Modding a Saab 9-5 Aero – How to spend over £6k on a shed..
Discussion
I’ve owned my 2004 Saab 9-5 Aero for nearly 3 years now, and thought it was about time to create a build thread of what I’ve done to it as a guide for others on what to do, and what not to do. It may get a bit off topic and I am prone to rambling on, but I hope you enjoy seeing how the car has changed. Plus, it will include lots of nice pictures so you can just skim through them if you like. Here’s a picture of the car in its current state to entice you in.
A little bit of backstory as to why a 21-year-old ended up in an ‘old man’s car’ might be needed. I had recently graduated university in Liverpool and was back home in the Lake District working for the summer. I had sold my old faithful Fiesta a year ago, and so felt I could give myself a little graduation present for the summer. Of course I did what every stupid 21 year old does, I jumped on Autotrader and selected the only criteria I’d need: ‘Price max - £1500,’ ‘0-60 time under 8 seconds,’ ‘Manual gearbox.’ Took a little of bit of looking but I happened across this car down in Bradford.
I’ll be honest, at this point I had absolutely no clue about Saab’s at all. None. I just thought it looked nice, had 250bhp and was within my price range. Did a quick insurance check and it came to around £900 for the year which wasn’t awful. So I rang the dealer up, and booked a test drive for the next day. I did a tiny bit of research on what to look out for, but that’s about it. When I got there, it seemed to be in good condition, 113,000 miles, partial service history, 5 previous owners, nothing falling off it or rusting horribly which is always a good sign. Fired up first time, drove fine on the test drive, ticked all my boxes, deal done. Handed over £1350 to the dealer after a little bit of haggling, and away I went.
Now being a clueless 21 year old who’d not really driven anything of this sort before, it took me about 5 minutes before I made my first mistake. The petrol light was already on when I tested the car, so I had to fill it up before I could make it home. I pulled into Morissons garage, threw in their finest 95 octane petrol. If I’d bothered to read the manual or look at the fuel filler cap, I would’ve discovered that it really should be run on 99 octane. But I’m lazy, which resulted in some of the worst knock I’ve ever heard from a car under boost, as the ECU desperately fought to retard the timing due to the filth I’d just poured into the tank. Check engine light comes on, little old me crapped my pants. I pulled over, couldn’t see or hear anything wrong with the car, so I limped it all the way home.
After this little error, I wised up and read the manual, searched some forums and figured out my mistake. Promptly popped down to Shell and filled it with V-Power, which I’ve used ever since. It is a tad pricey to fuel though, that 70 litre tank takes some filling.
Following that blunder, the car ran perfectly! Until about a week later when it threw up another check engine light. It came on right after fuelling, which scared me as I’d put in the best petrol possible so what else could it be? Another google session suggested that I simply hadn’t tightened the petrol cap tight enough, which apparently can cause CEL. So there’s one to look out for if you’re a new or future 9-5 owner.
A month or so after buying the car, I was due to move back down to Liverpool in search of a better job and an escape from the misery of small town life in Cumbria. My uncle, an insurance broker, suggested that I’d have to reinsure the car to my new address down in Liverpool in order to not void my policy. This is where life starts to go downhill for me. Apparently, if you’re 21, unemployed, living in a dodgy area of Liverpool with a 250bhp saloon, it can combine to make your insurance quite expensive. I’ll let you have a little guess as to how much you think it’ll be. 2 grand perhaps? Maybe 3.5k on a bad day?
No. Turns out it would be £27,000. Twenty seven thousand pounds. To insure a £1350 Saab. Or I could get it down to £24,000 with a black box… what a bargain. So I had to leave the car at home in the Lakes for half a year until I landed a better job back home. Bit of a nightmare.
I’m well aware that I’ve been rambling on, but I do start talking about modding the car soon, I promise.
After my failed Liverpool excursion, I reinsured the car and set out to enjoy it as much as possible during the winter months. I had no real plans for the car at this time other than to drive it, but I had been on the forums to weigh up my options. The thought of tuning the car was tempting, but for now 250bhp was more than enough to keep me entertained. Here’s a few nice pictures of the car I grabbed around the lakes during winter.
Spring was coming around now, and so the thought of fiddling with the car was really tempting as I’d be able to work on it without being frozen or soaked by rain and snow. The first mod was every boy races first change; an air filter. I purchased this Maptun filter from NeoBrothers for around £35. It drops into the original airbox as a straight replacement. I knew it wouldn’t give me any gains at all, but it does increase intake noise slightly so that’s all that mattered to me.
