New Rally Wagon

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hutch
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New Rally Wagon

Postby hutch » Sun Oct 23, 2016 7:08 pm

I know there isn't a ton of love for the newer Saabs around these parts but I figured you guys may enjoy...

Having hit 180k miles my 9-3 was starting to have a handful of little things creep up so I decided to start looking for a low(er) mileage 9-5 while they still exist and found this at a nearby Ford dealership. It is a one-owner Aero wagon that was owned by an elderly couple before trading it in for a Fusion. Even if its only for another 400 miles its the only Saab I've owned with under 100k miles. It desperately needs some paint detailing but the interior is in fantastic shape and the big bolster seats are amazingly comfortable.

In the short time I've owned the car I've come to really love the 9-5 platform, if this isn't the perfect daily driver I'm not sure what is. Even bone stock and with an extra couple hundred lbs it handles nearly as well as my modified 9-3 and is much more pleasant over bumps, etc. I flushed the auto trans fluid which made a huge difference and now I need to chase down an oil leak around the oil pump but I'm looking forward to putting some miles on this thing.

Anyway, onto the pics...

At the dealer
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With the double 3 spoke wheels from my Viggen
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Old school badges I put on
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hutch
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Re: New Rally Wagon

Postby hutch » Sun Nov 13, 2016 11:30 am

I figured instead of starting another thread on one of my random musings I'd ask here...

Does anyone have any experience with these '2 piece' wheel bolts? I swapped the winter wheels on today and remembered to take a pic. I've been having issues with these loosening up on me and since the only thing that is different from my 9-3 is the newer version of bolt I'm inclined to think its related. They do make it somewhat easier to line up on the hub, but does anyone know why, or when Saab decided to switch over to these? I'm half tempted to grab some of the old style bolts at the junkyard and get rid of these...

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Geoff
Team Turbo Troll Crew
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Re: New Rally Wagon

Postby Geoff » Mon Nov 14, 2016 1:44 pm

There was a recall on the bolts having to do with the potential for corrosion when switching between steel and aluminum wheels. The fix was those bolts.
https://www.cars.com/recalls/saab-9_5-1999/
(seems like this could be an "issue" with any car...)

I always thought that those bolts might be nice because sometimes the wheel/bolt tapers get jammed together. But with the redesigned bolts there's a lot less friction holding the bolt in place so it makes sense that you'd see them loosening up.
The kind of dirty that doesn't wash off :eyebrows:

hutch
Posts: 828
Joined: Fri Apr 20, 2007 11:49 pm
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Location: Lancaster, PA

Re: New Rally Wagon

Postby hutch » Mon Nov 14, 2016 6:16 pm

Hmm interesting, I never knew about that recall. I know there were times with the 9-3 where I'd have to really go to town on the back of the wheel with a rubber mallet to get it off, and that was with only Al wheels. Eventually I just started preemptively applying anti-seize to the hub face. I guess I never knew it could be related to the bolts...

In theory I guess the 2 piece bolts are a good idea in helping line everything up, as long as you check on them occasionally. But I'm definitely not sold just yet.

hutch
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Joined: Fri Apr 20, 2007 11:49 pm
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Re: New Rally Wagon

Postby hutch » Wed Jan 11, 2017 7:28 pm

This forum seems dead with the cold weather so I figured I'd spam it with some more of my non-performance updates :P

I picked up a CF dash for basically nothing from someone on saabcentral, the reason being that the face had delaminated in many parts. I can go either way as I think CF can look a little silly sometimes in cars where its clearly not helping anything, like a dash board, and I don't mind the brushed Al dash this currently has. But for the cost of shipping I'd figured I'd see if I could bring some life back to this one and see what it looks like installed. As always I forgot to take a picture of the before, but just imagine the face falling off in various places...

It took a lot of clamping at various angles to get it to work, I found I had to do it in a very deliberate order so I could reach all the various places that needed glue. I also found despite what the tube of glue said it was best if I let it sit a whole day plus to set before I removed the clamps.
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I need to clean up some glue reside in a few spots, but a lot of them will be hidden by switches, etc. so all in all I'm pretty happy with it!
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And for one mildly performance update, I managed to snag the back half of the Saabsport system, the nice Remus muffler with the Viggen style tip. I need to take it to the local exhaust shop and have them put it on and delete the resonator but it should be a nice system when its all done.
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spgftw
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Location: Homer, Alaska

Re: New Rally Wagon

Postby spgftw » Wed Jan 25, 2017 12:26 pm

I guess this is the new plan? I'm selling the 9-3, and I just picked up an 02 aero wagon myself here. It really is unbelievably smooth/easy to drive. And the trunk, it goes on and on... All and all it's getting two thumbs up so far.

