SAAB Sighting, 4th of July

My only SAAB friend, celebrating 4th of July together.

crankshaft position sensor installation

How to remove and replace the crankshaft position sensor or “CPS” on the SAAB 9-5

Start with a completely cold engine. You will be right against the exhaust during this repair and it’s going to be uncomfortable enough without adding some 2nd degree burns to your hands.

Unhook and remove the battery and battery tray from the car. Removal isn’t essential, but it will make it easier to route the wire bundle at the end of the install. Unhook the battery to prevent electrical problems at the very least.

Remove the diverter valve (DV) from the intake and the aluminum recycle tube from the turbo. Remove the aluminum heat shield between the engine and turbo. There is one nut and two clips holding it.

The CPS is located on the lower left front of the engine, near the transmission and behind the catalytic converter. You might spray the one Torx screw with some liquid wrench.

Use a T30 Torx bit and whatever contraption you can find in the way of a wrench setup that fits the area to remove the one screw on the lower right of the CPS heat shield. I used a small ratcheting “L” shaped screwdriver to loosen the screw and then used my fingers an a 3/8in Torx socket once the screw was loose.

The heat shield will come off with the screw. The Crankshaft position sensor will come out with a slight twisting/rocking motion as you pull. Follow the cable to the right of the throttle body near the firewall. The connector was the first of three in a row (light blue in the photo below). It unhooks like all SAAB connectors, with a small screwdriver prying the red lock loose. There is a metal cuff that holds the cable to a pipe midway between the CPS and the connector. It can be pulled off with your fingers.

Clean the hole where the CPS goes and make sure the rubber washer on the old CPS is out. You don’t want two washers in that hole.

Push the new crankshaft position sensor into the hole. It will go most of the way with little effort, but a hard push/twisting motion will be needed to completely seat it. Really cram it in there and line up the screw holes as best as you can. You will want to thread the screw without the shield first, just to make sure your holes are lined up first. Then remove the screw again, add the heat shield, and re-thread the screw back into place. This will take some effort and time. The screw will not want to start threading and the area is really tight.

Once the screw is finger tight, use your T30 size Torx wrench setup to tighten it the rest of the way.

Re-route the wire bundle back to its cradle next to the throttle body and install the metal cuff  onto the cable/pipe. Reconnect the cable to the car, install the battery, heat shield, and everything else removed for this project. Clean up the area, put your tools away, and start the car.

Craftsman Torque Wrench

I borrowed a torque wrench from my father. He had the original packaging, including the insert card.

Empty Parking Lot

I love the empty parking lots during the summer session at school. Too bad the eight-week classes have to be three hours a night. I’ve been catching up on some remedial classes before entering graduate school next year. It’s strange going back to school and being ten years older than most of the other students.

SAAB Related Roundup

I’ve been bad about having things to post here, but not getting around to posting them. A lot of these items don’t really need their own post. I figure I’ll post them all and save some time.

New Direct Ignition Cassette:

My cassette was not part of the recent recall, but I was getting the usual misfire codes that signal a DIC on the way out. So I bit the bullet and purchased a new cassette. No more CEL and the car now runs so much smoother that I’m embarrassed I let it go without repair for what little time I did.

Update on Harrah’s Car Museum Shirt:

I received a brown envelope that was either originally purchased along with the t-shirt or it came with the t-shirt, I’m not sure which. I’m updating that post, but wanted to share anyways.

Tornado Warning:

I’m what I suspect is one of the few people in the world who have worked on a SAAB during a tornado warning. The sirens went off as I was installing the ignition cassette. I finished up, went inside, turned on the TV. I found my wife in the basement, but she was unaware of the tornado warning because she was playing video games very loudly at the time. Naturally I also went outside and took some photos of the “scary looking clouds” overhead. We got horizontal rain, light wind damage, and a little road flooding; but the radar indicated tornado never materialized. Not that I’m complaining.

And finally,

Reverse Diverter Valve

I purchased some silicone vacuum line along with the new ignition cassette so I could replace the line on the DV. This also gave me the extra length I needed to install the DV in reverse, as recommended in THE GREAT Diverter Valve FACE OFF. This has made a huge improvement in the sound of the DV releasing. I suggest anyone looking to get that “turbo sound” from their T7 SAAB to first get an open air intake, and second get a performance diverter valve installed in reverse. I’ll be updating my DV and intake posts to add this information.

SAAB Road Trip

The wife and I were invited by the local Widows Sons Motorcycle Association to join them on a trip to a marble factory. That is “marble”, as in a small glass ball. The association members rode up and we followed them to Bonner Springs, Kansas and the Moon Marble Company. This was actually our first real road trip in the year and a half with the SAAB.

We went on a tour of the studio where they make the marbles, watched a marble being crafted, and then we gathered for a lesson in playing marbles. At the end of the tour we were each given a tube to fill with any marbles we liked.

Here are two signs of how far from home we were: A hill and another SAAB, both very rare where we live.

I highly recommend a visit to the Moon Marble Company if you ever find yourself near Bonner Springs, Kansas.

DV Whistle Mod, Proof of Concept

This is a proof of concept for a DV Whistle Mod. This is not a joke post, I really did all this, but I want to make it clear that I do not regularly drive around with this whistle DV. I’ll stick to my Forge DV. This was only done to follow a train of thought and it happened to work, so I’m posting it here if someone wants to build on these ideas.

This is a stupid story, so bare with me. I was watching The Fast and The Furious and the Hollywood  designed sound effects of the BOVs in that movie got me wondering the same thing every other person on SAABCentral seems to post, “How can I get more “BOV”/Turbo sound from my 9-5″. (open air intake is the correct answer to this question, btw)

So I took my old Bosh DV and some Mighty Putty and looked up instructions for clay whistles online. I used those designs as the base for putting a whistle inside a DV. I installed the whistle DV and took the car around the block. The thing worked. It is not as loud as the BOVs in the movie, not even as loud as a real BOV, but it did change the tone of the DV in a pleasant way. It was more than the sound of blowing across an empty bottle, but less than the sound of a person getting attention by whistling. I didn’t record audio of the test drive ( I wasn’t even sure if the car would run once I got out on the open road) and the design needs some polish to say the least.

Someone who has the open intake and still isn’t happy with the sound should pick up where I’ve left off. I’m not taking responsibility for any damage this modification might do if something goes wrong. The Mighty Putty holds strong, I wasn’t worried about it getting sucked into the mechanics of the vehicle or anything, but that doesn’t mean it wouldn’t make scrap metal out of a turbo if it got loose.

The tone was a very low whistle and I think I could dink with what I have so far and adjust the sound some. I might pick this back up some day and see what I can make out of this.

Yes, this is “stupid” and “ghetto” as-is,but I think the design could be adjusted and if it was fabricated professionally some people would buy it.

SAAB Sighting

Silver 9-5 that lives in my neighborhood.

Nuerburgring Webcam

Nuerburgring Webcam

SAAB Sighting

A white 9-3 in front of me in traffic.