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

-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

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.

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.

Thanks for the info.

I also found this

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.