I own a 2002 9-5 wagon and I’ve had this problem for a year,I’ve had three dealerships look at it all with the same answer. There’s no blue smoke and Saabs are known for plumage because of the turbo, especially after sitting. The color and plumage are becoming more and more prominent/noticeable and frequent. Upon reading sluggish saab’s question, my question now stands…Is it the turbo? The smoke is more noticeable the warm weather. I have excellent pick up and haven’t noticed anything sluggish with the turbo. Any thoughts?
Thanks!
if this plume is at start up it most likely is valve stem seals.
Belching smoke on startup is not normal for SAABs, turbo or no turbo.
Your post is unclear to me.
The title of your post says “blue smoke” and the text says “There’s no blue smoke”.
What color is it?
I too am unclear as to when the blue plume is occurring. I know that a (now retired) coworker’s Saab always blows blue smoke upon acceleration when it’s cold, but since he’s an ASE certified Master Tech with more patches than Carter has little liver pills I figure if he’s happy, why mention it?
If I’m understanding the post correctly and your’s is blowing only upon startup I’m inclined to agree that it’s the valve stem seals. Small amounts of oil can leak down past the seals from the galleys in the heads while the engine sits and sit on the back of the valves waiting to be drawn into the cylinder and burned.
It definitely sounds like leakdown of oil past the valve stems. When you start up the car, this accumulated oil burns off. Once you get going, it does not leak fast enough to be visible. I found a good way to test is to take your foot of the gas pedal at highway speed and watch in the rear view mirror. If you have serious leakdown, the piston suction will suck oil past the valve seals into the engine.
To me the color appears blue, however I am told that it isn’t blue enough to indicate an oil problem.