bars leaks

Well, sure, but keep in mind that it's job is to stop water from flowing through small places...and your radiator and heater core, are small places where you want water flowing.

Righty-tighty, lefty-loosey?

Bars Leaks does wonders to small dripping leaks in a cooling system such as the water pump. I wouldn't use it if your cooling system has no leaks. Pour measured quantity into the expansion tank.

in article snipped-for-privacy@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com, es at snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com wrote on 23/06/2005 17:51:

Yes, you can ... But ...

Do you have a leak? If so, do you know where the system is leaking from? If you do you'll be better off remedying the problem at source rather than masking the problem with an internal leak stopper product.

SAABs have a very complex cooling system, with lots of little branches and junctions on small bore pipes and tubes. The turbo is also water cooled on the models from about the early '90s. A product like the one you mention _could_ end up creating blockages in the system.

I know you've flushed the system, but how effective was that? If there's

*any* rust left in the system, that will congeal with the leak product and cause a blockage.

If your car is running hot, it can be one of three things:

1. Ineffective radiator.
2. Blockages in the cooling system.
3. Throttle stopped too far open.

In any case, pouring a 5 quid product into the expansion tank is not going to help. Sorry ... No miracle cures. Bars leaks does an excellent job of sealing up leaks for a short while until you can get your car in at a garage to have the problem dealt with properly. That's really what it's for.

Tips? No thanks, I smoke roll-ups ;)

Pah! Can't do that joke anymore, since I gave up smoking a couple of years ago. Erm, just unscrew it, and pop a new one in. A little plumbers' tape around the thread won't do any harm.

Paul

Var tog vägen vägen? SAAB : Nothing on earth comes close

1987, +/- 1 year.

Can you explain that last one, Paul? Also, I'd add:

1. Cooling fan not running correctly

Dave Hinz

in article snipped-for-privacy@individual.net, Dave Hinz at snipped-for-privacy@spamcop.net wrote on 23/06/2005 20:27:

Yeah, the Garrett TB0358 chargers were watercooled, but I was also thinking more of the Mitsubishi chargers.

My last C900 was in a bit of a sorry state when I first got her. It ran very warm. The radiator, cooling system and fan all seemed to be working okay, but the idle was a little high. I found that setting up the throttle correctly (turn the grub screw down until it touches the butterfly and then screw a further third of a turn) did the trick. The mixture needed looking over too, of course.

I suppose lean mixtures can also lead to high running temperatures.

Of course Bosch controlled cars should be able to compensate a little for throttle position and mixture issues.

Duh! Yup. Cars with air-conditioning or climate control, especially so!

Paul

Var tog vägen vägen? SAAB : Nothing on earth comes close

I'm confused. How does the idle stop screw (yes?) adjustment matter, on a car that running down the road? It's not idling then; that screw doesn't enter into it. The '86 I'm driving these days is running hot and has a high idle, but I can't see any relation. I can back it down though, but I think the heat problem is that the fan bearings are making rattly noises and I need a different fan (or to wire the other one in).

I'm dissapointed you didn't make the obvious observation.

in article snipped-for-privacy@individual.net, Dave Hinz at snipped-for-privacy@spamcop.net wrote on 23/06/2005 20:46:

I see what you're saying ... I spend a lot of my time in idling traffic. That was my issue. When driving, yes, fine. Stuck in gridlock with a high idle is no fun ... and hot!

No worries ... Strike that one. Let's promote cooling fan not running to number 3. ... Or 4. ;)

The missing number 4. ? Warm weather? Lack of coolant? Water pump not running? Blown fuse?

You shouldn't be disappointed. I'm a beginner, after all. I've learned a lot from owning three C900s upon which I have attempted most jobs. I've learned a lot from web resources and from questioning my mechanics. I suppose when general semantics get in the way of communication, one tends to say "this is how it is", rather than "perhaps it could be ...".

So, perhaps it could be ... :)

Still, dropping a vial of Bars Leaks into the system is unlikely to be helpful in this circumstance. I fear we might have confused the matter now.

