Crankshaft Position Sensor Replacement, 900's, 9000's, 9-3's, and 9-5's

Some issues have classic symptoms that throw up a red flag right away when a client is describing them. "The car wouldn't start after I shut it off for a few minutes, but would start right up if I let it sit for an hour" is classic Crankshaft Position Sensor failure.

This little sensor is mounted on the front of the engine on turbo SAABs from 1994 and up. It's job is to tell the engine management system the angle of the crankshaft. Essentially, it's just a magnet that corresponds a pulse from a trigger wheel mounted on the crankshaft. However, without the signal, the car doesn't know what order to ignite spark or fire the fuel injectors, therefore leading to a no start condition.

Sometimes the sensors just fail and have no visual signs of wear, but on the car I was working on today, this was not the case.


Old, broken wiring harness vs. new sensor.

Oil from an oil leak at the cylinder headgasket soaked the sensor harness, causing the rubber to swell and eventually rupture. Heat from the turbocharger also aids in the degradation, though there is a metal heat shield over the sensor to prevent this. If this was a clients car, I would have definitely caught it in the consultation, but this was an out of state tow in that broke down locally and had the car towed to me.


Where the sensor mounts, if you look hard inside the hole you can see the trigger wheel the sensor reads its signal off of.

Easy enough job to do. A common failure that can leave you stuck and stranded... no bueno.

I'm getting out of the cold and heading to Florida for a week on a bit of a vacation. Heading to the Rolex 24hrs of Daytona race on Saturday/Sunday. See "Yinz" later.

Cabin Air Filter Replacement, All Saabs

For whatever reason, most of the cars I see have never had the cabin air filter replaced. Maybe Wright and Cochran are skipping them in the major services they're doing, or clients are being naughty and skipping their scheduled maintenance!

The filter does exactly what the title says it does, filter the outside air that flows into your car. All the air you and your family breathe with the windows up passes through this thing, so it's important to make sure it's working properly. The units I use also have a charcoal residue built in to the filter which eliminates outside smells from coming into the cabin!

I change it on almost every major service I do, and here's why:


Old filter v. new, on a 7yr old car with 91,000 miles.

This is a picture taken by head technician Anders at Swedecar in California showing how clogged up the housing around the filter can get. The cowl cover that typically covers the filter is removed in this photo. Anders reported that by clearing out the housing and replacing the filter, the customers air conditioning temperature dropped by almost 10 degrees!!!



Have you had yours replaced?

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