2008 Saab 9-5 Vector intermittent start 'click'?

[rijken1973]

Have been driving this 9-5 estate since may after I crashed my first saab (a 9-3 vector) after owning it for 1 day (not my fault). 9-5 drives and pulls like a dream still and the other day I went over 100,000km (62,000 miles). Driving the car in Japan, so most cars here are very low milage. Have not had any troubles at all and am changing oil at an 8,000km interval. Changed the plugs the other day as place I bought car from had installed iridium plugs, changed to the standard NGK ones. DIC is new (well dealer states it is new), front brakes (pads and discs) I changed the other day. Air filter, fuel filter are all new as well.

Now I have this problem, well do not know if it is a problem, but car starts 1st time, every time, but when it is a cold morning, at times I have 1-2 hard audible clicks coming from engine bay. Click is accompanied by a drop in revs. Guess it is a single misfire in 1 of the cylinders but no warning lights on the dash and can use the car without problem. How to diagnose this problem? This morning it was 13 degrees Celcius here, no click, but the other day it was 8 Celcius in the morning and there was 1 big audible click. Will try to shoot a video and post here.

Suggestions and help are all welcome!

[nordwulf]

I would start with using an OBD2 scanner and see if there any codes. There may be error codes even without a dash warning light.

[rijken1973]

Many thanks. Scanned the car today with a Chinese tech 2, no DTCs present at all. Has not been cold here the past few days so unable to shoot a video.

Think myself it is either something that is driven by the belt or a stuck starter. Stuck starter would give continuous sound though whereas most clicks I ever had on a startup were 3, all random intervals...

[GeoffR]

Think myself it is either something that is driven by the belt or a stuck starter. Stuck starter would give continuous sound though whereas most clicks I ever had on a startup were 3, all random intervals...

The starter on the 9-5 is engaged by the solenoid, if the starter doesn't engage the solenoid won't make and the starter won't turn.

[rijken1973]

Hereby a video. One click only....

https://drive.google.com/file/d/15hJ...ew?usp=sharing

Suggestions are very much welcome!!

[nordwulf]

Just guessing here but perhaps the tensioner or idler pulley for the serpentine belt?
http://saabworld.net/showthread.php?t=712

Perhaps someone else can start the car and see if you can locate the area where the sound is coming from.

[rijken1973]

As the car hit 100000km the other day and I have no idea if belt had been done, I changed out the belt, idler pulley and tensioner today.

When finished and I started the car the click was there again. Again 1 click and no problems what so ever..... Comes from the belt area think.... So other things on the belt are of course the alternator, water pump and compressor.... Water pump might be the next stop.