97 9000 CSE Turbo timing chain replacement

He is totally correct.

Erm, yes.

He explained to me that the Saab Timing chains have an automatic tensioner and they are designed to last the life of the car. This guy is one of Denver's largest independent Saab repair shops and all they work on is Saab. In any case I won't worry about this till the car has 100k or more miles on it. 60k isn't the magic number with Saab like it is with other makes of cars.

There were some issues with some of the 2.3l engines, but it is by no means a cross-the-board issue. The chain does wear out, eventually - but not at 60k or 100k or even 200k; unless you have oil starvation issues.

Mile High has a good reputation, and for good reason.

Don't worry about it until you hear a rattling noise from that end of the engine, which is engine-speed dependant. 100K isn't a magic number either, for this. Chances are good that it'll never need attention for the life of the car.

Dave Hinz

My 1988 9000 has 253000 miles on the original chain.

And mine has 228k and no sound (2.0 engine).

So don't change the chain, unless you have the 2.3l which early models had problems with sprockets, _not_ with the chain.

There is actually a procedure to check if the cha>

All V6 engines used by Saab has timing belts (rubberbands), not chains. The belt must be changed at regular intervals to reduce the risk of a disaster. A chain is replaced when it is worn out and normally gives warning signs well in advance.

The chain in my 1984 T16S was swapped at 125k, not because it was rattling particularly (just a little), but because I was getting te tensioner replaced because it was of the old single instead of double bolt type. They had a look and reccomended changin the chain and top guide, but the sprockets were fine so they rolled the chain in, instead of going for the full replace and rebuild type install. Works great now.

125k isn't a long time either as others have said.

Tell that to this chap!

Without knowing a lot more about it, it's hard to say what caused his timing chain failure. The question being responded to was the wisdom of changing a chain at 80,000 miles or so, "just because". One guy having a chain go doesn't change the accuracy of the statement that they're typically good for several to many hundreds of thousands of miles, and aren't a part with a "just because" change interval.

I once had a tyre blow out, and it only had a couple of thousand miles on it! Since then, I make sure I change all my tyres at 1500 miles regardless of wear - I'd really hate to have another blowout.

Nope but neither are we in the land of bytes in a position to state that someone else's chain won't need changing either, all we can do is provide annecdotal evidence to suggest that:-

a) They go on forever b) Sometimes they don't c) Yours might need changing d) Yours might not need changing

:)

David.

"David Taylor" skrev i en meddelelse news: snipped-for-privacy@news.individual.de...

And he's driving a '91, which is a troublesome year model. The 9000 2.3 from '89 to '92 (incl.), has problem with weak gearwheels for the balancechain. So no wonder....

Cheers!

Who makes the V6 engines or where did they originiate? The Saab 4 cylinder use a chain and V6 uses a belt, which implies a different origin.

The V4 was a Ford V4. The V6 is GM.

2.5L V6 Saab 900 GM/Opel Germany 3.0L V6 Saab 9000 GM/Opel Germany 3.0L V6 Saab 9-5 GM/Vauxhall England

Excellent comparison! ;-)

___________________________

Grunff wrote:

The one you missed, e) If yours is going to need changing, you'll get a great deal of warning, and there's no reason to change it at any particular interval.

And the V4 uses timing gears. The I-3, of course, uses piston/port timing.