The oil is missing, and it isn't burning?

But it's leaking?

 

Sorry if my post was too long for you to follow.

1. Car developed oil leak. Leak was odd and maybe caused by excess pressure in the cylinder head
2. Leak fixed
3. Two months later oil light comes on.
4. Oil is gone. No leaks, and it doesn't appear to be burning it. I'm sure it is though.
5. No heat since it ran low on oil.

 

oil loss



Do you have about 70000 miles on the turbo? Mine did what yours is doing..it started using oil and nothing visable anywhere..so @ 73000 miles, my turbo popped its cork..you might want to have a leakdown on your cylinder compression too..you may have piston ring distress..causing backpressure into the crankcase..I hope you don't ..but I have been down that path.

 

Retorque the head. I doubt the head gasket is your problem, or the oil would be mixing with the antifreeze (if that's where your oil was going). Most suspect would be the turbo for oil loss, or you're getting a ton of blowby at the pistons and oil's just seeping out everywhere (may explain blowing out the VC plug). Have you got the #6 pcv update? I'm thinking your heat problem is unrelated, check the acc unit for codes, there's a "sticky" for that

 

Phew.

 

I have 245,000 miles. Cylinder head is newer then that, everything else is original.

The car makes power like it always has. I would think you could feel if the turbo was going or there was a serious loss in compression.

I don't have a place to look at or work on my car, plus it's below zero here so I am having a hard time finding the time or place to look my car over.


Ok, I did take a quick look at something today. My antifreeze is fine, there isn't any oil in it. I was thinking this might be whee my oil was going, but it's not.

I laid down some new cardboard in the garage so I'll know soon if there is another leak.


I was just hoping for some tips for what to look at first so I am not trying to look at everything. I also think it's odd that I lost my oil and heat at the same time. It makes me think the two are related.

 

the temp gauge on the dash shows the car heating up OK?
I had a bad t-stat, caused "no heat" but I knew it was the t-stat when the temp gauge started acting wonky

 

Update:

I have fixed the oil leak. Well, most of it. The turbo is leaking some, but the main leak was the oil drain plug. I wish I had a place to check for simple things like that.

I had a friend at a repair shop put the car on a lift. The drain plug was stripped and barely in there so oil was leaking out around it. We enlarged the hole a little, tapped new threads, and installed a slightly larger plug.

Leak fixed.


Now the heat still doesn't work, but I had time to look into it more......

1. the car warms up and runs at a good temp.
2. The hoses going into and coming out of the heater core get hot when the car is up to temp.

The no heat has something to do with the controls. If I crank the heater all the way up I can feel hot air under the dash where it is able to leak out of the HVAC plumbing. Problem is, whatever lets the hot air into the car is staying closed so the air blowing out of the dash is cold.

So to sum it up....

1. Oil leak fixed.
2. Hot air is produced for the HVAC system, but something is stoping it from coming into the car.


Now is there something I can just pull open myself to get me through winter when I can actually get in there and fix it right?

 

Sounds like your blend doors may be stuck or sticking.

 

yes, get the code and see if it is the blend doors. Easy fix, did it on my wife's 99 9-5, although I had to move the seat all the way back and work upside down.

 

http://www.saablink.net/forum/car-problems-9-5-only/51026.htm Pull the code as described. Sounds like messed up blend doors, there's a number of ways they fail. Last 2 that I did were bad motors (actually the gear had moved on both so they were working, but weren't in line to move the doors).

 

As for heating issues - always good to replace the t-stat and the coolant temp sensor together - at the least the t-stat when having heat issues.

On our 2001 wagon - about 86,000 miles I had to replace the Coolant By-Pass Valve:
eEuroparts - Coolant By-Pass Valve - # 90566947A
For a leak - shortly after that the car had no heat MOST of the time and I found that the Secondary Air Valve had gone bad and would not regulate the above by-pass valve to open to allow coolant into the heater core.
eEuroparts - Secondary Air Valve - # 90466214

May want to look into those if no problems with the air box as also mentioned.

 

Burns,

Hot air enters the cabin so I think then engine side of things is fine. If I crank up the heat hot air finds its way out of the dashboard and the interior eventually warms up I just can't get hot air to blow out of the vents.


You peeps talking about blend doors. I think that is where the issue is so I will try those tips for getting the codes.

When I turn the climate control all the way cold I can hear a door flap closed before the air blows cold. Then when I turn the climate control all the way hot again... nothing.



Also when I change where I want the air to blow it's kinda slow to react. Is that tired motors? Would this slowness tell any of you that I may have a motor problem for that blend door.


Sorry for all the questions. I like to have answers and all the data I can get before I lay upside down and look under a dash. I hate doing that.

 

Ok, did the ACC code thing.

1_______08

8
Stepping motor, air-mixing flap, RH
Loose flap
B2295


Is there somewhere I can get a diagram to find out where this thing is and how to fix it?

Thank you for the help so far.

 

08 is (potentially) one of the easiest to fix. I think its a $25 part (eEuroparts.com) and there pretty good instructions out there. I don't have a link off hand but I googled it and found good info. I think there is something on the saab site about it.

Basically you remove the driver's side lower kick panel and the motor itself. Once the motor is off see if the white plastic link arm is broken. Hopefully it is, because if it isn't you probably have an internal break which is much more difficult to fix.

If it comes to it, I do have a heater box for sale.

 

Thanks for the info. I think I'll get under there this weekend and see what I can see.

Maybe I can just rig it so the blend door stays open. The A/C doesn't work anyways, so the system is off all summer.

 

Ok, took the panel under the steering column down over the weekend to try and locate the problem with the climate control. This fell on the floor.

Doing some research I find that this is certainly my problem.

So I got under there and tried to find where it goes. No luck.

Stormer, you mentioned you had one of these boxes for sale. Could you do me a favor and shoot a few photos of it so I can see where this damn thing goes.

Since that photo was taken I have fixed it. I wraped a paper clip around the large end and epoxyed the thing back together. I might make a metal one, but I'll see how this works first.

 

that is the blend door arm. you can buy a replacement online, eeuro and thesaabsite I think both have them... thesaabsite has directions how to replace it, IIRC

 

http://www.thesaabsite.com/95/saab 95 heater box repair aluminum.htm

That link should help a little. You need to pull off the stepper motor to see the white arm. As you might imagine the stepper motor has a round end, is held on by three small screws (6mm I believe) and has an wiring connection to it. Once you find and remove that you'll see the white plastic arm.

I wouldn't be able to get pictures of the box right away but can and will later in the week if it would be helpful. Now that I think about it, I should probably shoot a whole set of photos and make a gallery for reference.

 

I looked at that link already. Those photos are horrible. None of them seem to indicate where exactly the motor is on the side of the heater box.

And, if this white arm goes under a cover, how did it get out of there?

I'll look for this stepper motor thing and see what I come up with.