Complaint filed with NHTSA: 2003 9-3 stalls during cruising

Loss of power assist does not mean loss of braking or steering. Any (competent) driver should be prepared to handle his car (of any make) without power assist.

Except when it isn't there when you expect it to be, it comes as one hell of a surprise, and can take a second or two to react.

Yup, it's a good idea to try it once to experience how it feels.

I know when the Servo started leaking on my 900. First time (when I didn't know it had happened) I got to the end of the back alley where I park. pushed on the brakes where I normally would, and the car kept going. Managed to make it round the corner (junction) gradually slowing and panicing, luckily no one was coming along then.

Had to go round the block to the other entrance to the back alley. By the time I had gotten there I had normal brakes.

So, next morning when I left for work, after starting the engine, pushed on te pedal, and it was rock hard. Pushed it down and held it, and you could hear it leaking/sucking in until it sank as normal (sometimes stallign the car a couple of times, and for different lengths of time depending on the temps). Had to do that every morning, and it would be fine for the rest of the day. Even passed the MOT.

Fitted a scrapyard servo, and it was fine after that.

I haven't heard much hub-bub about it. Looks legit as the NHTSA is not known for posting nonsense. But, I can't imagine what reprogramming the dealers are doing to fix it. You might want to purchase a subscription to

FWIW, Saab is known for their particular care and excess in issuing recalls for anything mildly safety related, "customer satisfaction" campaigns for any mistakes they made even if not covered under the warranty, and TSB's for just about anything they think might help a mechanic solve a consumer problem. There've been many cases reported here of folks getting Saab to pay for repairs or partial pay after the 4/50 warranty has run out when it looked like it was not a consumer problem. I've never seen a company that exhibited this level of responsibility towards their customers.

Depends what your are used to driving. When I had a Ford, the engine would stall and I lost power assist and power brakes. This happened often enough that I got used to it. I was dumb - I bought another Ford. This one had total brake failure twice. It was stopped by the car in front - fortunately it was a manual transmission and I could slow it down with the engine and "emergency brake". The next car was a Volvo, which I still have.

In article , ma snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com spouted forth into alt.autos.saab...

Oh yeah, I have in the past driven cars that came without power/servo assistance, they were fairly light low tune cars, and they were fine.

I guess I would get used to it if the Servo went permanently. The saab is the first car I've owned with power anything other than the brake servo.

I tried to turn the wheel with the engine off. I know there is a lot of weight upthere, but I can't believe I've become such a wimp in the last year, the Skoda Favorit (front engined) and the Skoda 120L I had previously both had none power steering, and I managed to drive them, even at manouvering speeds with small sports steering wheels fine, but I can barley move it in the Saab.

It's not just a function of the weight - gearing ratio, tires... fact is many cars simply have not been engineered for humans to turn the streering wheel without servo assistance.

...pablo

Or the opposite. My Mom once had a car "updated" to add power steering. Since it had been designed for manual steering, and it was an American car (traditionally ridiculously easy to steer with power) it was incredibly easy to steer. No road feel at all, but you could steer it with a pinky even when parking. The downside was that there were way too many turns lock to lock since they apparently didn't switch the steering gears to the PS version.