UKSaabs

The car has turned 115,800 miles now, have done 5.5K in the last 7 weeks, obviously motorway of the majority of it.

Economy has been great, averaging 56mpg overall at the moment, decent power from 1800rpm.

I checked the swirl flap bar when I bought the car, it was in place as should be.
Yesterday I drove back from Bristol in the dark, lots of stop start traffic on the M5. When I gave it some throttle in any gear and looked in my rear view mirror I could see a lovely cloud of soot/smoke due to the headlights of the cars behind me. Not turbo related, definitely soot.

After I had drained the water and refilled with engine with anti freeze and water, I had a check of the swirl flap. The bar was lying on the manifold. Grrrr.
Haven't had any error messages, the cylinder three swirl flap (the control one) seemed ok, the other three moved freely.
The plastic connectors look pretty worn, but still clicked on ok, but feels pretty feeble.

I'm assuming the fact that the cylinder three flap is working fine is the reason why I've not had any error messages (I did use my ODBii reader with Torque Pro).
It has run well over the past few weeks.

What are your thoughts? Leave it as is, do the mod (but I assume that means having to take the manifold off, and don't fancy wrestling with the fuel pump) or any other suggestions?

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2007 Derv Dame Vector Sport

Think I've answered my own question, just ordered a set of four brass connectors.
Less than a tenner for them, worth a try.

Anyone had experience of fitting these?

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2007 Derv Dame Vector Sport

I bought the bar with the brass connectors already fitted, it was a PIA to fit but its now been on for 12 months/10000 miles without any issues.

Cheers ferritt, was hoping someone had done the same job.

These are the ones I have coming:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/151087231742?_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

I have to knock the black plastic parts off, then attach these. Suppose the difficult bit is refitting back on the manifold, esp with the tight new join.

Looks like a bit of swearing and fiddling next weekend.......

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2007 Derv Dame Vector Sport

The connectors look the same as mine but i was lazy and bought the complete bar with them already fitted.

My DIY installation was as follows.

1. I dis-connected the glow plug wires to gain some space.
2. I tied a bit of string to each end of the the new bar and manouvered it roughly into position, beware due to the shape of the cam cover there is a right and wrong way, it's handed.
3. Using a screwdriver i then aligned all the swirl flaps into the same position as number 3, the one with the actuater.
4. Now comes the tricky part, trying to get the bar onto the swirl flaps, this took me about 2 hours trying to manouvre the bar using the string and a screwdriver to locate it onto the swirl flaps without moving them out of position. I was just about to take a hammer to the car when it suddenly when on, i pushed the connectors fully on with the driver, put the glow plug leads back on and tested, all good.

After fitting i noticed that the car picked up much earlier, pulled better and didn't smoke as much.

I was either lucky or cunning. I used the repair kit listed above, and it actually took me no more than about half an hour. I didn't disconnect any wiring.

I lined up all the flaps in the same orientation before putting the bar back in under the plumbing.

There is a hole in the link rod that you can get a piece of hooked coat-hanger wire through, and I used this to manoeuvre the bar into the right position, lining up the number one pivot first and then pushing each of the others into place with a long, flat screwdriver.

_________________
I had a meteoric career.
Meteors plummet in flames.
Career is what happens when you lose control.

That's a good tip, using the middle hole and a coat hanger! Cheers.
I removed the glow plug cables for cylinder one and four when I re-attached the bar today.
An assuming the brass parts will be far more difficult to click on than the worn plastic ones on at the moment....... Should be fun.

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2007 Derv Dame Vector Sport

Can you not disabled the swirl flaps like on many other cars and put a resister in the plug so ecu does see a fault.

The flaps can be removed and filled with metal "plugs", leaving the actuator connected, this keeps the ECU thinking that the flaps are operational, but I don't fancy the job of removing the manifold to do the job.
Not at the moment anyway. Will see how this modification of the bar goes.

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2007 Derv Dame Vector Sport

What's the SP on the flaps on these ?

I done this mod on my 330d after reading all the scaremongering !!!
What's the mechanics on the flaps ? As just got the car .

The BM , the bar connected to the servos run from a vac controlled motor ..

A company called PMW , made ally blanks , the flaps and servos removed , then blanked with the ally plugs , I also removed the long bar from e motor and left plugged in so ECU still thinks there there .

On bmw , they claimed from 2006 ,, the flaps were covered in a rubber skeleton to prevent that tiny grub screw going anywhere if it did come loose , this is after they said there were no probs with swirlflsps falling apart and getting digested and totalling an engine !!
PMW , had found even with the later type , they were still failing ..
My 2005 , had the later , I found when I removed manifold .. I still removed and blanked ..

I think as a precautionary , if your EGR is regularly cleaned , every year as I done on Bm , it stayed relatively clean but I will add , a good mile muncher keeps them clean , a town driven car will clog up in no time and these are the cars that suffer ..
IMO that , that any diesel car , not doing the miles will have Egr related issues with clogged up manifolds , swirl flaps failing , albeit stuck or falling apart to dpf failing

This job looks pretty easy on this 1.9 to what the 330d engine was .. That did take. Few hours ...

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SAAB 9-3 1.9 TID vector sport wagon
Met black /Teapot mapped /Egr delete

Plenty of issues with the swirl flaps and manifold/egr in general.
I've had this engine in four different cars, all with similar issues (2x Alfa 159s, 1x Alfa GT and in the Saab).

Like you said, if these engines are used for town driving then they clog very very easily. But as mine is already at 115K and used for plenty of motorway miles (did over 1000 mile this week....) then it should be fine.

