Saab 93 SE Convertible Doors Locked & Battery Flat - How to get in !
Locked out...flat battery...key not even thinking about turning in the lock....nightmare ! The only door that would open was the trunk, which would have been a bonus if I was 30 years younger and a bit more aerodynamic I suppose. But I'm not, so attempting to wriggle and flipping the bonnet open to get at the battery wasnt really an option for me.
No access to a pit or ramps and getting a bit old for wriggling about under the car (jacked up and on stands but still a tight squeeze) trying to do the starter motor tie-in thing.
After much gnashing of teeth I managed to sort it out.....far easier than I thought it would be! There's always an easier way of doing something, it's just the finding it that drags things out. So, here's my solution to this pretty common occurence...
The doors had been locked using the remote and the battery was as dead as a dead thing, (car's been sitting on the driveway for the last 8 weeks, waiting for me to get round to replacing power steering pipes) so no way was I getting in that way. The manual key would however open the trunk. And therein lies the hidden bonus....
All I had to do was to figure out how to get power into the system. Tried the under-car wriggle...didn't float my boat at all but it DID manage to soak my overalls as I squirmed around in the rain that conveniently started.
OBLIGATORY WARNING:
Electrickery is dangerous stuff. Causes fires and shocks and all kinds of nasty stuff. So be careful, be competent, be SAFE !
This write up is intended for information only. You may only use it if you are satisfied that you can safely and competently follow it and use it.
There's a straightforward, nice clean way to get the job done, it took a bit of research on the 93's electrical sytem to figure out where I could find a suitable tie in point that would feed directly to the battery (an Always HOT connection). Easy peasy ...the power antenna has a switched live and a permanent live connection. "That'll do nicely" he smugly thinks to hisself....So ......
1) Open the trunk
2) Remove the three wee headlining clips on the left hand side of the trunk and gently tuck the headlining out of the way
3) Looking at the power antenna, you'll see one red and one green wire feeding into a wee black plastic thingy that's attached to the antenna.
4) Follow these two wires, (only about ten inches or so long) and you'll find that they are tucked around the back of the mounting bracket for the antenna - there's a wee plug on the end of them that mates with another plug which carries the power feeds from the vehicle's electrical harness. The harness plug is more accessible so simply pull it out, it comes out cleanly, no tool required.
5) There two wires attached to the plug. You need the permanent feed (always HOT) wire, which is the wire colour coded Red & Blue. This is where you need to be sending +ve 12 Volts from an external source (jump from another vehicle or another battery if you have one. Even a battery charger will do the job just as well, but not as convenient as you'll need to provide a 240 VAC supply to the charger - not the brightest idea when it's pouring rain ! Water and electricity are not the best of bed partners, apparently :)
6) I jumped directly from my other car as it's easier than pulling the battery from it and having to reset clock etc.
7) Prepare a length of bog standard 2.5 mm Twin & Earth domestic electrical solid core cable (at least a couple of feet long to make things more managable and safer as you'll be able to keep a good separation between jump lead connections). You only need one of the cable cores, so strip 1 inch of insulation at one end, and strip about 3 inches of insulation at the other end. You're going to use this prepared core for injecting power into the plug you removed at 5) above.
8) Don't go connecting your jump leads to the donor car / battery just yet....that's the last thing you do !!
9) Attach the negative (usually Black) jump lead clamp on to a suitable Earth point on your dead Saab. I found that the latch pin for the trunk lid was ideal.
10) Take your stripped twin and earth core, and firmly attach the bared 3 inch end to the Positive (usually Red) jump lead clamp - wind it solidly around the teeth of the clamp to get a better connection.
Insert the other end of the stripped T&E cable into the plug terminal that carries the Red & Blue wire as per step 5) above.
11) Check your connections are securely made, and then connect the other end of your jump leads to your donor vehicle's battery in the normal way (Red = +ve and Black = -ve)
You now are supplying your dead Saab with power, and you will see your dash mounted alarm red LED blinking away happily. It doesn't take long at all to give the Saab's system sufficient power to allow you to get in and access your dead car battery - My leads were in place for only a couple of minutes to give the alarm system's electronics some time to get used to the idea that it was being powered up etc.
Got quite carried away seeing that wee red light blinking, so I did, and was ecstatic when after only a couple of minutes I hit the Unlock button on my remote key and was rewarded with a satisfying 'Clunk' as the door solenoids kicked over.
Bingo ! Door opened no problem.
Jump start leads disconnected from the donor car, then disconnected at the Saab's end, then straight in, pull the bonnet lever and within seconds the Saab's battery was accessible... a quick tidy up, antenna plug firmly pushed back into its mating plug, headlining eased back into place (ony fits one way, fixing screws align with pre-punched holes in the headlining), reattach the three headling clips, boot lid down, Saab battery disconnected and removed, bonnet down, drivers door closed, battery attached to a charger in the workshop then feet up , large glass of whisky poured and my smug expression annoys the heck out of herself.
Hope it's of some use to you (the whiskey, that is) and that you might even get into your obstinate Saab too, without resorting to spending loads of money on locksmiths or to lobbing half bricks through your car's window
