My Mother has a Saab 93, and she loves it. However, for the past few months, she drives it and make several stops. After the second or third stop, the car just dies. Fifteen to twenty minutes later, it starts right up. She has taken it to the dealer and they replaced the crank sensor…didn’t help. Other repair folks say they cannot help unless they are there when the problem occurs.
It is not consistent…seems to happen randomly, though at first we thought it was just in warmer weather…not the case. It happened yesterday…she lives on long Island NY…not warm now.
Mom is 77 years old…loves the car and honestly, I want her to keep this car (less than 47K on it). My brothers are suggesting she get a new car. But she doesn’t want that and I don’t want her to get a car, at this point, that she doesn’t feel comfortable with…we just need to figure this problem out.
Any advice??
I am having the same problem w my 2001 9-3. See my post Saab intermittent no-start. If I figure it out, or get any hot tips, I will pass along. Please do same. So far I have replaced the starter relay (cheap ($15) and very easy) and also the electrical portion of the ignition switch ($150 and a pain).
The first step should be getting someone to pull codes on it since there could be something there affecting a primary circuit in either the ignition or fuel pump system.
There may be codes stored even when the Check Engine Light is off.
AutoZone, Advance, Checkers, etc. will do this for you free. Get this done and post any results back here for discussion.
One question though. When it will not start has she tried starting it with the accelerator pedal depressed? I’m wondering if since this car is 8 years old with such a low number of miles on it if the Idle Air Valve could be grunged up. Low mileage and light use can do this.
At this point it’s hard to say what the problem is since we do not know if it is fuel or spark related, and even those are intertwined to some degree.
Hope that helps.
I have a 2001 9-3 with same problem- you turn the key to start, all of your interior/exterior lights work fine but nothing happens under the hood! 5, 10, 30 minutes pass and then it will start. It has been driving me nuts too (see my post under Saab no start). I think I have finally figured out the problem- check the neutral safety switch (same part perhaps as the gear sensor and thanks to Expert cartalk bloggers for turning me on to this- ok4450). This component bolts onto the top of your transmission and lets the car know if it is in park, neutral, etc. If it doesn’t think you are in either P or N, then guess what, no elctricity gets to the starter. Try cycling your gear selector a bunch of times to see if you can then get it to start in either P or N. In trying to diagnose my problem, I have changed the starter relay, and the electrical portion of the ignition- no luck. Do a google search for Saab Neutral Safety Switch- parts sell online for about $350, but check this site for best price at $317 http://www.thesaabsite.com/93/93transmission.htm It should take your mechanic slightly more than 1 hour to do the labor. Good luck- hope it helps