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i have an 2001 9-3-my oil light came on and the engine started making the dreaded "ticking" sounds and my oil light came on- my mechanic dropped the oil pan and found pieces of the #1 piston in the bottom of the pan and noticed that the piston is missing the bottom half of it's skirt...he mentioned replacing the oil pump. my car is not getting any oil pressure either and there is some sludge on the dip stick and on the inside of the oil cap. help, not sure what i should do?
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Was the oil pickup clogged? No matter what you're in for either a rebuild or a new engine.
http://www.saabservices.com/qaoilsludge.pdf read this, see if you might still be covered at the nearest dealer. If you're not than you will need to at the minimum replace the damaged piston and flush out all the sludge. No reason not to do rod bearings at the same time as they're cheap and probably have been affected. Timing components should also be replaced if they weren't replaced before.
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1999 Saab 9-3 5-door Stg4
Philly Region SCCA
If you think the engine may still be covered, make sure you get ALL maintenance documentation to take to the dealer. They'll want to see that you've been religious about changing the oil.
Also, check with the dealer and ask if PCV #6 was installed - it was a recall item that should have been done by a Saab shop as early as April 2006. If it hasn't been done and you've seen a dealership since 2006, you should probably wail on them for not conducting the recall. Am I off-base anywhere, fellas?
do you think replacing the piston and oil pump would be enough? the mechanic said it would be a 50/50 shot that replacing the oil pump would solve the problem. he doesn't know if the broken piston caused the oil pump to fail or if it failed b4 the piston lost it's bottom half of its skirt.
thanks for your feedback
Its a gamble. More than likely, sludge in the engine has either restricted the oil pick-up tube starving the oil pump, or sludge is causing a drainback issue, again, starving the pump.
The damaged piston is probably a result of low oil pressure. Replacing the pump and piston (and any other damaged parts) may be an acceptable repair, but you will want to clean out as much sludge as possible and replace the pump, to help prevent future failures.
However, the downside is, usually when pistons fail, they damage the engine block and then you would be looking at engine replacement. the cylinder bore needs to be inspected for deep scratches and measured for unusual or excessive wear.
regardless of what you decide to do the engine block needs to be stripped and taken to a machine shop for inspection/honing. In the latter case you will need 4 new pistons. Try to pursue the warranty route first and if that fails a junkyard engine is probably in order. Just make sure to clean the oil pan of sludge.
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1999 Saab 9-3 5-door Stg4
Philly Region SCCA
oil issues/engine ticking
