My Aero has always started with no problems. Yesterday I drove it with no problems. Today I went to start it and it appeared the battery was nearly dead. (And nothing was left on overnight, no dome lights, etc.) At first it wasn't turning over the engine at all. I was desperate so I held the switch in "ignition" position for several seconds. The battery was clearly very low -- clicking noises under the hood, panel displays flickering out, etc. After doing this for several seconds the engine started to turn, and after a few turns it fired up. Once it was running, everything was fine.
I drove it for about 15 miles to give it a chance to charge, then tried it again. No change. So it appears that either my battery had a sudden and catastrophic failure, or my ignition or charging system has gone kaflooey, or something along those lines.
One additional note: when it started, the ACC panel lit up with a bright "0" on the left side, then changed to a bright "1" on the left and "22" on the right, then went to normal display. Not sure what that indicated.
Naturally this happened on Saturday of a long weekend. My dealer's service dept won't be open until Monday; same with the Saab "Ownership Issues" hotline. The roadside assistance line is open, but can't offer any help other than towing the car Monday morning.
What should I do? I may *have* to drive the car tomorrow (Sunday), and with luck I hope to get it into the dealer (a 65mi drive) on Monday. There's a dealer in town (~12mi away) if I have to, but I've been told their service dept isn't the greatest.
The manual isn't clear whether it's safe to jumpstart a 9-5 Aero. (The roadside assistance person said it's NOT safe to jump a 2003 9-3, but she hadn't heard of problems with 9-5's.) It's not even clear that jumping would help. Jumping helps a low-battery situation. If the battery was just low, I would expect it to get worse with each start. But I started it
3 times today, and each time the starting behavior was basically identical. It doesn't seem to be acting like a dying battery.
Am I likely to damage anything by driving it, or by jumping it, or...? Is it likely to strand me when I'm trying to drive my kids around?
Thanks! Gary