9-5 Aero 1999 BSR stage 3 PPC tune

[Slade Alive]

I've a 9-5 Aero as in the title, fitted full BSR 3" downpipe, sport cat and twin tail exhaust system.

I believe the PPC and married to ECU were robbed from the car sometime before I bought it.

Does anyone here know the whereabouts of a PPC tuning kit and married ECU that might be for sale considerably less in price than buying a new one from BSR?

[aeropilot]

That would be a strange one, as you would still have to go through the hassle of recoding another ECU to work with the VIn of your car etc. Abviously. not impossible, but replacement ECU's arn't cheap, and it's a lot of effort to retain a BSR tune, which is about the worst one of all the Saab tuners

So, if you are looking cheap, then you need to make some friends with one of the DIY tuners on the Saab forums and see if you can get someone with T7suite to 'do' your ECU with a Stage 3 tune. You might need to get a 3.5bar FPR though, as the better Stage 3 tunes run a 3.5FPR because of the fuelling issues that BSR ignore

Personally I'd buy a Stage 3 tune and 3.5 FPR from Maptun as they are the best Saab tuners by a long way.

[Slade Alive]

That's probably the best option but my thinking was, someone somewhere has the BSR PPC sat in a box and the ECU that they removed from their Aero before they sold it / crashed it / held onto it for another Aero they were thinking of moving onto but never did etc etc. In which case there'd be no problem fitting to a different Aero as long as the ECU were with the PPC.

All it would take for someone to have done so would be to source an Aero standard ECU to replace the one they uploaded the BSR PPC onto before they parted with their Aero. Yes it's a long shot but I thought someone here might know the whereabouts of such things, given as you say they are not very popular in Saab world.

[aeropilot]

Slade Alive said:

That's probably the best option but my thinking was, someone somewhere has the BSR PPC sat in a box and the ECU that they removed from their Aero before they sold it / crashed it / held onto it for another Aero they were thinking of moving onto but never did etc etc. In which case there'd be no problem fitting to a different Aero as long as the ECU were with the PPC.

All it would take for someone to have done so would be to source an Aero standard ECU to replace the one they uploaded the BSR PPC onto before they parted with their Aero.

You say no problem etc., but that 'other' standard Aero ECU still has to be recoded for the VIN of the car your putting it into, so, not as simple a case of just swapping over.

Also, how have you found out for definate that the car is now not running a Stage 3 BSR tune...??

Edited by aeropilot on Monday 7th February 13:58

[boolay]

As Aeropilot says, you might want to check you're not running a different tune first. If you're not but still want a stage 3 tune, don't go and buy a BSR PPC, please. Had nothing but problems with it on mine.

[Slade Alive]

aeropilot said:

You say no problem etc., but that 'other' standard Aero ECU still has to be recoded for the VIN of the car your putting it into, so, not as simple a case of just swapping over.

Also, how have you found out for definate that the car is now not running a Stage 3 BSR tune...??

First off, thank you. I've seen you harping on about Maptun for a long time but never considered it. Mainly because I have a toy much more worthy than the Aero hack. But today I took time out to read the Maptun website and am impressed.

It's no more performance than any other Aero 2.3. In fact it feels like not the quickest I've driven, which surprises me given the 3" pipe performance cat and twin silencer conversion.

Usually someone opting for this exhaust set-up from BSR would usually do so only if doing the stage 3 re map. That it's on 18" alloys and has a number of other options and extras, it strikes me rather odd that the stage 3 would have not been done. The full history was with the car and the news of its loss from the person I bought from was genuine. That they had it for certain, but had no PPC and link etc leads me to believe it was kept by a previous owner for another car. This will cover your question, as once the ECU is uploaded it is ECU and not car specific. If you kept the PPC and the programed ECU the car would run as it should with a standard ECU from the same model/year Aero if it were swapped back. I'm pretty sure a stock Aero ECU would not be difficult to find and probably for around £200. So unless I'm wrong about the PPC ECU not being car specific, the only other explanation would be this Aero never had the BSR stage 3, which as I said seems rather odd given how bit more special than normal this Aero is. Why spend nearly two grand fitting an exhaust system of no real benefit without the stage 3 remap?

[Slade Alive]

boolay said:

As Aeropilot says, you might want to check you're not running a different tune first. If you're not but still want a stage 3 tune, don't go and buy a BSR PPC, please. Had nothing but problems with it on mine.