This will sound strange but at this point I really hadn’t given the car a good looking over. Work had taken up all my time, plus the awful Cumbrian weather meant I’d not had chance. When I jacked the car up to fit the filter I realised that one of the previous owners had fitted an aftermarket exhaust, a 2.5inch catback jetex system. I’d just assumed it was the stock system, but a bit of googling proved me wrong. It also featured an aftermarket recirculating dump-valve, which to this day I haven’t been able to identify the brand. I assume it’s an Abbott Racing set-up, but I could be wrong. Obviously, if you haven’t guessed by this point, I’m a bit dense sometimes.
I blame that dump-valve for all of my spending on this car over the last 2 years. After driving the car hard all summer, I started to notice a distinct lack of power. Upon revving the car with the bonnet up, there was an apparent boost leak coming from the around the valve. Under closer inspection, it appeared that the previous owner had tightened the valve hoses on so tight that it had caused the delivery pipe to collapse in on itself, resulting in a lack of boost. I tried to remedy the situation, but it was basically unfixable. Which meant I could either get a replacement OEM pipe or splash out and get a nice shiny aftermarket part. I like shiny things, so aftermarket it was.
A little look around online presented me two options. I could go with the Abbott Racing delivery pipe at around £300, which seemed fair pricey for just a pipe. Or, I could really splash out and get the DO88 Intercooler and delivery pipe from PartsForSaabs at around £500. Seemed like a no-brainer really, might as well get the full lot for only £200 more. I’d also been doing some in-depth research at this point into tuning options, specifically mapping by a guy called Noobtune. Going off his website, for the cost of £95 I could go up to 300hp and 450nm with the additions of 3inch downpipe (£350), 3.5bar fuel pressure regulator (£60) and a new intercooler. Seeing as I was already getting the intercooler, what would be the harm in picking up the other two… 300hp here I come.
Unfortunately, I don’t have any pictures of the intercooler or downpipe being fitted, as me and my mates were too busy fighting the car, desperately trying to bench press an intercooler into place in a very tight space. The instructions make it seem like a piece of piss, which I’m sure it is if you’ve got a lift. Not so easy when you’re lying on a cold concrete floor under the car on axle stands. The downpipe is also a pain in the arse to fit, especially when the studs on turbo keep threatening to break. Copious amounts of exhaust gasket sealant were needed to make it stop leaking. But after two weekends of hard graft, it was finally all buttoned up and ready to be tuned.
Mods fitted, I quickly got in touch with Karl (Noobtune). We agreed a time and I made the three hour drive down to Nottingham. Once at Karl’s, the process is super simple, it’s a matter of plugging his laptop and loading in a map onto the ECU. Karl’s a really nice chap and will happily chat about Saab’s forever, making the drive down worthwhile. Taking the car for a quick test drive to make sure everything was running smooth, I quickly discovered I hadn’t exactly got everything buttoned up. Under my new and increased boost pressure, a 2nd gear full throttle pull resulted in a loud pop from under the bonnet, causing the car to die in the street. Not going to lie here, I very nearly shat my pants. As soon as the car died, I had the horrible feeling that I just detonated the entire engine 3 hours from home. I could already feel the incoming wave of sarcastic messages from my mates berating me for getting a flash map. Thankfully, I’d just blown the delivery pipe off the throttle body. With that reattached, I thanked Karl for giving me a minor heart attack and I was on my way.