Paul

Var tog vägen vägen? SAAB : Nothing on earth comes close

I'll drop the idle & see if that changes things. I suspect it won't, but it should be fixed anyway. It was set high to compensate for the HUGE vacuum leak, caused by the usual "newbie owner takes dash out to poorly install radio, and pulls vacuum hose cluster and heater control rod off of where they should be" mistake that the previous owner made.

There is no 4 ;)

That's the one. Saw it during proorfeeding, but decided not to rix it.

Naah, nothing like that. Your 900 knowledge is top-notch, I was just playing with words.

Agreed, on both counts. Don't do it, 'es'.

in article snipped-for-privacy@individual.net, Dave Hinz at snipped-for-privacy@spamcop.net wrote on 23/06/2005 21:05:

Hmmm! That's sound familiar proorfeeding

Caught that one :)

No, I'm one of the "there is no reason not to use NGK" people, but I will tweak that idle.

Better do it soon, it's supposed to be 92F (something like 35C) tomorrow.

How about "rix"?

Dave

in article snipped-for-privacy@individual.net, Dave Hinz at snipped-for-privacy@spamcop.net wrote on 23/06/2005 21:27:

... However, a seasoned SAABer will know to remove the LHS speaker grille to get the temperature control arm back on ... Newbies prod into the dark, swearing, for several tens of minutes :(

My radiator has been "iffy" since winter, but I've shirked doing the replacement, finding all manner of other things to do in the evenings and weekends. I wish I had now. We're getting circa 30 degC weather over here at the moment, so I have to pick my routes carefully to ensure that I keep moving! I think my friendly mechanics at Aeromotive will get that dubious pleasure shortly :)

... The second time ...

Paul

Var tog vägen vägen? SAAB : Nothing on earth comes close

Unless you actually *have* a leak - pls *don't* !

But yes - that's kinda the place to add it if you really want to make a mess of your car.

Graham

8-) He he sounds familiar... The first time I took apart the dash of my C900 was quite an 'experience', but now it's routine and apart from the bugbear of needing to remove the left speaker each time I need to guide the heater control rod back into place on the control valve shaft (refer to "" for more info about C900heater control valve replacement), it's not too bad. lol 8-) One way to check the cooling system appears to be working is by starting the engine and feeling the hoses every few minutes as the coolant starts to heat up. You should feel the hoses to the heater control valve warm up first, then the big hose to to expansion tank. Then the big hose at the top of the radiator should begin to warm up as the coolant does it's job and heated coolant starts to appear at the top of the radiator.

What worries me about my C900's is that they both have the top radiator hose split half-way to install the additional thermo-switch housing that I believe is something to do with the air-conditioning controls (?).

Those hoses get extremely stressed because they're both short and set up as two 90-degree bends, and one of them is quite swollen just from age and use. I'm trying to find a place which sells 1.25" ID silicone 90-degree 3 or

4-ply hose bends but so far have had no luck - only 1.5" ones and they're too big.

Craig.

any of 5

1. Not enough coolant in the system.
2. bad head gasket.

(I'm sure some Life of Brian fans can come up with more...)

The difficult part with this is you're really just compensating for problems in other areas by fiddling with the idle setting. If, like my 1985 900i, you adjust the idle, it'll be wrong when the engine warms up (ie. too fast), or if you do it when the engine is warm, it'll be wrong (ie. too slow) when the engine is cold. What that does tell me though is that there is a problem elsewhere. Vacuum issues have been eliminated (after a long period of slowly checking each possible vacuum-related issue).

Can't comment on ignition leads. A lot of people here in Oz like Magnecor leads. The fact there is a subsidiary which makes them locally might help though - they're made to suit our conditions.

Nice and warm. Today here in Sydney it's just over 10C outside right now at

8.30 am. Yesterday it was 3.5 C in the morning and didn't get above 9.5 C all day here. I need to replace the starter in my C900 today - going to be fun doing it in the wind and the rain. 8-) Zap, Zap, zap... lol

Slight lack of a structure known as a garage so have to brave the elements to work on my cars...

Craig.

Bars Leaks is little fluffy pellets that will (a) block of parts of your radiator and (b) probably block off the reservoir bottle's feed to the radiator.

The stuff was > hey i just got a bottle of bars leaks for the antyfreez and it says to