I just last week bought a 5 spd 2000 9-3 with 62k miles. It was at the dealship for a few months and has only been driven rarely in that time. Each morning when i first take off for the day the car rattles/shakes breifly. I can avoid the rattle most times by riding the cluck til i gain some momentum but doesnt seem normal. I can recreate the problem by taking off as if trying to spin the tires but it doesnt seem as bad. the tires will not squeal at all which i think is related. The car has a 30 day 1000 miles complete car warranty, is this something i should have the dealer look at or anything else i should check? All help is greatly appriciated
Riding the clutch to avoid rattling and shaking is not a option. Take the car back and leave it over night so the dealership can experience the problem first hand. Do this before the warranty is over.
ok thanks. I appreciate the quick reply. To be more specific it lasts less then 1 second and seems to be harder to duplicate in first gear once the car is warmed up. I also have noticed that the throttle is very slow to respond when i take my foot off the pedal, when upshifting it will rev at about the same rpm basically until i let off the clutch into the next gear instead of slowing down while the clutch is depressed abd foot off the gas, is this normal or should i also have that clooked at? Any other typical problems i should have them check for? We go to the dealership i purchased it from when my girlfriends 97 900 needs work, they are very honest and it something needs to be replaced i am sure they will be happy to let me know and resolve it if need be.
As you may be aware, the actual throttle plate is not physically connected to the accelerator pedal, as in the good old days. It is a "drive by wire" system, which means your foot pedal operates only a variable resistor (potentiometer) which then tells the control unit how much throttle you want. The ECU then operates the throttle plate for you via an electric servo motor.
SAAB engineers, at some point in time, decided that the throttle should be released slowly to reduce the emissions that occur in a trailing throttle condition. This was a very unfortunate decision, IMO, as it makes the driver feel disconnected from the engine and drive train during shifting, and seriously hampers the total driving experience.
The reason I am so aware of this is I purchased a 2000 9-3SEC last year. This was to be my summer fun sporty car. I searched around and could not find anyone who reported being able to change this characteristic (ECU reprogram?) so I ended up selling off the car because of it, along with the tendency the convertibles have for cowl shake. I could have lived with the cowl shake, or worked to reinforce the chassis, but the throttle thing just pissed me off too much. In the case of an auto transmission, it would be a moot point, but part of my definition of "driving" is clutching and shifting.
Otherwise that car was a beauty. Gotta love that HOT!! It was hard
Fred - Thank you for the information. And to think some people prefer the 9-3 over the Classic. The automatic transmission is known as a "slush box" because of the same issues. It is sad to think a manual transmission has the issues. I will stick with my Classic, got to love the red box and shortshift kit :-)
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