It’s at this point that I should probably include a small disclaimer for what’s to come. I’d like to make the point that I really am a complete idiot, and should’ve considered what I’d just done. I’d taken a perfectly fine 9-5 Aero that was running great, and then taken it apart, added new bits to it and given it an additional 50hp and 100nm onto an engine with 120,000 miles and a very mixed service history. I think you can guess what’s about to occur…
Yep, that’s right, 1000 miles after getting it tuned, I blew it up. While out for a spirited drive near my home, I changed from 3rd to 4th at a speed over the national speed limit, only to be met with a loud pop from under the bonnet, and a sudden loss of power. ‘Not to worry,’ I thought, ‘it’s probably just a hose coming loose again.’ This theory was quickly disproved by the large amount of smoke now beginning to pour out of the exhaust behind me. Never a good sign. Thankfully I was only a mile from home, so I limped the poor car back, with a James Bond style smoke screen being created in my wake. Once home, a quick lift of the bonnet revealed my worst fear, it was completely shagged. Oil had shot out of the dipstick, coating the intake manifold while also hitting the roof of the bonnet. Pulling the dipstick was followed by a waft of smoke, so something was definitely broken. My amateur diagnosis was either a blown turbo, or a cracked piston. Both could cause some blow-by or allowed extra oil into the system, which would be the cause of my smoking and lack of power issues. But for now I wasn’t sure, so it was loaded onto a breakdown trailer and taken to the garage with me desperately hoping I wouldn’t need to be looking for a new engine anytime soon…
A week later, the diagnosis came in from the garage. It was kaput. I’d managed to crack piston no.4, resulting in a massive amount of blow-by that I’d experience on the road. In my mind this was pretty much the end of the road for me with the Saab. I really had enjoyed my time in it, but the cost of getting it fixed just didn’t seem worthwhile. I rolled it over to my work and let it sit for a month, while I tried to figure out my next plan. I’d had some great times with the car so far, it had taken me to multiple rally’s and touring car races across the country without skipping a beat. I had no intention of scrapping it, but the thought of paying for a new engine didn’t really sit well with me either. For the time being, I’d have to find something else to fill the Saab shaped void in my life. Here’s a few extra pictures of the car from my travels, as well as a couple of lovely 9-5’s I spotted on my travels.
A month or so had passed since the old shed went bang, and I’d formulated some sort of plan. For the time being, rebuilding the car was out of my budget. I’d need to do a bit of saving for a month or two before I could consider that. So I decided to do the next best thing, buy another 9-5! I mean why not, I done well with them so far…
After a few weeks of looking online, I found the perfect replacement shed. Based up in Glasgow, I found a 90,000 mile 2004 9-5 Aero listed for £1300. It had full service history, 3 owners and judging from the pictures, appeared to be in decent condition. This looked to be the idle replacement for the time being. Plus, it had a rare OEM boot spoiler that I planned to fit to my original car, as well as the nicer 5 spoke alloys that I preferred to my 10 spokes. So if worst came to worst, I’d just nick all the good bits off it, swap them to my car and sell it back on.
When I went to Glasgow to take a look at the car, it was a tad bit rougher than I would’ve liked, but it was mostly cosmetic. It had been owned by a lovely old man, who clearly had tapped the odd car in a carpark, as well as managing to curb every wheel all the way round. Undettered by the scuffs, I lowballed him down to £1100 (seemed like a fair enough deal), switched my insurance for the costly price of £20 and away I went. So now I had two silver 2004 Saab 9-5 Aero’s, much to my parents’ displeasure.
My plan now was to get my original Aero rebuilt, while I drove around in the replacement for a few months. I had toyed with idea of buying another B235R block and installing it myself, but I’ve got about as many mechanical skills as a child so that was promptly dismissed. After a bit of googling, I came across this thread from Pistonheads:
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
What a revelation this post was. Pages and pages of posts covering exactly what I wanted to do. Simon, if you’re reading this, thank you so much for recording your experiences! It made mine much less painless.
So, following my discovery, I decided to get in contact with Tony from Doncaster Saab Repairs and get a new engine built and installed. Tony is a great bloke, has a great wealth of knowledge when it comes to these engines, and is willing to work with you to build up what you want. I can’t recommend him enough. After some discussion and debate, we decided to go down the route of a B234/5R hybrid build, much the same as the build in the thread above. Using a B235R block and head with the improved PCV system, Tony would install B234R rods, pistons and crank from a Saab 9000. This combination would retain the lighter B235 block, while gaining the strength of the B234 internals. This meant that in theory, if I really wanted to turn it up in the future, I would be able to run over at least 400HP. The crazy b
ds over in Sweden run 700hp on stock B234 internals, but I’m not that mad.
With everything agreed with Tony, and the help of my mate (and fellow Saab owner) Brandon, the 9-5 was strapped onto a trailer and driven down to Doncaster for Tony to work his magic. We’d agreed on a price of £2000 with everything sorted, which to be honest I think is a bargain for what you get. Throw in another £200 for a fresh clutch and I’d be back on the road in a few weeks’ time. Here’s a couple of pics from Tony during the build process, regretfully I didn’t ask for more.
About 3 weeks later, it was done! I collected the car, thanked Tony for getting it done so quickly and was on my way. I now had a break-in period to carry out before I could really drive the car in any anger, but that was a small price to pay compared to the now potential monster I had acquired.
Now at this point in the thread, I wish this is where I could say that I go on to slap a massive turbo on it and make 600hp, and start beating McLaren’s for fun. Sadly, that’s not the case. Apologies if you’ve read this far and now feel like I’ve been a Saab cocktease, but realistically that kinda build is way out of my price range. Instead, you can read on as I cover some more little issues I encounter that other Saab users may also be stumped by. I’ve done it so you don’t get stuck where I did.
