Bulletins
| Bulletin | Bulletin date | Replacement Bulletin | Item no. | Summary | Added |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| STEERING | |||||
| 641 | 07/10/1998 | 602369 | Complaints regarding noisy or hard to operate telescopic steering action. *yc | 10/29/1998 | |
Consumer Complaints
| Fail date | miles | occurences | Purchase date |
|---|---|---|---|
| STEERING | |||
| 06/02/1998 | |||
| Difficult steering vehicle. | |||
| STEERING - LINKAGES - KNUCKLE - SPINDLE - ARM | |||
| 05/02/2005 | 155285 | 1 | 01/16/1998 |
| I have been driving a 1998 900 saab since it was new. it had about 155,500 miles at the time of the incident described below. recently, i was going to remove the front suspension uprights to replace the shock absorber inserts. after removing the wheel on the left hand side, i discovered that the steering pivot arm (a hollow clam-shell stamping welded to the upright) was so severely rusted out that i could actually slip my hand inside the arm. (approximately, 1/2 of its total surface area was gone and fatigue cracks were developing in the remaining portion.) the steering rack tie rod end attaches to this arm. to my knowledge all saab 900s from 1994-2000 were designed with this type of steering linkage that uses a rack mounted high on the front-of-dash, connected to the wheel via this pivot arm welded to the upright. had this pivot arm broken while i was driving on the interstate, it would have been a catastrophic failure resulting in loss of steering control. i have done a lot of mechanical work to my vehicles over the years, but this shocked me so much that i didn't even trust driving the car the 45 minutes to the dealer. i ordered replacement parts from a reputable (saab only) savage dealer in new york state ($470) and replaced both lh & rh suspension uprights myself. i have returned the car to service. i have spoken to saab customer service (report #1-75588105) but they didn't seem to want to acknowledge the severity of the incident or how critical the integrity of this pivot arm is to controlling the car. they passed this off saying | |||