Now I need some spring spacers, because this thing WILL be in the snow. :)
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hutch
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Re: New Rally Wagon

Postby hutch » Wed Jan 25, 2017 1:19 pm

Nice! I'm super jealous of the rear spoiler too, that's on my to do list if I can find one...

I loved my Viggen, especially in the weeks up until I sold it and was driving it again, but the 9-5 is such a nice car its easier to move on. With the weird weather we've had recently on the east coast I haven't really had a chance to drive in much snow but what little we did get the car felt very stable. It's a great chassis and like you said there is a ton of room in these cars!

Really a shame Saab never figured out how to sell cars as this was a good one :lol:

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spgftw
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Re: New Rally Wagon

Postby spgftw » Wed Jan 25, 2017 1:37 pm

Yeah, I'm even OK with going from a manual to an auto. Not my first choice, but the utility of the car makes up for it. I'm loving how the rear seat can split and fold down only one side. I haul a lot of crap around and that makes a difference. Plus this is a seriously low profile sleeper, just a soccer mom car on the outside. ;)

hutch
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Joined: Fri Apr 20, 2007 11:49 pm
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Re: New Rally Wagon

Postby hutch » Wed Jan 25, 2017 7:21 pm

Is the '02 the 4 speed or the 5 speed?

I miss the fun of driving a stick, luckily still have the 900s, and the fuel mileage is certainly worse around town with my 5 speed auto. I used to easily get 25mpg with the Viggen around town, with the extra weight and auto of the 9-5 its closer to 21-22mpg. On the highway its pretty negligible at around 32+mpg obviously depending on speed. But I do a lot of stop and go driving so I don't mind the auto at all.

And yeah its definitely a sleeper, my Viggen was more visceral and felt like it was faster but judging by how quickly the speedo sweeps the Aero certainly doesn't seem any slower.

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spgftw
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Re: New Rally Wagon

Postby spgftw » Thu Jan 26, 2017 3:54 pm

It should be a five speed, but I haven't actually paid attention enough to know for sure. I haven't showed you the crunched rear passenger door/wheel arch, which is why it was under 2k. Cosmetic stuff. It was too much car to pass up at that price. ;)

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squaab99t
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Re: New Rally Wagon

Postby squaab99t » Sat Jan 28, 2017 9:25 am

spgftw wrote:Yeah, I'm even OK with going from a manual to an auto. Not my first choice, but the utility of the car makes up for it. I'm loving how the rear seat can split and fold down only one side. I haul a lot of crap around and that makes a difference. Plus this is a seriously low profile sleeper, just a soccer mom car on the outside. ;)

Did you keep your battery powered car?

hutch
Posts: 828
Joined: Fri Apr 20, 2007 11:49 pm
Number of Saabs currently owned: 2
Location: Lancaster, PA

Re: New Rally Wagon

Postby hutch » Wed Feb 08, 2017 9:29 pm

As I'm a few weeks away from hitting 30 years on this planet I've been thinking a lot about how I've changed over the years. Never has that been more clear to me than when I got excited about finding a station wagon in the junkyard, so I could get parts for my station wagon :bawl: :lol:

But I was able to grab some useful stuff all for about $20 so I'm happy I took the trip. After Gary pointed out the upper brake light is a common leak source I realized mine was pretty destroyed, I tried to fix it with silicone but to no avail, the 'new' one was also cracked but some CA glue seemed to stop the cracks from spreading. I also found some cargo bolts to tie down your cargo, unfortunately not the cargo net so I grabbed one out of a 9-5 sedan until I can find the proper one. The ACC in my car is losing some pixels so I grabbed the spare so I can try to redo the LCD strip, I botched the SID on my 9-3 so figured it'd be better to have a spare to try again.
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I also swapped in an earlier sport wheel like was in my Viggen, by '04 they seemed to have swapped to a harder plastic/vinyl that just didn't feel as nice. It seems odd but it made a huge difference in the pleasure of driving the car, I guess because you are always in contact with it. I was wildly paranoid about either tripping the airbag or breaking the clock spring but knock on wood the swap was fine, the whole assembly is actually pretty clever compared with the c900.

I also swapped in the CF dash at the same time, I don't love it or hate it, in direct sunlight its almost too yellow but it usually looks fine. I almost grabbed a nice looking wood dash from the junkyard with the intention of stripping it and re-staining but figured the veneer would be so thin I'd likely not have any luck. Maybe I'll go back and grab it just to see what I can come up with.
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