Saab newbie

My fiance picked up one of those this past summer, and it's been good to us. Although I will mention that (based on both posts in this group and personal experience) that recent 9-3s seem to eat brake rotors for some reason. Maybe it's because people frequently need to slam on the brakes after rocketing from 0 to 60 mph in 7 seconds :)

John

ps- Oh, and make sure to use high octane fuel for full turbo pleasure.

'01 with 26K! Lucky dog; welcome to the pack. Take a few minutes to go through the warranty/maintenance schedules and the tech-specifications pages; that should cover the majority of the things you'll need to cover and need to know. Outside of the usual stuff, I'd recommend feeding the leather at least annually with a high-end hide food (mink oil?). Also, there tends to be some "debate" about oil change intervals... IIRC the official line is every 10K miles; I haven't gone past 5K without a filter/oil change. Enjoy the turbo (especially around 3500 rpm).

Don't forget to mix oil with the petrol....

Wait a minute; 2001?... 5 door?... hatchback? Must be a 9-3 !

:-)

-- MH '72 97 '77 96 '78 95 '79 96 '87 900T8

What a difference a dash makes...

Geeze, Loise. Don't confuse the poor guy. There hasn't been a

2-stroke SAAB since... well, a long freekin time.

-Fred W

I agree with the octane. I have a 2000 9-3 base and it does seem to run a little better on premium (Marathon 93 octane). Brake rotors have not been a problem on mine (55,000 still on original pads and rotors) but that is with a manual trans. My suggestion is to change the rear sway bar. I went to the 22mm from Taliaferro what a difference that made! very easy change - 15 minutes.

?

reason.

pleasure.

Excuse my ignorance, but what is a sway bar?

I think it's an anti-roll bar.

_ ______________________ _ | | | | | | | |-| |-| | |_| |_|

A sway bar is a torsion bar, connects the left and right (rear or front) wheels, makes the suspension stiffer, less independent. Was also fitted on the front of pre 1970 SAABs

-- MH '72 97 '77 96 '78 95 '79 96 '87 900T8

*93* octane is your idea of premium ???? :-(

UK 'standard' unleaded ( often called 'premium' for some puzzling reason ) octane is 95 octane - the premium version ( often called 'super unleaded ) is 97/98.

Graham

IIRC the octane ratings are different so you're comparing apples to oranges.

93 is the very best stuff you can get here.

You mean US the octane rating method is different to UK octane ? Sounds odd to me.

Octane is a pure hydrocarbon. The octane rating is intended to compare the performance of gasoline ( made of many hydrocarbons ) to a known reference as a percentage IIRC.

Graham

Yes, just like your gallons are different than our gallons.

" Many people have read this and concluded that the car calls for Premium, since the typical octane ratings in the U.S. are 87/89/91+ -- but that's because they fail to notice the reference to RON. US gasolines are not rated in RON; they are rated in the average of RON and MON, commonly marked on the pump as (R+M)/2. Unless you know how to convert RON to (R+M)/2, the spec in that handbook is meaningless. "

Thanks for the info.

I also found this

Odd that the method hasn't been internationally standardised.

Graham

Before we tackle that, we should standardize/standardise the English language ;-)

It has, but at least one certain country does not comply... Looks like it's MON for gasoline and RON for petrol.

See also

-- MH '72 97 '77 96 '78 95 '79 96 '87 900T8

If you look hard enough, you can find 100 or 104 octane(US). It's technically for "offroad" vehicles. But I've put it in my cars a few times for fun. I've found it in areas south of indianapolis, and in michigan city. However, expect to pay $4 or higher a gallon.

That's called aviation fuel.