DI failure: happy ending

I have an '02 9-5 Aero with 77k miles on it. Folks in this group recommend
carrying a DI cassete in your trunk, because it WILL fail sooner or later,
generally between 75k and 100k milres. It has two failure modes: a Check
Engine light, or *poof* you're walking.

I got lucky: I got the CEL. Took it to Auto Zone and they identified it
as some kind of ignition error. Took it to my Saab guy and he told me it's
the DI. Great.

But then he called the dealer, gave them my VIN, and shazam! There is some
kind of recall or repair notice. I drove down to the dealer, and 15
minutes later I had a shiny new DI. Absolutely **FREE**.

The service manager says they've improved the design and they aren't seeing
any failures with the new one. So I shouldn't have to worry about the DI
any more. :-)

It's kind of sleazy that they'll let somebody get stranded on the roadside
with a failed DI, when they KNOW there's a problem and there's a repair
order out. But I guess they can't afford to tell everybody and replace ALL
the DI's for free. Instead they wait for a failure and then swap it out.

At least it worked out well for me!

still me wrote:

On Fri, 11 May 2007 20:06:16 -0000, Gary Fritz <fritzxxx (AT) xxxfrii (DOT) com
wrote:

The service manager says they've improved the design and they aren't seeing
any failures with the new one. So I shouldn't have to worry about the DI
any more. :-)

Maybe. The older ones went about 75K miles. The newer TI's (2002+,
AFAIR) had a problem and died much sooner in many cases. So, they got
recalled. Whether or not the recalled units will exceed that on
average is an open question at this point.

FWIW, every car I know of with direct ignition coils has similar
issues at similar (70K) mileage. Putting electronics on top of the
cyl's where they bake every day seems to be a bad idea in terms of
durability.

It's kind of sleazy that they'll let somebody get stranded on the roadside
with a failed DI, when they KNOW there's a problem and there's a repair
order out. But I guess they can't afford to tell everybody and replace ALL
the DI's for free. Instead they wait for a failure and then swap it out.

I believe it's a recall - in which case you should have gotten a
letter. "Customer satisfaction" programs are different. I don't think
this is one of those. You might want to see if Saab has you as the
owner of that car with the correct address for notifications.

It is a recall for MY2000 - MY2002 IIRC. I got a letter early last

spring telling that the DI cassette was going to be replaced for free
during 2006 (I have a 9^5 MY2000. Then in the summer the cassette broke
down with the classical smell of burtn electronics, leaving me in the
middle of nowhere, and I got it replaced by my dealer. Three weeks later
I got a second letter telling that now I could book a time with the
dealer to have the cassette replaced!

--
th

"th" <someguy (AT) somewhere (DOT) se> wrote

It is a recall for MY2000 - MY2002 IIRC. I got a letter early last spring
telling that the DI cassette was going to be replaced for free during 2006
(I have a 9^5 MY2000. Then in the summer the cassette broke down with the
classical smell of burtn electronics, leaving me in the middle of nowhere,
and I got it replaced by my dealer. Three weeks later I got a second
letter telling that now I could book a time with the dealer to have the
cassette replaced!

I had pretty much the same thing happen. Mine failed and the next week I had
an appointment to get it replaced. It ended up taking out both catalytic
coverters when it failed which were replaced as well.

still me wrote:

Putting electronics on top of the cyl's where they bake every day seems to be
a bad idea in terms of durability.

The temperatures there aren't particularly excessive. It's entirely do-able
given good attention to detail. I expect GM cost-cutting was the problem.

Graham

still me <wheeledBob (AT) yahoo (DOT) com> wrote:

I believe it's a recall - in which case you should have gotten a
letter. "Customer satisfaction" programs are different. I don't think
this is one of those. You might want to see if Saab has you as the
owner of that car with the correct address for notifications.

I should be -- I'm the original owner, still at the same address.

But I don't recall getting a letter. Better check.

still me wrote:

On Sat, 12 May 2007 17:10:52 GMT, Eeyore
rabbitsfriendsandrelations (AT) hotmail (DOT) com> wrote:

The temperatures there aren't particularly excessive. It's entirely do-able
given good attention to detail. I expect GM cost-cutting was the problem.

Graham

Graham:

I would disagree, based on the evidence I've seen. Every car I come
across with a similar direct ignition system seems to get about the
same miles (70K or so) out of these units. Saab, Audi, I think BMW
also suffers from it. Even two Nissan's I've owned, an '88 and a '99
suffered from the same issue.

I'm not saying that you could not build electronics to survive in this
environment, but heat is the #1 enemy of electronic components.
Dissipating that heat is very difficult in on top of an engine and
under a hood.

When I opened mine (9000), there wasn't any solid state electronics
inside, only the copper coils. It's the coils that gets shaken about,
so the insulation between the thousands of copper windings weakens,
breaks down and eventually short circuit. The electronics is done
outside and a trigger voltage of 400V is supplied to the unit.