9000 Heater Core
Introduction

If you own a 9000 and you smell a sweet smell when your heat is on, then most likely your heater core is leaking. A bad heater core will also put moisture on the windshield. The heater core is a common replacement item for high mileage 9000's.

If you have no heat then a couple of things could be wrong.

Your flapper arm could be broken or your flapper motor is shot. This will cause only cold air to come into the car.
Also check that your thermostat is working by making sure the engine temperature is into the green area.

To see if the flapper valve is working, take off the false bulkhead cover and look at the flapper valve. If the flapper is broken you can replace it with a new piece. This procedure will be covered in this section.

If the cable doesn't move when you change the temperature from full hot to full cold then the valve motor is bad, it can be replaced by removing the glove box.

Another component that starts to fail around 100,000 miles is the heater blower fan. The bearings of the fan will fail and will start to make a squeaking noise. If you are going to replace the heater core, then it's a good idea to do the fan as well.

If your fan doesn't change speed, then this is transistor module and not the fan.

The first thing you want to get is the parts that you want to replace. If your going to replace the heater core, you are going to be removing all of the other parts no matter what.

In older 9000's I guess this project is a real pain, so you might want to do everything all at once. With the 93+ 9000's the job is really not all that bad, so replacing one at a time wouldn't be that crazy.

The flapper part number is 96-24-321 and it's about $40 from the Saab dealer.

The easiest way to get all of the heater core parts is to order the kit. It comes with the better, later style heater core, all of the hoses, and clamps. The kit usually costs around $120-$160.

The blower motor is available in two forms. The motor with the blades or just the motor. Since it's usually the motor bearings that go bad, either one is okay. The cost ranges from $70-$100 for just the motor, or $160-$240 for the motor with the blades.

This DIY section takes you through the process of replacing the heater core, replacing the flapper and replacing the motor blower. Overall, I put this at a two beer project. Not too bad in my book!

9000 Heater Core
Step 1

The first thing you do is remove the hood. To do this, you need to disconnect the washer hose and disconnect the hood light. The light has a connector below the rubber seal. Next, remove the two 12mm bolts on each side and then the clip for the hood shock.

 

Now you can remove the top cover of the false bulkhead. To do this you just remove the eight 8mm bolts and the top just lifts off.

 

The next thing you need to do is remove the false firewall. This is really easy on this car. Just unbolt the MAP sensor, TCS safety valve, and wiring harness clip. Then there are just two screws holding the false firewall on.

The next thing to do is to pull off the heater core hoses. There are two hoses coupled together with a plastic fitting. You need to remove all of the hoses to make room to get the blower out.

 

9000 Heater Core
Step 2

There are not a lot of pictures for the blower motor stuff as the space is tight and a camera won't fit!

Disconnet the blower motor plug and take off the flapper spring from the flapper arm. I found that it didn't matter where I set the flapper as it wasn't in the way either way. This is located on the left side of the blower and is tough to get to.

The next thing you need to do is release the two plastic clips that hold the blower to the firewall. You do this by simply prying back on the clip and pull on the blower motor until it comes out of the clip.

Finally, remove the 2 screws that hold the AC evaporator down. Lift up on the AC evaporator about 6-8 inches and then remove the blower fan by pulling and twisting it out. It takes a little bit of work, but it comes out!

NOTE: With older 9000's you need to remove the wiper mechanism to make enough room. Too bad for you guys!

You will now see the heater core right in front and it will come right out.

You will also be able to easily see the place where it leaked!

Now it's time to replace the blower motor assembly and heater flaps. This is a straight forward procedure.

First, remove the middle heater flap and the rest of the flaps come right out. After that you unscrew one screw and remove the 4 clips that hold the blower together. The two halves just come apart after that.

Remove the one screw holding at the back of the blower motor, take off the clip and unlplug the the wires.
To remove the blower motor from the housing, insert a screwdriver/punch and hammer the blower out.

If you bought just the motor, you will need to remove the blades from the old motor and put them on the new one. Be careful as you don't want to put to much stress on the shaft when pushing the blades on the new motor.

Once the new blades are on, you push the new motor into the housing and put the blower back together! Hopefully you don't have any extra parts laying around!

9000 Heater Core
Step 3

Insert the new heater core into the car. I noticed that the new core seemed to sit in the hole rather loosely. Saab does sell some stuff that goes around the heater core to make it fit tighter, but I decided to use some velco and an heater hose. With that, it fits in there snug and won't rattle around.

Now you need to put in the blower motor. This seemed more difficult than removing it!

There is a lip on top of the blower housing that needs to go into heater core area first. So once you get the blower in the general area, you then push the top of the blower into the heater core and then drop down the blower and fit it into the plastic tabs. Since the A/C evaporator is in your way, this is much easier with two people! One to hold the evaporator out of the way and the other to fit the blower.

After this you need to hook up the flap and plug in the blower motor. I chose to leave off the clip on the flapper as it fell down and I couldn't find it!

Now connect the heater core hoses. The longer hose goes on the bottom,

 

Now bolt the AC evaporator down and replace the false bulkhead. Reconnect the items onto the false bulkhead and fill up the coolant system. It's time to test everything before going any further!

d4020a193ae04409a599c88ed529df4b If everything looks good, attach the windshield water hose to the false bulkhead cover and screw it down, put the hood back on and call it a day!

You might need to adjust the hood before closing it! The posts on the hood should go right in the middle of the holes. Otherwise the hood won't open back up!

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