Turbocharger oil line replacement -- advice needed

A novice question/solicitation of advice: I "inherited" a '91 900 turbo six months ago. In all, I think it runs beautifully.

Noticing its performance recently taking a turn for the worse, I discovered rapid oil loss and leakage at the left front of the engine compartment. (Equipped with a piece of cardboard, I estimate that the oil drips form a mostly "L" shape, with the long arm stretchin back a foot toward the left front wheel and the short arm running about eight inches toward the center of the car.)

A Saab mechanic's quick assessment is that the turbocharger lines are the culprit. He recommended replacement of the lines and estimated the cost at $750 (~ 4 hours of mechanic labor time).

At 227K miles and on a shoe-string student budget, I face a "repair-or-retire" choice. A repair choice will likely involve some elbow grease on my part, but, although I have motorhead friends to help, I'm a novice when it comes to this level of car repair. Is the level of technical difficulty too great to let this fix be a learning exercise? I must confess that I'm somewhat puzzled right off the bat. The mechanic estimates a parts cost of $150 per hose, but the parts listed on

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for this car ('91 900 Turbo 4 Cyl 2L : turbo) don't seem to jibe with the length of the oil stain, nor the mechanic's mention of hose replacement.

Any/all advice accepted -- including the suggestion to leave this one to the more experienced.

Thanks, Chad

Reply to
chadderboks
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skrev i en meddelelse news: snipped-for-privacy@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...

Did he now? he lines itself, are made of aluminum, and don't get holes in then, unless they're hammered on or bent. But the seals may be at fault. A new seals-set, from Saab, is about $30.-

Cheers!

Reply to
Henrik B.

If you mean left side from inside the car, Check the lines from just above the oil filter to down by the left hand front below the left hand headlight.

My 1984 T16 had an horrendous oil leak. It didn't affect performance, but it went through quite a bit. I didn't discover the probable cause of the leak, until the day I sold the car. While showing the new buyer round, I discovered that the left hand side engine mount and wishbone upper bushes, and lower wishbone bushes were coated with oil, but the drain plug was clean.

Moving forward of that, I discovered that the back of the oil cooler was coated too. It appears that somewhere down the cooler line, there was a leak, may have even been the cooler itself. It was fine unless it was pumping. And it reallys showed up when driving, as air moving down the cooler line blew oil all over the underside of the car and up the engine on the left hand side.

Reply to
Sleeker GT Phwoar

I heard they called that feature "DRP" (Dynamic Rust Proofing).

;-)

-Fred W

Reply to
Malt_Hound

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