Hi I'm Ian and I drive a 1996 Saab 900 2.0 Turbo

[Ianumunro]

Good afternoon everybody, my name is Ian and ideally I'd be graduating in 2018. Anyway, I tried to come to last nights meeting but I had a 7 o'clock so I showed up at around 630 waited to see if anybody came really early then left. Regardless my interest in cars is in it's infant stage since I decided to buy my own car. What I drive is a 1996 (same as me) Saab 900 2.0 Turbo Coupe. I bought it for $2,000 on September 3 of last year and right off the bat had to get emissions replaced. The car belonged to a smoker who had been in a fender bender in 1998 in NY and had rarely driven it since. It had 66,343 miles on it. There were rocks on the inside, (still) damaged leather seats, ridiculously bad smelling interior, (still) misaligned steering wheel, pollen almost stuck in the paint, and a broken radio antenna. I'd had a job for two years or so, so I had a substantial amount of money and I figured I could try to 'save' it. Over the year I've had it, the Saab has had a power steering fluid leak, broken visor holder, flooded, upright died, and still has a mystery leak, but I love it. I've fixed many of the problems stated but the leather is still not in great knick and the car does not have a cup holder. The death was caused by the electric ignition right behind the key and thanks to a friend and patience I was able to fix that myself. The second it started the pride I got was incredible. The area I come from (Suburbs of D.C.) it is assumed your parents will buy you an essentially new Jeep or a 1 Series so I got weird looks and almost condescension for buying something as old as me. I really couldn't care less. The car still needs some work including the mystery leak and I need to replace the timing chain since it now has the have the rattle of death. I still love it. Here are some pictures. I'm hoping to make some good friends and learn more about cars. Thanks everybody and hope to see all you and your cars/bikes soon.
http://imgur.com/a/gL2vQ
The first picture is when it flooded during a flash flood about a week before I came down to Harrisonburg:


The second picture is getting close to replacing the electric ignition (I can never remember what it's called):


The third picture is a comic found in my mechanics above an article about Saab going under:


The fourth picture is the car with the Swedish flag grille badge I got, also I epoxied the silver lip and replaced the front badge since that picture:


The fifth picture is when I took the car to IHOP in February during a small storm:

[Senor_Taylor]

Welcome to the forums, Ian! Awesome commitment to show up early. We probably would have been there around 6:30 if I wasn't a dummy and hadn't gotten lost trying to find the restaurant we ate at before. Hopefully next semester you won't be burdened with such a late class and can make it to meetings and such. Definitely start a build thread if you ever want to go more into details with your car! Glad to have you aboard!

[*insertusernamehere*]

Welcome man! Start a build thread I'm looking forward to seeing what goes into those old Saabs! Sounds like a fun time!

[Senor_Taylor]

I'm looking forward to seeing what goes into those old Saabs!

I'm pretty sure tears and money are what go into a Saab.

[SlimKlim]

I got all excited and tried so, so hard to find a photo of my first car to show you. Black on Black 1995 Saab 900 S 2.3L (yeah that's right, naturally aspirated, cap & rotor ignition baby). There wasn't a single thing special about that car but I still kept in practically concours condition and had my foot buried in the carpet pretty much 100% of the time I drove it.

All I could find was this shitty facebook photo, featuring a much younger Joey with much more acne.



It's bothering me now that I can't find the nice photos of that car. They've got to be on a flash drive or trapped on the hard drive of my old computer or something....

[Jake]

and the car does not have a cup holder.

LOL, welcome to old Euro cars :thumbup: My E34 had a massive wood trim panel around the shifter that could have held two drinks if they had just molded cupholders into the same space. But, no dice.

Anyway, welcome to MM! I'm from NoVA as well (born 'n' raised, moved back after college :roll: ) and had a lot of people at my high school driving brand new (or new enough) luxo-brands. You will definitely learn more and have more pride in your car having paid for everything yourself and spinning the wrenches... and hopefully those skills will translate to other parts of your life, too. Hell, I took apart my bathtub drain yesterday morning because it stopped draining and my landlord was busy driving home from some silly race weekend in Atlanta. Do I know plumbing? No. Am I afraid to rip into things now? Less than I was before I started wrenching, that's for sure.

You mentioned the smoker smell - if it still stinks, buy some Ozium spray and use it liberally over a few days' time span. It'll get the stank out.

Hopefully we'll see you at some events this semester/year and get to see the Saab, too!

(Also, I edited your post and pasted the Imgur photos directly in the post... you can paste the .jpg links and wrap them in [ img ] and [ /img ] tags to get 'em in-line).

[SlimKlim]

Odoban is another good product for getting the smoke smell out of fabrics, the Ozium is more of a hardcore air freshener. You could also try baking soda, I've had some success sprinkling it on the carpets, leaving it overnight and then just vacuuming it out the next day.

Unfortunately smoke rises, so a lot of the smell is trapped in the headliner, which is a bitch to clean seeing as it's upside down. If you still can't get rid of the smell it might be worth the time to remove it and borrow/rent a steam cleaner, then soak it with odoban and let it dry a few times.

For what it's worth my Saab had a cupholder... under the armrest? Did it have an armrest? I don't remember, but I definitely had a cupholder at the back of the center console because it was the perfect distance to knock over with my elbow when shifting to second gear.

[Ianumunro]

Pretty much, tears and money.

Those are really unique rims on that 900, I've never seen any like that, surely they aren't stock?

[SlimKlim]

Yeah I dunno they were some crappy "Sport Edition" brand 17s. I was all worked up for a set of 17s and was dying for a set of these:



I couldn't find any and ended up getting those things somehow. They looked pretty nice but that 150hp motor and worn out suspension DID NOT appreciate the extra weight.

I still miss that car sometimes. It's far from the fastest, nicest, loudest or most exciting vehicle I've owned, but there was just something about it. Probably a lot to do with the fact that it was my first car, but man I loved that thing. In retrospect I should've clung onto it a little longer.

[ScottyB]

welcome! i love those old saabs.

i still have a thing for 9-3 Viggens. i actually drew one in high school for a project just because i thought they looked so cool :lol:

[nismosam]

Welcome to the club! I look forward to meeting you soon!

[SlimKlim]

welcome! i love those old saabs.

i still have a thing for 9-3 Viggens. i actually drew one in high school for a project just because i thought they looked so cool :lol:

I used to covet a Viggen so hard when I had my lowly little 900. At the time they were still well over $10k and nothing but a pipe dream. I've gotten close to buying a 9-3 Aero sedan on a couple occasions but even I chickened out over reliability concerns and parts availability. (Apparently the stock clutch barely holds onto the freaking 2.7L Turbo they shove in there)

[Jake]

i still have a thing for 9-3 Viggens.

Sweet baby jesus, take me now.

[ScottyB]

^^ for serious. they came in a crazy ass yellow color too.

i think of them as the original mazdaspeed3. crazy engineers not giving an F about torque steer turbo madness.

[EclipseTurbno93]

Love Saabs!! Nothing else like them.

Looking forward to seeing you around!

[JustinG]

LOL, welcome to old Euro cars :thumbup: My E34 had a massive wood trim panel around the shifter that could have held two drinks if they had just molded cupholders into the same space. But, no dice.

3in hole saw.....problem solved

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

[rherold9]

Welcome to the club. Glad to see you found the forums