My car wouldn't start until I knocked on the rear light....

[Finding41]

This makes no sense.
Thursday I went out of town to get a new trailer. When I tried to start the car once opening the gate.... It wouldn't start! Turned over great.. No codes came up... I started checking fuses all were fine...
Slammed the door when getting out to look under the hood... Everything fine there...
Try the ignition and away it want! Hmm. Saab's don't do that...
So I thought it's maybe time for a spark plug change. Haven't got to that yet. (Oil change coming up in 500 km. I'll do it then.) I had 1/4 of a tank of 91 in it.
It has worked fine numerous times in the last two days.
Until this afternoon. I came out of a store and no start... Same as before. Lots of turning over... Now the tank is full of 91.
I got thinking.. Maybe it's a sensor. (No codes shown though..) So I fiddled and checked that the crazy SAAB plugs were all attached properly... None loose in any way.
Then I remembered the rear light! (I've read accounts of the rear drivers side light wiring giving problems... Different types of problems... )
I had a rear light failure pop up on the SID last week. I looked and it was the Dr side turn and marker. I knocked on the lens and it came on. I though it must be loose. I'll have to tighten it... And promptly did nothing. (Bizzy!)
So I knocked on the lens of the driver side. Tried the ignition.... Away it went!!!!!

So here is ware I'm at.... The car has a broken tail light there too. (Once it was hit the back up sensors stopped working. Only the lens of the tail light has any damage... So it wasn't hit that hard... That's what the lady that did it told me too.)
I'm going to replace the whole taillight with the one form the other car and see what happens.
I don't know if the bulb is burnt out or if the contacts are dirty. (I've found that on the passenger side of the other car. Just dirty contacts... I cleaned them and still have the bulbs I had bought to replace the ones I thought had burnt out.)
I'm going to look for a ground wire in there some ware and clean it. It may be the back up alarm problem... Or not...?

Any thoughts or ideas?

Oh Almost forgot!!
The rear light failour came up after I knocked on the light and the car started! Then the heat didn't work!!!!! Fan works on all settings, it goes through all the vents fine.. I did a code check and get 0.... 3 times!
WTF! Only getting cold air...

Recall 2 summers ago when I was coming home from PEI and driving strait through and the damb heat wouldn't work in the middle of the night.... I drove with a blankie on my legs. 9C outside temp in late Aug. The heat and air had worked fine form that day...
This summer the air conditioning didn't work. We didn't need it though. (I thought hey I'll get a can of that stuff... well I when to put it in and the system is still pressurized! It's full! Now I have an open can of that stuff attached to the hose in my garage... )

Are all these related? How?

[9-3 Aero]

Puuh - that's really something

Looking into schematics, is my first thoughts that all this is not related, mainly looking at grounding, as you are thinking of, and power distribution. The left, rear lights does not have common grounding with the fuel pump, the latter may be the culprit with regard to "Lots of turning over..." and no start, and could be the easiest place to start troubleshooting.

When turning the ignition from position "OFF" to "ON" is the fuel pump being primed for 2 - 3 seconds, check for the sound of this the next time you are having this situation. The fuel pump is grounded through J93, a crimp, 300mm from the G5 grounding point. G5 is located under left -hand corner of the rear seat. Could "Slammed the door" and "So I knocked on the lens of the driver side" point towards a problem with these two points? As J93 is ultrasonic welded, I'd think that G5 would be the first one to check.

To proceed with my thoughts, clarification with regard to "the Dr side turn and marker" is needed, as I'm not familiar with the marker, is it tail light or what?

[Finding41]

The fuel pump sounds like it primes normally every time... I replaced the tail light bulb so that is not a problem any more.
Heat now working... (I did nothing to make it work.)
The car started fine 6 times then it didn't. It wouldn't start when I went to get grocery's.
First thing I tried was knocking on the light. Kidding.
I wiggled all the wires at the DIC, the battery, fuse box, and the fire wall.
It started...
Has started 3 times since. I will check the wire harness at the fire wall tomorrow.
Ware do I find a diagram with G5 and J93 on it?

[9-3 Aero]

You'll find the diagram here:



64RL: Heating pad RL seat;
64RR: Heating pad RR seat;
323: Fuel pump motor;
323a: Motor, auxiliary heater fuel pump (diesels);
410: Heater element, fuel filter (diesels);
J219: 704R: Load angle sensor, rear.

So in case you don't have a diesel, heated rear seat or xenons, is the fuel pump on your 9-5 the only item being "grounded" through J93 and G5. Meanining: non of the other culprits are likely to have a common ground problem with it.

How about the drivers side turn and marker (what is the marker?)?

Did you calibrate the ACC when the heat was not working, to possibly find any thrown fault codes?

[Finding41]

I call a tail light that stays on a marker light. I'm probably wrong with that though.
I have xenon lights, rear heated seats, and load sensors.

I did a diagnostic on the acc again today. 0. It's working fine now.
I have noticed that the drivers heated seat seems to get really hot at the first setting.

Ware would the ground be? Under the seat?

[9-3 Aero]

Yes, the grounding point G14 with two wires connected to it, is under the drivers seat.

Two possible causes for the increased(?) heat at the first setting could be the switch module, or open seat temperature sensor, or ditto wiring.

[Finding41]

I was sitting in a drive through today waiting for my coffee and the car almost stalled. It picked right back up and kept running like normal... No seat heater or anything else running. Just the car idling...
Is the G14 2 wires bolted to the body as a ground? Or is it in a harness?
Is there a wiring harness diagram link anywhere? I'd love to be able to trace all the wires.
The car has started fine all of today.

[9-3 Aero]

On the drivers seat member:

[Finding41]

Thanks! Looks and feels tight but I'll get a wrench on it tomorrow.
It happened again. No start. But In my driveway this time.
I swapped the DIC with one I had from a scrap car and it started right up!
Off I went and it ran fine and started each time.
So tonight (Just now) I thought I'd check it since it's been raining all day. (Not that rain or water has affected anything in the past.) Started right up...
CEL was on so I read the coed. P1312
Anyone have any ideas what that means?

Here:
http://saabworld.net/f144/p1312-comb...l-1-2-a-25090/

Ware do I start?
I'll put another DIC fron the 04 Arc in tomorrow and change the plugs. (It's due and it has the fancy iridium or ... plugs in it now. I have the proper ones to install.)
I may as well do a compression test while I have the plugs out too.

Any other ideas?

[nordwulf]

P1312 and P1334 usually indicates a faulty DIC but could be the plugs too. Most likely the DIC though so you probably need to get a new one.