Esmeralda - SAAB 9-3

***Technical specifications:***

Esmeralda was a black 1999 SAAB 9-3 se with beige cloth seats. She had the 2.0 liter engine with a lowpressure turbo and saab's trionic 5 system making 153 hp.

***History:***

(**Disclaimer**; It is illigal in Sweden to tow and drive a car if the inspection period has run out, only exeption is if there is a booked time for inspection, this fact was unknown at the time.)

The two founders of ladan bought the a broken car together in hopes to figuring out how to fix it and later sell the car for a minor profit.

Esmeralda was found on Facebook maketplace and was sold as a "DIY car". The wintertires was shortly after the purchase sold for more money than the amount payed for the car. It was towed back and forth between places we could work on it before we found a good workplace. After beggining the reparation the project came to a halt due to logistical problems. The car was then towed to a different location with the engine halfway dissassembeled. After all parts were gathered the car was fixed ower the larger part of a year.

When she was going to get a safety inspection a few things happened. First one of the rear wheels was loose, shaking the car on the major road through the city, then a thud from the same wheel was heard. When the car arrived at the inspection a lug bult was missing, assumably the thud. By asking the inspections to borrow tools the wheel was secured but they didn't have any avalible times. The car was driven to a different inspection firm, on the way there the missing lug bult was seen on the road and was also recived. The secund inspection did not have any avalible times either and when driving to the last one the car started missfireing. Unfortunately, nour did they have any times avalible. When exiting the parkinglot the car died in a busy crossway section, everyone inside the car got out and started pushing it. It turned out to be the fuel level reader being slightly off and the engine being fuel starved. After refueling, it worked and the car proceeded to pass the inspection the following day. A few months later the car was sold with aproximately 500% profit.

***What work was made:***

*Engine problem* - The main issue with the car was that it made an uneaven ratteling sound. It was thought at the time of purchase that it was due to a failing alternator since it didn't charge the battery when running. After a year of on and off searching for the problem it was found to be the crankshaft pulley assembly that had failed. Screws had probably unwined of the engine's vibration and started eating away the retaining ring that was holding in the oilpump in the timing chain cover making tromendus wear on these parts, rendering the unusable. After reciving offers to buy the parts cheap from a Saab enthusiast a roadtrip was made to collect the parts. When replacing the timing chain cover, the engine was unable to be pulled out so the carjack that came with the car was used to "move" the engine enough sideways to slip the cover out from underneath. After replacing the cover with a new oilpump allready mounted aswell as a new pully, the engine worked great.

*Brakesystem* - Due to the car sitting on a lawn for more than a year, some of the undercarige started coroding, such as the exhaust but most notably, brakelines. The brakelines was replaced from the middle, all the way back to the rear calipers. The calipers was also replaced since they had seen better days, beeing that they looked like they were going to fall apart if you looked at them the wrong way.

Exhaust - The car also had an exhaust leak. It was repaired poorly at some time previously but was permanently fixed and the tip got cleaned and repainted.

*Blinkers* - The car had lost both main right blinkers, rear was sunworn and cracked and the front one was cracked when it fell out during towing. The front one was repairable and the rear was replaced.

**Update**; The car has been reported stolen by the new owner  :'c