Generation Specific > Other Car Projects (Non-Rotary)
The rest of the fleet...
toplessFC3Sman:
Helen & I just bought a Mazda5 to use as a much more practical car for moving, with the dogs, when camping, and for any work at this house that we're trying to buy. Its a 2006, manual transmission, well taken-care-of, 112k miles, and only minor rust issues that I'll be addressing soon.
murz:
Looks very roomy for all that space it has. Doesn't look like 112k miles either, nice find!
toplessFC3Sman:
Well, the Mazda5 has just earned it's name... Bessie. That car is stubborn as a mule.
We bought her knowing that the blower motor wasn't working. I've done both the RX-7 & the Saab, and in both cases getting to the blower motor & resistor packs was pretty straightforward. With Bessie, I was disassembling the interior for about 2 1/2 hours before even finding the blower motor, resistor pack, and associated wiring. It's buried so deep in the dash, I can't see how to get to it without removing the rest of the dash. The workshop manual (which i studied in a lot more depth after locating the motor) says it's possible... we'll see.
After a number of hours messing around with it, and vacuuming accumulated leaves, a mouse nest, and other debris from the HVAC system & cowl, I'm putting away tools & cleaning up when I go to open the passenger's side sliding door. It opens about 6", slams into something, and pops off it's track. Turns out that there is a cable that runs from the gas door to the sliding door, so that if the gas door is not closed all the way, a piece of metal comes out to block the sliding door from opening into the filler nozzle. Definitely a good idea, if it works... Of course, the gas door doesn't stay closed at all due to a stuck cable, and that piece of metal de-rails the sliding door instead of just stopping it, which means another hour and a half of figuring out what happened, pulling apart the door, part of the side of the van, and some more interior to fix it, and the door doesn't feel like it moves smoothly anymore. Well... crap.
Me and Bessie... we need to come to an understanding pretty soon...
toplessFC3Sman:
Bessie & I got along a bit better this weekend... First up was the blower motor
The motor itself was definitely the problem. It looks like it had possibly gotten stuck at one point and the shaft was spinning inside the squirrel cage, heating up until it partially melted through. After melting, the cage was no longer aligned and was hitting the side of the housing, preventing the whole thing from spinning.
Getting the motor out was difficult, but getting the new one in was the hardest part. No pictures, since I could either fit my arm up under the dash or have a line-of-sight to see what was going on, but not both at once. I was able to get it in place using the alignment pin in the motor and housing, and hold it there by shoving a blanket & cardboard in on the squirrel-cage side to brace against the cowl opening (from the passenger's side). The motor needed to be firmly held in place in the correct position, otherwise the locking ring that secures the motor in place from the drivers side won't engage. Actually getting that ring up there and in position was another ordeal of maneuvering it one-handed around everything in the way, and finally getting it lined up by feel. All-in-all, the whole thing took about 5 hours, with 2 of those spent finding where the motor was (before looking at the FSM), 30 min getting the motor out, and 2 1/2 hrs getting the new one in.
Since the dash was apart, I decided to try to add an Aux Input & USB charger to the car, so that we can charge our phones & listen to music/audiobooks etc on longer drives. Following some instructions & looking up the radio's wiring diagram, its working well! Audio quality sounds very clear regardless of whether the phone is charging or not. I also added a pocket where the blank panel/cassette player would otherwise live to hold the phone or MP3 player.
toplessFC3Sman:
Helen & I did one of SCCA's track nights at Gingerman last wednesday, and it was a lot of fun. We went in the Saab, and about 1/2 way through my last session the brakes went to the floor. I coasted the rest of the way in, & Helen did her last session while taking it easy on the brakes. We drove home, and I used the car to get to work on Friday, but the brakes felt very strange, spongy, and the driver's side was dragging progressively more. Well... I took them apart this weekend, and there were some serious problems...
The pads themselves were disintegrating...
The backing plates had bent...
And the caliper piston itself had melted and come apart at the surface that presses on the brake pad...
This happened on both sides, but the driver's side was a little worse. Anyhow, new calipers have been ordered (only available in the UK... hmm, running into Saab parts shortages?), i'm going to get the rotors turned, and hopefully by next weekend I'll have it back together. In the mean time, I'm DDing the 7 again, with the coolant seal seeping away and the window motor dead again.
In other news, my sister-in-law also just bought a 2006 Saab 9-3, wagon, and we've been working on it to take care of any issues it had. This weekend was dropping the fuel tank to replace the level sender & pump, replacing all the fluids, filters, plugs etc, taking care of some rust, and generally giving the car a once-over. Good thing we did too, since both front springs had rusted off the lower coil and one was precariously perched on the anti-roll bar. New parts now on the way to take care of that soon too.
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