With my break in period out of the way, I now had two running and driving 9-5 Aero’s. While I would’ve loved to keep both of them, my boss wasn’t best pleased by having two Saab’s sat outside his factory all the time. This meant it was time to sell the Glasgow Saab on, but not before I nicked all the good bits off it. I swapped the wheels, bonnet and boot around, creating a fresher looking car than I’d started with. I’d never really been a fan of the black wheels to begin with, they’re impossible to keep clean and disappear into the wheel wells in photos. The boot spoiler was a must have, and the Glasgow Saab’s bonnet was in a much nicer condition than the original car.
It seems like as soon as I get one thing sorted with the car, another issue comes to light. While giving the engine a quick once over, I noticed a small pool of liquid forming on edge of the head, which is never a good sign. Upon closer inspection, it appeared to be coolant, leaking from somewhere along where the head meets the block. A quick message to Tony about the issue, and he suggest that sometimes the heads need retorquing after an engine break-in, as it’s all settled into place. Back down to Doncaster I went, and Tony kindly retorqued the head for the no cost. Like I’ve said, great guy! However, there was still a mild leak occurring every now-and-again. I’d noticed that the car sometimes wasn’t getting up to temp, so figured a dodgy thermostat could be the cause of the low temp and leakage. Popped the car over to the garage, new thermostat installed and leaked fixed. So if you’ve got a 9-5 Aero that’s leaking near the head and exhaust manifold, get your head retorqued and thermostat changed, it’ll really help.
I now had the OG Aero looking and driving to a standard I was fairly happy with, so it was time to get the Glasgow Saab on the marketplace. Unfortunately, some crazy virus called COVID-19 has just started to appear, and the country was expected to go into lockdown within weeks. Knowing I could be stuck with two cars I wouldn’t be able to use, I was prepared to take some loss and sell the Glasgow Aero on for cheap. Thankfully, Facebook marketplace works wonders, meaning within a week I had the car sold for £800. I made a £300 loss on it, which isn’t amazing but as it turns out lockdown occurred the day after I sold it, so I was lucky to get rid of it in time.
And for the next few months while I was furloughed, the car sat languishing outside of my house. I reckon I put a maximum of 500 miles on it over those months. It seemed a shame to see it just sat there, but everyone else was in the same boat so I can’t complain. At least I got to wash it every week.
Thanks to being furloughed, I’d actually managed to save some money due to not commuting to work every day. This meant I could finally afford to get some new parts for the car, as I’d been dying to waste some more money on it. First up, I wanted to polybush the subframe in an attempt to stop the car rolling around like a tugboat in an ocean swell whenever I went around a corner. A quick look online and £144 later, I had a set of Powerflex polyurethane bushes coming my way from Abbott Saab. Another visit to my local garage and the subframe was sorted. I wish I could say there’s a massively noticeable difference, but there’s not. The car feels a bit tighter on initial turn in, but it’s going to take a combination of new shocks and springs to really make a difference.
With the bushes installed, it was on to my next mod. For a while I’d been considering a new exhaust to replace the 2.5inch Jetex Catback system. It did the job, but was pretty muted. I’d been eyeing up a 3inch system, but the AbbottRacing and Maptun sytems were incredibly costly for what they are. Eventually I came across a great 3inch setup with one muffler on Speedparts.se, which was considerably cheaper and looked to be the exact same as the pricer alternatives. £360 seemed a fair price to pay for a nice system, so out came the card and an order was placed. A week later and the new Swedish set up was at my door.
In terms of all the mods I’ve done, I think that exhaust has to be my favourite so far. It sounds the absolute business. Will pop and bang on the overrun in second and third gear, and gives a great throaty snarl under acceleration. It’s also not too droney, so 5th gear at 80mph on the motorway is no issue at all. I’ve been headache free so far. If I get chance, I’ll make a video with a couple of drive-by’s and static shots to show it off, but no promises.
The next issue to tackle was an intermittent check engine light that I’d been chasing for the past year. The fault code it issued was P0134 ( F308 on the SID error reader) which was for ‘no activity recorded at the O2 sensor.’ Throughout the past year, I’d changed the O2 sensor twice in the hopes of curing it, and for a while it would go away before reappearing a few months later. It was causing the car to run very rich, destroying my already no existent fuel economy and making the car accelerate incredibly lazily. This issue was a giant pain in the arse, it would come and go as it pleased, meaning I could never really rely on the car to be at its full potential all the time. Searching the forums was really no help either, most suggested checking for air leaks and cleaning the MAF with some contact cleaner. I did pull the MAF and spray it off, which once again cured the CEL for about 2 days, only for it to come right back.
