2000 saab 95 wagon

[lrhepp]

I brought my car in for the 70,000 mi service and was experiencing 2 problems, one related to the heating and the other the air conditioning. I asked them to check this out ( I was charged $124 diagnostic fee) and received a startling phone call from the dealer 4 hours later. I'm hoping someone out there can help me out! Here's what they told me:

The left heater and distribution motor flaps are loose/jammed. Rod is cracked and flap is stuck. Will need a new dist. assembly. 18 hrs. labor=$2600.

AC:loose bearings in the compressor, recommend replacing a/c compressor=$1600

Call me crazy but If I wanted a piece of crap car, I would've bought a KIA for 10K with a 100K bumper to bumper warranty. Anyone out there have any experience dealing with SAAB or this particular problem? I'd greatly appreciate any feedback.

[SaabJohan]

Saab buys their AC compressors lika all other car manufacturers, it's a Denso 7SB16, or at least it was in the earlier models.

Don't think heater problems are that common but of course it can happen.

[mbunakeith]

oh no...heater problems are very common to 9-5's. we fix them every week. your left flap jammed and the motor broke the flap. the only way to fix it is to completely remove the heater box and replace the upper portion of the box. the estimate you were given is pretty much right on. although i think the $125 labor rate is a bit high. see if you can haggle the price. some dealers will do this. also, with the compressor, they are japanese and are good units. the only problem is they get overworked. the acc system likes to run it all the time and this makes them more prone to failure. in the future, only run the a/c compresor when necesary and the comp. will last longer. sometimes i have seen BG a/c system quiet oil repair a noisey compressor. it is an oil the technicians can inject in the system and it can help compressors that are not damaged too badly. it may be worth a try.