My 1999 SAAB 9-5 wagon 2.3 LPT has no guts and barely makes it up a big hill. I purchased a used turbo thinking that was the problem but a Mercedes mechanic told me the car drives like a blocked catalytic converter. Online comments indicate the former could be caused by the latter. Today the MB mechanic will be dropping the catalytic converter to see if that makes a difference. And will also be doing a pressure test (?).
Anybody else face this situation or have any ideas?
I once had a blocked cat in an Audi turbo 5. Over time the honeycomb material inside had eroded and detached inside, such that it rolled around and formed a ball shape. When the acceleration was hard enough, or the hill steep enough, the “ball” would roll backward and block the pipe, like a potato in the exhaust. I pulled the cat and hammered a rod through the blockage, shaking out the pieces. The car ran properly once again, albeit more loudly.
On the other hand, I had a SAAB 99 turbo, which ran like it was on 3 cylinders. I took it to the dealer in Sacramento. They replaced most of the fuel system, fuel distributer etc (K-jet I think) which cost more than I’d paid for the car, and took a couple of weeks. On the way home I found the car ran no better than before. So it goes.
Thanks for the input. I’m thinking the catalytic converter would be the preferred problem as it is less expensive and easier to replace than the turbo. The used turbo I purchased is questionable as the turbine at first wouldn’t turn and then somebody got it to spin freely. That makes me wonder if either something was blocking it and came loose or maybe it has a bad bearing. I’m a little hesitant to put in a suspect part especially when it takes several hours to do the job.
Decisions.
Mr. Muffler in Painesville took a look at the car today. They had replaced everything back of the converter a month ago. Unfortunately, they were not able to determine whether the converter was bad without tearing it apart.
I also scanned the wagon with an OBD code reader which revealed no problems. So … I decided to have the turbo replaced with a used unit. I am hoping that will solve the problem. If not, we’ll move to the next step.