I was pretty stumped at this point. I was even considering buying a whole new wiring harness in the hopes of fixing the issue. Thankfully, I stumbled upon an older post on the SaabCentral forums, that suggested that the O2 sensor wiring on the ECU side can deteriorate, resulting in intermittent CEL’s. To fix it, the J16 connection would need to be re-wired. I got in contact with a local auto-electric garage, who agreed to give it a go. 2 hours of labour later, and I’m happy to report that it worked, my CEL was cleared and hasn’t reappeared. So if you’re suffering from P0134 or F308, get your J16 connection sorted in the wiring harness. It’ll hopefully fix all your issues and save you from the same headache I suffered from.
And for now, that’s pretty much everything up-to-date. I hope you enjoyed reading this overly long thread about my struggles and stupid choices. It’s been a crazy three years of ownership, and I’ve really fallen for this big Swedish shed. My friends still take the piss out of me for owning a ‘grandad’ car, but I’m considerably faster than whatever they’re running, which always shuts them up. If you do intend to boost your Saab, do it properly and avoid my mistakes. I’m always happy to offer advice and point people in the right direction, but I am by no means an expert. Below I’ll put a list of my costs so far, so people can get an idea of the money spent if they intend to go down this route:
Buying the car - £1350
Maptun Air Filter - £35
3inch Downpipe - £350
DO88 Intercooler and piping - £569
3.5bar Fuel Pressure Regulator - £60
B234/5R Hybrid engine build - £2000
New clutch - £200
Second Saab 9-5 Aero - £300 (Original cost £1100 minus £800 after sale)
Uniroyal Rainsport 5's - £250
Powerflex polyurethane bushes - £344 (£144 plus £200 for install)
Speedparts.se 3inch Catback Exhaust with 1 Muffler - £400 (£360 plus £40 install)
Various services (oil changes, spark plugs, MOT etc.) - £350 approx.
Overall Spend - £6208 approx.
It did make me feel slightly sick when I added all that up, but oh well it’s all done now, and there’s still much more to do! I intend to update this thread whenever something new occurs, as I have plans for a new turbo, brakes, and suspension in the future. So once again, if you made it this far, thanks for reading!
A little bit of backstory as to why a 21-year-old ended up in an ‘old man’s car’ might be needed. I had recently graduated university in Liverpool and was back home in the Lake District working for the summer. I had sold my old faithful Fiesta a year ago, and so felt I could give myself a little graduation present for the summer. Of course I did what every stupid 21 year old does, I jumped on Autotrader and selected the only criteria I’d need: ‘Price max - £1500,’ ‘0-60 time under 8 seconds,’ ‘Manual gearbox.’ Took a little of bit of looking but I happened across this car down in Bradford.
I’ll be honest, at this point I had absolutely no clue about Saab’s at all. None. I just thought it looked nice, had 250bhp and was within my price range. Did a quick insurance check and it came to around £900 for the year which wasn’t awful. So I rang the dealer up, and booked a test drive for the next day. I did a tiny bit of research on what to look out for, but that’s about it. When I got there, it seemed to be in good condition, 113,000 miles, partial service history, 5 previous owners, nothing falling off it or rusting horribly which is always a good sign. Fired up first time, drove fine on the test drive, ticked all my boxes, deal done. Handed over £1350 to the dealer after a little bit of haggling, and away I went.
Now being a clueless 21 year old who’d not really driven anything of this sort before, it took me about 5 minutes before I made my first mistake. The petrol light was already on when I tested the car, so I had to fill it up before I could make it home. I pulled into Morissons garage, threw in their finest 95 octane petrol. If I’d bothered to read the manual or look at the fuel filler cap, I would’ve discovered that it really should be run on 99 octane. But I’m lazy, which resulted in some of the worst knock I’ve ever heard from a car under boost, as the ECU desperately fought to retard the timing due to the filth I’d just poured into the tank. Check engine light comes on, little old me crapped my pants. I pulled over, couldn’t see or hear anything wrong with the car, so I limped it all the way home.
After this little error, I wised up and read the manual, searched some forums and figured out my mistake. Promptly popped down to Shell and filled it with V-Power, which I’ve used ever since. It is a tad pricey to fuel though, that 70 litre tank takes some filling.
