly low mileage. cold running trips to work.
Having said all that, I enjoy working on the Betas and now thanks to Betaboyz parts and Santa, I have a set of lowering springs to fit on the '78 along with Bilstein front struts which I'm looking forward to doing but dreading the rears as I don't think they've ever been touched since about the mid-80's

[Neil-yaj396]

Good work Peter. 'Moderns' are just designed with assembly in mind, not major maintenance like this, which is inevitably done post warranty.

Are you hanging onto the Saab as a future classic then?

[peteracs]

Are you hanging onto the Saab as a future classic then?

My original idea was to keep it. It was a low mileage 3 year old car when I bought it in 2012 and totally original as you would expect. Also enjoy driving it (plenty of go and handles well) and having a Cabrio has been most enjoyable. However looks like the car policy is about to change in our household as changing from one regularly changed large car to longer term keeper large car and possibly regularly changed small one, so it will be less well used, especially when the Beta gets on the road (definitely not selling until I can no longer drive it) and my thoughts on the next project is a 124 Spyder.......

Peter

[rossocorsa]

I guess this will have the Fiat derived GM diesel so you would be in familiar territory of Italian design?

[droptop]

Are you hanging onto the Saab as a future classic then?

My original idea was to keep it. It was a low mileage 3 year old car when I bought it in 2012 and totally original as you would expect. Also enjoy driving it (plenty of go and handles well) and having a Cabrio has been most enjoyable. However looks like the car policy is about to change in our household as changing from one regularly changed large car to longer term keeper large car and possibly regularly changed small one, so it will be less well used, especially when the Beta gets on the road (definitely not selling until I can no longer drive it) and my thoughts on the next project is a 124 Spyder.......

Peter

You could buy the NEW 124 spyder and just enjoy driving it (I hope.....)

[peteracs]

I guess this will have the Fiat derived GM diesel so you would be in familiar territory of Italian design?

Hi Alan

Did not realise it was Fiat derived, but yes GM twin cam single turbo diesel used in Vauxhall et al GM cars from what I can see.

Peter

[peteracs]

You could buy the NEW 124 spyder and just enjoy driving it (I hope.....)

I actually like the simplicity of the older cars, both mechanically (and this is a 60s design after all) and body wise. As ever not keen on the US bumper monstrosities, but I think fairly easily solved.

Peter

[rossocorsa]

I guess this will have the Fiat derived GM diesel so you would be in familiar territory of Italian design?

Hi Alan

Did not realise it was Fiat derived, but yes GM twin cam single turbo diesel used in Vauxhall et al GM cars from what I can see.

Peter

if it's 1910cc it will be https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JTD_engine 

[droptop]

You could buy the NEW 124 spyder and just enjoy driving it (I hope.....)

I actually like the simplicity of the older cars, both mechanically (and this is a 60s design after all) and body wise. As ever not keen on the US bumper monstrosities, but I think fairly easily solved.

Peter

You're preaching to the choir here Peter, but I'm delighted to see Fiat and Alfa returning to RWD, even if the new 124 is a re-badged Mazda Miata and I've no clue what the new Alfa owes its' existence to.
Your choice of classic is commendable by the way and the idea of simply needing spark, fuel and compression as the essentials for driving is so lost today, it almost makes me weep for simpler times.
Getting all teary-eyed now so I'll pop out to the workshop and bolt a few bits back on my '79 spyder

[peteracs]

I guess this will have the Fiat derived GM diesel so you would be in familiar territory of Italian design?

Hi Alan

Did not realise it was Fiat derived, but yes GM twin cam single turbo diesel used in Vauxhall et al GM cars from what I can see.

Peter

if it's 1910cc it will be https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JTD_engine 

Yes it is the twin cam version called Z19DTH which is also used in Astra etc.

Peter

[rossocorsa]

Not bad engines, I have the 1956cc version in the Delta adequate performance and decent economy just let down by being slightly harsh and noisy except when cruising. Doesn't compare to the good old twin cam on the fun factor though!