Shift Up Light

It's got to be ground speed too, because it doesn't turn on until a certain speed. The joke around here is that tape over the offending light is the best way to go. Personally I pretty much ignore the light except for highway speeds when I forget to get out of 4th.

Yes, it does seem like it needs something, but I have a regular 900S (1998)

-meld

Paul Merriman wrote:

I believe it's RPM / power requested related. In other words, if you are not pushing hard, the light will come on at a certain RPM. If you are pushing hard, it will hold off. Who knows what the engineers tied it to figure that out. Whatever, it's wrong, all the time.

You can - 1. tape over it - fast, ugly. 2. Cut the wire to it - fast, irreversible 3. - remove the bulb (a 4 hour job pulling and replacing the dash.

I opted for #3, since I wanted to do another modification behind the dash (Added an indicator light using an existing marker so I know when the fog lights are on). Plus, I like to explore :-)

Hehe...

Whenever I read about shift-up lights it makes me laugh. We don't have those in the UK, on any car, at all, ever. Makes me wonder why they get fitted to US cars. Is it because a significant percentage of US drivers wouldn't remember to shift up, and would drive around doing 60mph in 2nd gear?

Yep. Over here the overwhelming majority prefers automatics. I have a friend that refuses to even learn to drive a 'stick' (as we call manuals) because he says they're barbaric and impractical. I see it as a choice between convenience and performance.

Most of my vehicles have been manuals (jeeps!) and I've never found myself in 2nd gear doing 60, but I have found myself in 4th gear way too many times going 60+.

~GJ~

or 4, pop into a dealer and get them to switch it off with tech2.

The shift up light is not there for the ordinary driver. It is there to force the test driver to shift for lowest fuel consumption on the standard test drive used to determine the official fuel consumption numbers. Without the light the test driver can change gears as he/she pleases most likely resulting in a much higher fuel consumption.

The shift up light is only active, in Saabs, for the US/CA market. Depending on the Saab model and the software version it is more or less easy to kill the shift up light.

Really? Doesn't do much to help them with use of the throttle though does it? The engine RPM is just one parameter to gain good economy but I can floor it between 1000 to 2500rpm or I can use a feather touch, either way, isn't the change up light only going to come on at the preset engine speed?

David.

[snip]

If it's anything like the ones on some Volvos I've seen, then no. It also looks at the power demand - presumably from the throttle position or inlet manifold vacuum. It's supposed so say something along the lines of "If you only want this much power, then you would still be able to get it from the next gear up".

Colin.

No. The shift up light in a Saab tells you when to shift to get the best fuel consumption. I don't know exactly what parameters are used, but it is more than rpm.

A shift light in a competition car will light up at a preset rpm just before the engine blows.

ok, ta.

I removed the relevant light bulb from the instrument panel on my 1992 c900. It was driving me nuts.

John

Absolutely. Particularly when engaged in heavy acceleration. You don't have time to look at the tach. same goes for downshifting in a hurry- you can't check your speed and calculate the RPM level, you just have to know.

In fact, this Saab was originally purchased in CA but made its way to FL and now GA. Can I kill the light without taking the dash apart somehow? Paul

No need to take the dash apart. I took out the bulb through the speaker grill. Very simple. Should be a 5 minute job.

John

Can I kill the light without taking the dash apart somehow?

10-4 - Just remove the driver's side dash speaker and you can yank the bulb if you want - I kind of like the little thing though, just one of those quirky things that let's me know all is well when I'm driving my Saab.

Cheers!

I'm just about to change out of 3rd on a good acceleration run (60+) sometimes closer to 705 (on a private test track of course officer).

Hmm, my girlfriend picked up a 2001 9-3 the other day-- what a joy to drive! And it still has the same basic feel of my c900.

But annoyingly, it has a shift-up light! The same exact icon as in the c900 actually. Unfortunately, there is no obvious access to the instrument panel (like the speaker grill in the c900) to remove the light bulb. Is there any good way to get the bulb out or otherwise disable it without a Tech II?

Thanks, John

705 mph, wow. That's fast!

~GJ~