The manifold can clog up, causing various running issues and ECU codes. The EGR clogs up and stops low end power, they are so cheap to buy now, £35 each I've seen new ones for. And the swirl flaps have a few issues, the bar dropping off and causing smoke/low end power loss and even CEL codes. They can also fail and be dragged through the intake system, as happened in my last Alfa, in the middle of France....not good!

Remedies are relatively simple:

EGR blanking plate to restrict the build up of soot (fitted these to my first 159 and to the GT)
Swirl flap bar mod, as I'm doing next weekend, stopping it from dropping off and causing issues.
Swirl flap removal and blanking, leaving the actuator connected so the ECU believes all is operational.
Fit a revised manifold, but these are still prone to issues.

Think I will take the EGR off and clean it up next weekend, when I fit the new flap bar. Am dreading seeing how gunked up the manifold is when I get the EGR off.............

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2007 Derv Dame Vector Sport

Will look forward to your results and how it looked , as you say , you do the miles ,
When I got the 330d , I don't think the EGR had ever been off , it was on 57k so more likely never. When I took that off. It resembled a jar of marmite !!!

A soak in oven cleaner over night , carb cleaner , tooth brush ( wife's) !!! 3m paper , it come up like new with the valve working perfectly and what a difference that made .
I also run some Wynns EGR in the tank plus the spray through the inlet ..

Doing 60 m/way a day 7 days a week , it does keep them clean , the following clean on next service , there was hardly any build up .

I think the EGR is the root cause if not maintained , once that's bunged , airflow is restricted then blocks up manifold , flaps etc

Seems this swirl flap mare is across the board then , but I stick to my guns on this , a clean EGR with good mile munching is a good fitness regime for the Diesel engine

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SAAB 9-3 1.9 TID vector sport wagon
Met black /Teapot mapped /Egr delete

See you mention egr's are quite cheap
Yes just looked , wow , I shall be getting one and swap , then clean old one up and swap every service ..

Am on 66k , just got the car , in the service notes , it's already had a new valve and manifold cleaned as previous owner reported loss of power and E light on ..
Must have gone into limp , this was done last year

I must say , I have not noticed any smoke from this , even when booted , where I would normally expect it ;-/ but this has the dpf , not had one of these b4 , does that reduce the smoke when booting it ?

This is my smallest engine car ever lol , we also have a 2003 C270 CDi auto with 176k ..runs like a dream , but boy does that kick some cloud out when you boot it

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SAAB 9-3 1.9 TID vector sport wagon
Met black /Teapot mapped /Egr delete

When I had the Alfas EGR valves were £100+! Couldn't believe the price after driving a petrol Saab Aero and two petrol Beemers for the past 3 years......

I've never seen these engines chuck out smoke/soot that can be that obviously seen in the daytime, it was only the other night that I saw the soot cloud as I'd booted it. Easier to see in the rear mirror when set against car headlights.

DPF wise I've only ever had one problem with a limp mode, but that was after the 159 (same 1.9 derv engine as the Saab) had sat for a week, then used to tootle around town for a few weeks.
Manual regen and was fine.

As long as the engine gets to temp and is used on long runs, like yours and mine, they are generally pretty sorted.

I'm on 115K, so the manifold should be fun to look at! Mind you, the top of the engine was replaced at 80K due to a seized water pump, so hopefully isn;t that manky. Fingers crossed........

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2007 Derv Dame Vector Sport

Mind you, the mpg is pretty good with the flap bar correctly fitted, got this down the M5 and back today. 70mph.

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2007 Derv Dame Vector Sport

Cool ..
That's what I need to check , the fuel consumption , don't realy pay attention to it , have noticed the stat temp is a little lazy .. Coup,e of weeks ago when it was wRm , coming home down the m4 it would go to middle and sit there .. Now temp has dropped a little , it don't even get to Central .

. I know D's are slow in comp to petrol but I'm now thinking stats not opening properly and sticking .. I'm getting warm air but after 30 miles from home to work , m/way , you would expect that to be at 90 degs or near enough ..

Thsts what worries me with these dpf's .. But I am doing the long runs so hopefully ok , but will get stat looked at when I get cambelt and pump done ... Kill 2 birds

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SAAB 9-3 1.9 TID vector sport wagon
Met black /Teapot mapped /Egr delete

Thermostat is pretty easy on these, right hand side of the block, to the left of the fuse box.

Mine split a pipe on the M40 the other day, no heating at all, then the temp gauge hit the roof after 50 miles or so. Steam etc from under the bonnet, nice RAC man fitted a new pipe, refilled and was back up and running. Phew.

I'm pretty sure mine has been mapped, has a significant boost in 3/4/5 and the economy is much better than I've seen in these engines. Even if I give it some wellie up and down the M43/M40 then some country lanes I'm still able to manage over 630 miles a tank, around 55mpg average.

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2007 Derv Dame Vector Sport

If you are not up to middle temp within about 10 miles, definitely something amiss.

When mine did this, it was thermostat, but also the heater bypass valve can malfunction and aggravate the situation - mine was replaced as it was leaking. Common issue, easy to fix.

_________________
I had a meteoric career.
Meteors plummet in flames.
Career is what happens when you lose control.

Cheers. I'm sat in car now , ( school pick up ) Been running for about 15 mins , temp is just on first notch !!!
I'm getting warm air , Deffo stat issue , needs changing as its lazy then , would the temp sender sensor also be at fault instead of stat ????

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SAAB 9-3 1.9 TID vector sport wagon
Met black /Teapot mapped /Egr delete

Can't answer that as I don't know what the sensor's mode(s) of failure may be.

_________________
I had a meteoric career.
Meteors plummet in flames.
Career is what happens when you lose control.