‘THE COOLING FAN RELAY WAS MISSING’

Fuzz Townshend takes us behind the scenes of the restos on the latest series of Car SOS. This week, a Saab 900 Turbo comes clattering into the workshop

‘Buying elderly cars can sometimes feel a tad like taking on someone’s dog. All may appear well for a brief period but then one does something – a small unexpected movement – which prompts ‘Fido’ to bite one squarely on the backside.

‘In a way, that’s exactly what happened to the then-new keeper of the Saab 900 Turbo (low boost) featured in tomorrow night’s episode of Car SOS.

‘The car was (and is) owned by Leicestershire lad, Pravesh, who bought it more than five years ago from a vendor in the Greater London area. Confidence high after a few uneventful miles had been covered on the journey home in the Saab, Pravesh decided to experience the thrill of the turbocharger-boosted performance. Unfortunately, the car’s old engine took great exception to this and duly spun a big-end bearing (number two, if I recall correctly), making a proper mess of both crankshaft journal and connecting rod in the process.

‘It seems that this may well have had a knockon effect on the rare automatic gearbox, which also withdrew its labour at the same time and so the hopedfor triumphant homecoming became a silent roll into the front garden behind a tow rope. There the car stood for the following six years.

‘We expected that more than five years of sitting on grass would have taken a terrible toll on the car’s structure when we at “Team Sosage” finally got our hands on the car, but by some miracle (or Ziebart treatment) the body was remarkably rust-free, save for a few small areas. Of course virtually every other area of the car required attention to some degree or another. ‘It turned out that such was the extent of the damage to the gearbox that the car would not roll backwards. An attempt was made at an engine start just to see if the gearbox would decide to work again. The tired fourpot clattered briefly to life, audibly revealing its terminal state, and the answer from the gearbox was a similarly firm negative. So began a comprehensive mechanical re-build of the drivetrain.

‘In the process of the restoration, it was noticed that the cooling fan relay was missing. Could this have led to the mechanical failure?

‘Possibly so – spirited driving may well have taken the engine’s temperature way above the norm, even if it had somehow managed to cope by means of natural airflow at lower speeds.

‘If you happen to be buying a car, if possible, take a sample of its engine, gearbox and final drive oils and have them tested before you part with any cash (oilanalysislab.com). The failures that this car suffered may have been well on their way already.’

Fuzz and Tim had their work cut out salvaging this 900 Turbo’s mechanicals, even if the bodywork had survived well after six long years of standing idle.

Much of the hard graft was on the car’s engine, which Fuzz described as being in ‘a terminal state’.

The 900’s shell was in remarkably sound condition but was still treated to a full stripdown as part of its Car SOS makeover.