Following that blunder, the car ran perfectly! Until about a week later when it threw up another check engine light. It came on right after fuelling, which scared me as I’d put in the best petrol possible so what else could it be? Another google session suggested that I simply hadn’t tightened the petrol cap tight enough, which apparently can cause CEL. So there’s one to look out for if you’re a new or future 9-5 owner.
A month or so after buying the car, I was due to move back down to Liverpool in search of a better job and an escape from the misery of small town life in Cumbria. My uncle, an insurance broker, suggested that I’d have to reinsure the car to my new address down in Liverpool in order to not void my policy. This is where life starts to go downhill for me. Apparently, if you’re 21, unemployed, living in a dodgy area of Liverpool with a 250bhp saloon, it can combine to make your insurance quite expensive. I’ll let you have a little guess as to how much you think it’ll be. 2 grand perhaps? Maybe 3.5k on a bad day?
No. Turns out it would be £27,000. Twenty seven thousand pounds. To insure a £1350 Saab. Or I could get it down to £24,000 with a black box… what a bargain. So I had to leave the car at home in the Lakes for half a year until I landed a better job back home. Bit of a nightmare.
I’m well aware that I’ve been rambling on, but I do start talking about modding the car soon, I promise.
After my failed Liverpool excursion, I reinsured the car and set out to enjoy it as much as possible during the winter months. I had no real plans for the car at this time other than to drive it, but I had been on the forums to weigh up my options. The thought of tuning the car was tempting, but for now 250bhp was more than enough to keep me entertained. Here’s a few nice pictures of the car I grabbed around the lakes during winter.
Spring was coming around now, and so the thought of fiddling with the car was really tempting as I’d be able to work on it without being frozen or soaked by rain and snow. The first mod was every boy races first change; an air filter. I purchased this Maptun filter from NeoBrothers for around £35. It drops into the original airbox as a straight replacement. I knew it wouldn’t give me any gains at all, but it does increase intake noise slightly so that’s all that mattered to me.
This will sound strange but at this point I really hadn’t given the car a good looking over. Work had taken up all my time, plus the awful Cumbrian weather meant I’d not had chance. When I jacked the car up to fit the filter I realised that one of the previous owners had fitted an aftermarket exhaust, a 2.5inch catback jetex system. I’d just assumed it was the stock system, but a bit of googling proved me wrong. It also featured an aftermarket recirculating dump-valve, which to this day I haven’t been able to identify the brand. I assume it’s an Abbott Racing set-up, but I could be wrong. Obviously, if you haven’t guessed by this point, I’m a bit dense sometimes.
I blame that dump-valve for all of my spending on this car over the last 2 years. After driving the car hard all summer, I started to notice a distinct lack of power. Upon revving the car with the bonnet up, there was an apparent boost leak coming from the around the valve. Under closer inspection, it appeared that the previous owner had tightened the valve hoses on so tight that it had caused the delivery pipe to collapse in on itself, resulting in a lack of boost. I tried to remedy the situation, but it was basically unfixable. Which meant I could either get a replacement OEM pipe or splash out and get a nice shiny aftermarket part. I like shiny things, so aftermarket it was.
A little look around online presented me two options. I could go with the Abbott Racing delivery pipe at around £300, which seemed fair pricey for just a pipe. Or, I could really splash out and get the DO88 Intercooler and delivery pipe from PartsForSaabs at around £500. Seemed like a no-brainer really, might as well get the full lot for only £200 more. I’d also been doing some in-depth research at this point into tuning options, specifically mapping by a guy called Noobtune. Going off his website, for the cost of £95 I could go up to 300hp and 450nm with the additions of 3inch downpipe (£350), 3.5bar fuel pressure regulator (£60) and a new intercooler. Seeing as I was already getting the intercooler, what would be the harm in picking up the other two… 300hp here I come.
Unfortunately, I don’t have any pictures of the intercooler or downpipe being fitted, as me and my mates were too busy fighting the car, desperately trying to bench press an intercooler into place in a very tight space. The instructions make it seem like a piece of piss, which I’m sure it is if you’ve got a lift. Not so easy when you’re lying on a cold concrete floor under the car on axle stands. The downpipe is also a pain in the arse to fit, especially when the studs on turbo keep threatening to break. Copious amounts of exhaust gasket sealant were needed to make it stop leaking. But after two weekends of hard graft, it was finally all buttoned up and ready to be tuned.