Thank you. Looking at Maptun their theory and practice is how I would want such. The only problem is, their website doesn't state price! BSR is only of interest to me if I can find and my theory is correct about an already programmed ECU.

[Slade Alive]

aeropilot said:

You say no problem etc., but that 'other' standard Aero ECU still has to be recoded for the VIN of the car your putting it into, so, not as simple a case of just swapping over.

Re reading, I've not done an ECU swap on a 9-5 Aero that I can remember but I'm pretty sure the ECU is not married and therefore does not require Tech II. But if it were, I'm pretty sure buying one from Two Stroke or Neo etc, they would divorce it before sale. Simple enough then to marry it to another car. I'm still thinking my theory about my Aero state of tune holds water. Please convince me otherwise if you think my reasoning is over the top.

[aeropilot]

Slade Alive said:

Re reading, I've not done an ECU swap on a 9-5 Aero that I can remember but I'm pretty sure the ECU is not married and therefore does not require Tech II. But if it were, I'm pretty sure buying one from Two Stroke or Neo etc, they would divorce it before sale. Simple enough then to marry it to another car. I'm still thinking my theory about my Aero state of tune holds water. Please convince me otherwise if you think my reasoning is over the top.

ECUs are VIN coded and do need to be divorced and recoded via Tech2 to the appropiate VIN of new car. Engine won't start otherwise.
You have to provide your VIN to Maptun & BSR at time of purchase of the Maptuner/PPC etc for precisely that reason which is why they only work for the VIN coded ECU.

It's not unusual for people to fit the 3" DP, sport cat etc without a Stage 3 tune, I was going to do the same on my 9-5 Aero, purely as a way of spreading the costs of doing a Stage 3. Buy and fit the exhaust first, then a few months later buy the ECU and 3.5 bar FPR.
I did the same on my old 9000 Aero as well.... DP + exhaust first before buying the rest later.

[Slade Alive]

My 'lost' stage 3 ECU theory just went out the window then, lol.

Ap, who do you recommend that's good with T7suite?

[aeropilot]

Slade Alive said:

Ap, who do you recommend that's good with T7suite?

I can't say I personally 'know' anyone that is good with T7suite I'm afraid.

[Slade Alive]

I know someone I can ask. Thanks again.

[Slade Alive]

As I thought, ECU is not VIN coded. Tech II requirement is to re program the immobiliser so TWICE / ECU communicate. Tech II is needed to re program ECU to individual vehicle spec is all. There is no marriage or divorce, and no VIN code vehicle specific stuff, so other than immobiliser there's no reason ECU's can't be moved from one car to another without any difficulty or problem, but yes, Tech II is needed.


I suspect BSR, Maptun, whoever, write VIN code info into their software (if they do) to protect the profit making side of their business. I'm curious now to see if any of these tuning shops ECU's are VIN coded, or they just make out they are. My theory regarding my possible 'missing' ECU might be back on, lol.

[aeropilot]

Slade Alive said:

I suspect BSR, Maptun, whoever, write VIN code info into their software (if they do) to protect the profit making side of their business. I'm curious now to see if any of these tuning shops ECU's are VIN coded, or they just make out they are. My theory regarding my possible 'missing' ECU might be back on, lol.

Most likely...... code the PPC uploader to that VIN so it will only upload/download to a connected ECU with that VIN number.

You're theory of being removed is a valid one.... but, you are removing the least expensive bit of the equation, and it's hassle for not a lot of return.... IMO.

So, I still wouldn't bet against the exhaust just being fitted on it's own. As I said, many do this just for the better turbo-spoolup that fitting the 3" DP gives.

[aeropilot]

Slade Alive said:

I suspect BSR, Maptun, whoever, write VIN code info into their software (if they do) to protect the profit making side of their business. I'm curious now to see if any of these tuning shops ECU's are VIN coded, or they just make out they are. My theory regarding my possible 'missing' ECU might be back on, lol.

Most likely...... code the PPC uploader to that VIN so it will only upload/download to a connected ECU with that VIN number.

You're theory of being removed is a valid one.... but, you are removing the least expensive bit of the equation, and it's hassle for not a lot of return.... IMO.

So, I still wouldn't bet against the exhaust just being fitted on it's own. As I said, many do this just for the better turbo-spoolup that fitting the 3" DP gives.