Econmancer

The main symptom I found was rough idle and surging while the car was stopped. The engine would move up to 1200 RPM and then drop down to under 500 RPM before recovering. Having the AC on or off would not change this. The car had 40, 000 miles at the time and I would bet the throttle body had not ever been cleaned before. So expect to clean the throttle body about every 30,000 miles so it doesn’t get to the point where the engine struggles.

Start by opening the box holding the air filter. There are three clips that keep the top latched. Pull them away from the lid to loosen them. It can take some pressure to get them to move. Get ready, it’ll take even more pressure to put them back on at the end of the job. Some earlier Focus models had a life-time air filter in a sealed box. I don’t have any experience with these filters, but the removal process for these models will be different.

Once the lid to the cold air box is undone, remove the air filter and set it aside to protect it from damage. The hose attached to the lid goes to the throttle body. One hose clamp holds it on and it can be removed by twisting the screw on the clamp.

Move the hose and air box lid as far out of the way as you can. You’re limited on movement because of sensors still attached to the air intake, but it doesn’t have to move far for you to get to the area you’ll need to clean.

This is what the inside of the throttle body looks like. I was surprised how clean it looked for as bad as the car was idling. It turned out all the gunk was on the other side of the bronze colored throttle plate.

Find a soft plastic shim to hold the throttle body butterfly plate open while you clean the inside. I used the handle of a small screwdriver. Use something big enough to hold the plate wide open and so it won’t fall in, but small enough you can work around it.

Use a can of throttle body cleaner to wet the walls and plate of the throttle body. Let it soak for a few seconds and start cleaning everything with a rag. Make sure to clean the thin edge of the butterfly and as much of the walls as you can. Really focus on the edge of the plate and the wall area it butts up against. That’s the gunk causing the issues. Respray and wipe away the dirt until you’ve got it as clean as you can. Close it all up and start the car. It might not start or run like normal at first because of the liquid cleaner still in the intake and the computer trying to control the newly cleaned throttle body, but after a few moments the idle will even out and should remain even from now on.

I was getting a “plastic on plastic” rattling noise from the sunroof area. It didn’t take long to figure out what was going on and how to stop the sound.

The plastic finger grip knocks against the plastic trim of the headliner when the sunroof shade is completely closed.

Pulling the shade back a half inch keeps the two plastic parts from touching and stops the annoying noise from the sunroof. The edge of the shade extends about an inch past the hand grip cutout, so moving the shade a little doesn’t let light in.

It seems obvious once you see what is going on; but it only happens while the car is moving. It’s hard to figure out where the sound is coming from while you’re busy driving down the street. I figure people with the same issue might search the internet for a solution and find this post.

I don’t have any advice about repairing the SID, or “SAAB Information Display”, on a SAAB 9-5 except to say that I only made mine worse by trying to make it better. There are several methods for DIY repair of missing pixels on the information display. I tried the foam spacer and warm iron methods and only ended up with more missing pixels.

There is a reputable company called BBA that will repair the SID and garentees its work.

SAAB Central has a thread about SID repairers that is worth reading before choosing a company.

My SID will be off to BBA soon for repair and I will post about the results at that time. For now, here are images from the inside of the SID for your entertainment:

A video about repairing dents with canned air was posted on SAABCentral. I went out and got a can of air and tried the technique on a door ding I had collected a few weeks ago.

The dent is about the size of a nickel.

I heated up the area for about a minute with the hairdryer and then sprayed the air upside down until the spot was frosted over. The dent is not gone, but it is more like a shadow of what it was before. There was no damage to the paint as far as I can tell.

This would be a good thing to try before sending the car to the body shop and would be interesting to see on a larger dent. Anyone willing to give it a try on a larger dent?

At any rate, you might be satisfied with the results and would save some money. If you aren’t happy with the results, then you aren’t really out anything and can get the car fixed by a professional afterwards.

The two images look strange because I ran the photos through some filters to enhance the dent area. Both photos had the say filters applied. The dent doesn’t show up well in the untouched photos. I marked the spots so you can at least look in the correct area. See the dark spot on the right edge of the dent in the “after” photo? That’s where it didn’t change and can still be seen when looking at the door in person.

Before:

After:

So, the bottom line- the dent didn’t disappear; sort of flattened itself out around the edges instead.

I guess it is really a $5 repair, since I had to buy the air, but it would be free if you have a can of compressed air sitting next to your computer already.

From Amazon:
Memorex 10OZ 152A AIR DUSTER ( 32028021 )

This is the most frustrating repair I’ve ever had to do on my 9-5. Supposedly the dealer charges up to $2000 when the ACC throws an 08 code. I heard they fix the problem by replacing the entire heater box. I can understand why they don’t dink around under the dash with this repair.
The symptoms of a broken stop arm and/or blend door are a clicking noise behind the dash, and no control of the temperature or venting on one side of the vehicle. This can be confirmed by pressing the “off” and “auto” buttons simultaneously on the ACC controls. The computer will check the system and any codes will show up as a series of numbers. An 08 code will a classic confirmation of a broken stop arm or blend door lever on the driver’s side.

Once I had my code I got under the driver’s side dash, removed the four Torx screws, OBD-II port, and plastic panel, this exposes the offending parts.

The motor, vent elbow, and blend door are located under the dash near the gas petal, behind the center console.

I started removing the screws holding the motor and vent elbow. There are about six of them and they are all hard to get at. You will also want to undo the wire harness on the motor and the sensor on the elbow.

Here are the parts to set aside

This exposes the blend door

I had a broken stop arm, but that soon became a broken blend door shaft when I started banging on it with a jeweler’s hammer. Not my most brilliant moment, I admit.

I was unable to fix the the blend door arm as described on other online sites, so I set out to fix the arm my own way.

I started by lining up the broken arm and using jeweler’s glue to set it back in place (super glue on the tip of a toothpick would work). I let it dry and then used a two part epoxy that hardens into a clear plastic to coat the entire shaft. I used the epoxy to build up several coats. By the time I was done the shaft was extremely rigid, possibly stronger than when it was new.

With the shaft fixed, I was able to focus on the part that started this whole ordeal. I had ordered a new stop arm from The Saab Site.

The stop arm goes on the end of the shaft between the box and the motor. I had to file down, and ultimately remove, the small plastic clip on the shaft.

This, along with some grease, made it possible to slide the new arm on the repaired shaft. Make sure you press from both the front and back of the blend door to keep from putting pressure on the repaired shaft.

You will want to move the blend door stop arm all the way down. Then turn the metal shaft on the removed motor so it looks like this, with the notches facing in this direction:

Hopefully you can skip the next step by matching my photo above, but I found this shaft position by taking the motor apart and turning the motor’s shaft until it fit the blend door shaft before putting the motor back together again.

Once the motor was back together, and aligned to fit the blend door shaft, I reinstalled the vent elbow (after gluing the loose foam rubber) and reassembled motor, hooked up the wiring harness and sensor, and tested the ACC again.

No more 08 ACC error. My vents work and the temperature is correct again.

This repair isn’t technically difficult, but it’s a hassle because the area under the dash is tight and the blend door area is even tighter. There are a lot of tiny screws to remove and they don’t go back easily.

I used a headband lamp to light what I was looking at while I was under the dash. I don’t know if I could have done it with a drop-light or regular flashlight.