Mods fitted, I quickly got in touch with Karl (Noobtune). We agreed a time and I made the three hour drive down to Nottingham. Once at Karl’s, the process is super simple, it’s a matter of plugging his laptop and loading in a map onto the ECU. Karl’s a really nice chap and will happily chat about Saab’s forever, making the drive down worthwhile. Taking the car for a quick test drive to make sure everything was running smooth, I quickly discovered I hadn’t exactly got everything buttoned up. Under my new and increased boost pressure, a 2nd gear full throttle pull resulted in a loud pop from under the bonnet, causing the car to die in the street. Not going to lie here, I very nearly shat my pants. As soon as the car died, I had the horrible feeling that I just detonated the entire engine 3 hours from home. I could already feel the incoming wave of sarcastic messages from my mates berating me for getting a flash map. Thankfully, I’d just blown the delivery pipe off the throttle body. With that reattached, I thanked Karl for giving me a minor heart attack and I was on my way.
It’s at this point that I should probably include a small disclaimer for what’s to come. I’d like to make the point that I really am a complete idiot, and should’ve considered what I’d just done. I’d taken a perfectly fine 9-5 Aero that was running great, and then taken it apart, added new bits to it and given it an additional 50hp and 100nm onto an engine with 120,000 miles and a very mixed service history. I think you can guess what’s about to occur…
Yep, that’s right, 1000 miles after getting it tuned, I blew it up. While out for a spirited drive near my home, I changed from 3rd to 4th at a speed over the national speed limit, only to be met with a loud pop from under the bonnet, and a sudden loss of power. ‘Not to worry,’ I thought, ‘it’s probably just a hose coming loose again.’ This theory was quickly disproved by the large amount of smoke now beginning to pour out of the exhaust behind me. Never a good sign. Thankfully I was only a mile from home, so I limped the poor car back, with a James Bond style smoke screen being created in my wake. Once home, a quick lift of the bonnet revealed my worst fear, it was completely shagged. Oil had shot out of the dipstick, coating the intake manifold while also hitting the roof of the bonnet. Pulling the dipstick was followed by a waft of smoke, so something was definitely broken. My amateur diagnosis was either a blown turbo, or a cracked piston. Both could cause some blow-by or allowed extra oil into the system, which would be the cause of my smoking and lack of power issues. But for now I wasn’t sure, so it was loaded onto a breakdown trailer and taken to the garage with me desperately hoping I wouldn’t need to be looking for a new engine anytime soon…
A week later, the diagnosis came in from the garage. It was kaput. I’d managed to crack piston no.4, resulting in a massive amount of blow-by that I’d experience on the road. In my mind this was pretty much the end of the road for me with the Saab. I really had enjoyed my time in it, but the cost of getting it fixed just didn’t seem worthwhile. I rolled it over to my work and let it sit for a month, while I tried to figure out my next plan. I’d had some great times with the car so far, it had taken me to multiple rally’s and touring car races across the country without skipping a beat. I had no intention of scrapping it, but the thought of paying for a new engine didn’t really sit well with me either. For the time being, I’d have to find something else to fill the Saab shaped void in my life. Here’s a few extra pictures of the car from my travels, as well as a couple of lovely 9-5’s I spotted on my travels.
A month or so had passed since the old shed went bang, and I’d formulated some sort of plan. For the time being, rebuilding the car was out of my budget. I’d need to do a bit of saving for a month or two before I could consider that. So I decided to do the next best thing, buy another 9-5! I mean why not, I done well with them so far…
After a few weeks of looking online, I found the perfect replacement shed. Based up in Glasgow, I found a 90,000 mile 2004 9-5 Aero listed for £1300. It had full service history, 3 owners and judging from the pictures, appeared to be in decent condition. This looked to be the idle replacement for the time being. Plus, it had a rare OEM boot spoiler that I planned to fit to my original car, as well as the nicer 5 spoke alloys that I preferred to my 10 spokes. So if worst came to worst, I’d just nick all the good bits off it, swap them to my car and sell it back on.
When I went to Glasgow to take a look at the car, it was a tad bit rougher than I would’ve liked, but it was mostly cosmetic. It had been owned by a lovely old man, who clearly had tapped the odd car in a carpark, as well as managing to curb every wheel all the way round. Undettered by the scuffs, I lowballed him down to £1100 (seemed like a fair enough deal), switched my insurance for the costly price of £20 and away I went. So now I had two silver 2004 Saab 9-5 Aero’s, much to my parents’ displeasure.
