APPRAISAL

1 Having our newly acquired Saab 900 Turbo professionally appraised by the technicians at Derbybased Volsaa Engineering proved a smart move. Most of the problems they found appear to be easy fixes – which was just what we wanted to hear. 2 First problem Geoff at Volsaa noticed when he opened the driver’s door was how part of the door card had become detached. These pads just clip in place and it looks like the fixings have been bent out of shape at some time. We’ll fix this problem when the door cards come off. 3 Other than a bit of light scuffing on the outer bolsters, the leather on the Saab’s light beige front seats looks to be in excellent condition. We’ll be investing in a leather reconditioning kit from Furniture Clinic to refurbish the seat covers, as we had good results using this company’s products on our Jaguar X-Type. 4 The Saab’s original boot carpet is clean and in good condition. The only issue we could find was where this small section at the top was starting to peel away from the fibreboard backing. A quick spray of contact adhesive soon had this area tidied up and looking good again. 5 Lifting the false floor in the Saab’s boot revealed a hotchpotch of odds and ends, including an almost complete toolbox and a scissor jack wedged into one corner. The long, cranked wire handled tool in the top corner is what allows you to rise or lower the electro-hydraulically operated hood if any of the servos fail. 6 Geoff pointed out how one corner of the Saab’s laminated windscreen was starting to delaminate. This can only be seen from outside the car and as the screen is otherwise in good condition and doesn’t leak, we may leave this and not bother replacing the screen.

7 We didn’t notice this small hole in one of the front side light clusters when viewing the car but thankfully Volsaa Engineering have a few second hand units in stock and we’ll be fitting a replacement before the car goes in for its next MoT test, which is due in June. 8 The 900 convertible features this plastic bodykit around the base of the hood that tends to give the car a nose down profile when the top is lowered. On our car, the nearside part appears to be missing a screw. But it’s more likely a stud has sheered, so a replacement part will be required. 9 Although the Saab’s hood is in great shape, it really needs a deep clean and re-water proofing before winter sets in. The hood works fine but it only operates when the handbrake is applied – a useful safety feature we first thought was an intermittent fault with the hood’s complex mechanism! 10 According to technician Geoff, our 900 Turbo should have central locking but it’s not working at the moment. As the fuse and relay checked out okay, the problem could be with one of the relays or actuators located inside the door shells. We need to take the door cards off, so will investigate more then. 11 As well as having central locking, our Saab left the company’s Trollhättan factory with cruise control. However, Geoff pointed out how the controls required for this system are usually located on the indicator stalk and the one on our car has been replaced with a used part taken from a 900 without this handy facility. 12 When our Saab was new back in 1989, this expensive Panasonic radio/cassette player was considered state-of-the-art. It still works reasonably well but marque expert Geoff pointed out how the car’s rare optional extra tweeters that once sat in the dash top air vents are missing on our car.

13 Unfortunately, our Saab isn’t totally rust free and the base of the passenger’s door is holed on the inside. The base of the doors on the 900 also makes up part the outer sill, the idea being that this area is kept clean from any road dirt that could otherwise mark clothing when entering and exiting the car. 14 The underside of our Saab isn’t totally rust free either and this little bit of rot towards the front of the floor pan will have to dealt with sooner rather than later. Once this repair has been carried out, we’ll book the car into Spalding based Rust Busters for them to re-underseal the Saab’s nether regions. 15 Although this small hole looks far worse than it is in the flesh, it will annoying result in an MoT failure as the hole is within 30cm of the anti-roll bar mounting. The exhaust will have to come off to sort this out and we’ll have to see how far back this spot of rot has attacked the Saab’s chassis. 16 Another job that’s going to have to be attended to sooner rather than later will be replacing this split rubber CV boot. Rather than just fit a new boot, we’re planning to replace the CV joint as there’s no knowing how long this one has been leaking grease and absorbing road dirt into it’s inner workings. 17 When we took delivery of our Saab 900, the level in the power steering fluid reservoir was down by a fair bit and the reason for this is no doubt down to this leaking pipe. Whether it’s the pipe or the seals in the pump that’s at fault, we’ll be finding out what’s causing this leak very soon. 18 It was also pointed out how the our 900’s forward facing transaxle is covered in oil but were told not to worry too much ‘as they are mostly all like this’. So far, our Saab’s 1985cc inline four hasn’t burnt any oil and the level in the transmission is fine too, so maybe this is just a coating of power steering fluid.