AboutJerry Schwell Expertise Most anything about SAAB 900's 1990 and earlier only, except for automatic transmission info. Also, I have lotsa vintage parts.
Experience I have rebuilt many dozens of SAABS, from 1970's to 1990's.
Education/Credentials BSEE grad work in electronics and underwater acoustics.
Expert: Jerry Schwell Date: 5/6/2008 Subject: Computer and radio display
Question Hi, i am purchasing a 1995 saab 900s this week and I have noticed two issues that i had thought that i could tackle myself but would first like your opinion:
1) the radio does not work, although when the on/off button is pressed in, both the antennae deploys and there is an apparent effect on display.
2) the display is no longer 100% viewable, there are pixels missing (does that make sense?)
Is this easily fixable? should i simply replace both the radio and the display? are those easy to do and can they be upgraded?
Any and all help would be greatly appreciated,
Thierry
Answer Thierry:
Modern consumer electronics is not only inexpensive to buy, but also quite complex and specialized. This holds for your SAAB radio as well. Also, its common for LCD panel displays to fail gradually by losing pixels.I suspect if you were to try to fix it yourself (or have it fixed), you'd find it not only difficult to obtain adequate service information (schematics, drawings, etc)but extremely expensive IF you could even find someone to repair it.
On the other hand, you can easily find a respectable radio for under $200. You will then need to identify the functions of the wiring behind the radio, usually +12V power,GND, antenna,standby +12v, LF speaker, RF speaker, LR speaker & RR speaker in order to make the new radio connections. Unfortunately I do not have the color-coded info for your model,but you should be able to get it readily from the place you buy you radio (assuming they do installations).
