Have driven the Saab around a bit. Drove out to Georgetown on Wednesday to do title transfer and get temp tag. No drama, has run well and quieted down a little with the fresh engine oil.
There's still a lot of noise coming off the front of the engine, I'll probably need to replace some accessory belt pulleys, and I want to run the engine sans serpentine belt for a few moments to see what just the timing chain alone sounds like. I can also pull the main timing chain tensioner to get some idea of how much the chain has stretched-- if the tensioner has extended more than 11mm, the chain will definitely need a replacement.
Have seen some recurring P1171 (mixture too lean) codes, filled up on 91 octane, also added some gumout injector cleaner. Am not sure about the primary HO2S voltages I'm seening via OBD2, can sit in a normal range, but sometimes drops to 0.015v, which seems suspect. Not yet sure if it's the sensor or possibly a grounding/electrical issue.
Today I'm going to drain the old green coolant, circulate and drain water, and then replace with Zerex G-05 / distilled water coolant mix. On a grocery run in the saab with the rear cargo area loaded, noticed the bent wheel well flare was impacting edge of tire. Pounded it out a bit with a small sledgehammer yesterday and then sanded, rust-fixed, and zinc-primered it.. I'll probably try to do some minimal wax protection on the rest of the car with a liquid Meguier's wax product. Also am going to be starting on interior detailing, leather cleaner and leather conditoner passes.
But yeah, I'm not expecting turnkey reliability from a 15-year old Saab, but so far it seems well-built and worth maintaining. Surely easier than my roommate's 92 Audi 100 CS Quattro! My 900 SE is new enough to have OBD2, which should help, too, when things do go wrong. It's my third car, so I don't really need it to be too dependable.
