84' 900 Turbo

I'm new to Saabs and I'm considering the purchase of an 1984 Saab Turbo. I have 200K with meticulous service records. Transmission has been replaced.

Any advice on this purchase? What should I be looking for? What repairs is this model know to need etc?

Any help would be greatly appreaciated!

Thanks!

Reply to
Martin
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manual or auto? rust? It should be an 8V engine. The heads are prone to cracking on the exhaust side somewhere. How long ago was the tranny replaced. Who rebuilt it? Examine closely for rust where the lower right a-arm bolts to the body. Battery acid can etch and rust this point away.

The rest is pretty much the same as a '93 and parts are still available. Keep in mind that you are looking at a 22 year old car, so other things should be considered such as rubber rot on the suspension bushings and windshield surround. That said, a friend recently bought an '83T that looked pretty much as new and drove better than his 88.

KeithG

Mart> I'm new to Saabs and I'm considering the purchase of an 1984 Saab Turbo. I

Reply to
KeithG

I had an early 84 T16S. Very good car, but it had solid discs and the front handbrake like the 99, not the later setup like the 9000. Mean't the brakes sometimes felt a little over worked.

The handbrake/emergency brake on the front can be a pig for going out of adjustment.

Reply to
Elder

That's all very good advice. In general, being an older car things are always going to be decaying and providing you keep the car in good shape overall, with regular inspections by a Saab tech or another enthusiast who's really knowledgable, the car should be fine for many years.

The biggest bigbear with all the classic 900's is the transmissions. The autos are very expensive to replace but are ultra-reliable, while the manuals are not too costly, but they're not as tough and you'll see lots of discussions about failed transmissions and how to deal with the problem.

However, there are good points with this too. because the engine/transmission are attached, if you remove the engine to repair/replace the transmission, you can work on the engine too and some jobs which are really difficult to do with the engine in the car are a lot easier with it out of the car. It also gives you the chance to do jobs which can't be done with the engine in the car, but generally that's heavy-duty stuff which is best left to a trained Saab tech.

Keep an eye out for any areas of rust - places like the wheels arches are prone to rusting, and make sure you keep all the drain holes built into the body open so water doesn't get trapped inside joined together parts of body panelling. I'm dealing with the results of that on my 1983 turbo c900 at the moment, and on the white 900S too. It's definitely not very enjoyable to cut/grind/file/sand away rust then have to come up with a strategy to fix it, but it's an important task as sorting rust sooner instead of later makes fixing it easier and prolongs the overall live of the car.

Craig.

Reply to
Craig's Saab C900 Site

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