new 95 saab 900se coupe, five speed owner

i am a recent purchaser of a 900se turbo. i want to find out what other owners average on gas. its my first turbo and i am live in washington dc, so its more or less urban driving. even when i don't try to keep my foot in the pedal, i am only averaging about 16.8 miles to the gallon! barely two hundred miles to a full tank...(14 gallons!) i haven't changed the plugs or wires yet....but any suggestions! other than that the accelerations is instant with not too much turbo lag...a little around 1.8 -2.2 on the rpms.

another questions is i blew a radiator hose and dumped all my coolant. immediately pulled over and the car never over heated. replaced the hoses and everything is fine..the only thing that seems different is.....when i am idleing, my turbo stays midway engaged on my guage....when i am going through the gears and the clutch is engaged, it will drop all the way down to the left or into the white....which you would assume when i am parked at a light, why would the turbo guage still says it midway into the yellow? is this normal. the turbo seems to work fine other wise, with immense pull in second and third and fourth gear as well!

any thoughts??

Reply to
p digital
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Coolant is an electrical conductor and may be compromising a wiring plug or other connection..

Reply to
darthpup

I invariably change the fuel filter too. My mechanic says that with a blocked filter the car actually uses *more* gas! I just bought a '99 Saab with 145K and the filter was the original!!!

HTH

Molesworth

Reply to
Molesworth

nice, i am going to try to change the plugs, wires and yes the fuel filter...good looking out...

peace

Molesworth wrote:

Reply to
p digital

Not too good. I get up to 32 mpg on the highway, mid 20's around town. Of course, it is inversely proportional to how hard you press the fun pedal, and being a new turbo owner, you're probably going for maximum fun a lot. ;-)

That's not right. It sounds as if the waste gate is stuck closed. There is a dump valve that gets actuated when you press in the clutch.

Reply to
Fred W

Doesn't your 900 SE have a "Direct Ignition" system? There may not be any wires to change.

GF

Reply to
Greg Farris

In my old 900 Turbo Cab I got about 23-26MPG, driving pretty hard, but very little city driving.

New job, new car, I drive my 95 900 TurboSE quite gingerly and mostly city driving - I'm doing about the same as you report in mileage.

Of the six Saabs I have owned, none have ever seen 30MPG on a regular basis, even on all-highway driving. Even my old 96 V4's, with only 68HP still got 25-28 Highway, which sort of proves that all those gizmos we have today actually do help - we have a much heavier, much more powerful car without increasing fuel consumption.

You may be pleased the day you go for a pollution check - my high-mileage 900SE has "0" or unmeasurable CO pollution levels!

GF

Reply to
Greg Farris

My '98 900S (auto) gets just barely above 30mpg if driven on the highway at 65 mph on cruise control. My '03 9-3SS Vector gets 33-34 mpg under the same conditions. The only problem is, they are both turbocharged and just beg to be driven hard. ;-)

and yes... YMMV.

Reply to
Fred W

I get about 24mpg overall avg in a similar (to th OP) 900se. Highway can run 28 on longer drives on these cars, local is 20. I've seen it as low as 14 at zero degrees F and the engine still cold. I drive a 'vert and I seem to get lower mileage than the hardtops - some of those guys go 30-34 on the highway on longer trips.

If you are only getting 16 and not driving all city stop and go, you likely have a problem. But, it sounds like you might be all city. A cold engine in the city will not do to well. A good tuneup would help.

If that turbo is really blowing half way all the time, you likely have issues. It should settle down to the left at idle I think. But, I will check and repost.

You have a DI cassette, no wires. You should change the plugs and make sure you use the original NGK model (every 10K, that are only $2 each and you can do it in a half hour or less). Change the air filter. The fuel filter would be a good idea too if it has not been changed. You should clean the IAC valve (link below). Change all the small vacuum hoses - unless it's been done, they are old and possibly cracked. You can buy all these parts for less than $100 and a couple hours labor.

CHANGE THE UPPER IDLER PULLEY and serp belt!!! These pulleys break without warning after 50K miles and leave you stranded. Part cost is about $50 or less for the pulley and $20 for the belt. It takes about

30 minutes to change both - may be an hour the first time you work in this area. Look into doing the SHORT BELT modification.

You need this site for parts:

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You need this site for technical instructions:
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And this one for TSB's, Saab specific info, and fun parts:
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Reply to
- Bob -

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