My plan now was to get my original Aero rebuilt, while I drove around in the replacement for a few months. I had toyed with idea of buying another B235R block and installing it myself, but I’ve got about as many mechanical skills as a child so that was promptly dismissed. After a bit of googling, I came across this thread from Pistonheads:
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
What a revelation this post was. Pages and pages of posts covering exactly what I wanted to do. Simon, if you’re reading this, thank you so much for recording your experiences! It made mine much less painless.
So, following my discovery, I decided to get in contact with Tony from Doncaster Saab Repairs and get a new engine built and installed. Tony is a great bloke, has a great wealth of knowledge when it comes to these engines, and is willing to work with you to build up what you want. I can’t recommend him enough. After some discussion and debate, we decided to go down the route of a B234/5R hybrid build, much the same as the build in the thread above. Using a B235R block and head with the improved PCV system, Tony would install B234R rods, pistons and crank from a Saab 9000. This combination would retain the lighter B235 block, while gaining the strength of the B234 internals. This meant that in theory, if I really wanted to turn it up in the future, I would be able to run over at least 400HP. The crazy b
ds over in Sweden run 700hp on stock B234 internals, but I’m not that mad.With everything agreed with Tony, and the help of my mate (and fellow Saab owner) Brandon, the 9-5 was strapped onto a trailer and driven down to Doncaster for Tony to work his magic. We’d agreed on a price of £2000 with everything sorted, which to be honest I think is a bargain for what you get. Throw in another £200 for a fresh clutch and I’d be back on the road in a few weeks’ time. Here’s a couple of pics from Tony during the build process, regretfully I didn’t ask for more.
About 3 weeks later, it was done! I collected the car, thanked Tony for getting it done so quickly and was on my way. I now had a break-in period to carry out before I could really drive the car in any anger, but that was a small price to pay compared to the now potential monster I had acquired.
Now at this point in the thread, I wish this is where I could say that I go on to slap a massive turbo on it and make 600hp, and start beating McLaren’s for fun. Sadly, that’s not the case. Apologies if you’ve read this far and now feel like I’ve been a Saab cocktease, but realistically that kinda build is way out of my price range. Instead, you can read on as I cover some more little issues I encounter that other Saab users may also be stumped by. I’ve done it so you don’t get stuck where I did.
With my break in period out of the way, I now had two running and driving 9-5 Aero’s. While I would’ve loved to keep both of them, my boss wasn’t best pleased by having two Saab’s sat outside his factory all the time. This meant it was time to sell the Glasgow Saab on, but not before I nicked all the good bits off it. I swapped the wheels, bonnet and boot around, creating a fresher looking car than I’d started with. I’d never really been a fan of the black wheels to begin with, they’re impossible to keep clean and disappear into the wheel wells in photos. The boot spoiler was a must have, and the Glasgow Saab’s bonnet was in a much nicer condition than the original car.
It seems like as soon as I get one thing sorted with the car, another issue comes to light. While giving the engine a quick once over, I noticed a small pool of liquid forming on edge of the head, which is never a good sign. Upon closer inspection, it appeared to be coolant, leaking from somewhere along where the head meets the block. A quick message to Tony about the issue, and he suggest that sometimes the heads need retorquing after an engine break-in, as it’s all settled into place. Back down to Doncaster I went, and Tony kindly retorqued the head for the no cost. Like I’ve said, great guy! However, there was still a mild leak occurring every now-and-again. I’d noticed that the car sometimes wasn’t getting up to temp, so figured a dodgy thermostat could be the cause of the low temp and leakage. Popped the car over to the garage, new thermostat installed and leaked fixed. So if you’ve got a 9-5 Aero that’s leaking near the head and exhaust manifold, get your head retorqued and thermostat changed, it’ll really help.
I now had the OG Aero looking and driving to a standard I was fairly happy with, so it was time to get the Glasgow Saab on the marketplace. Unfortunately, some crazy virus called COVID-19 has just started to appear, and the country was expected to go into lockdown within weeks. Knowing I could be stuck with two cars I wouldn’t be able to use, I was prepared to take some loss and sell the Glasgow Aero on for cheap. Thankfully, Facebook marketplace works wonders, meaning within a week I had the car sold for £800. I made a £300 loss on it, which isn’t amazing but as it turns out lockdown occurred the day after I sold it, so I was lucky to get rid of it in time.
And for the next few months while I was furloughed, the car sat languishing outside of my house. I reckon I put a maximum of 500 miles on it over those months. It seemed a shame to see it just sat there, but everyone else was in the same boat so I can’t complain. At least I got to wash it every week.
Thanks to being furloughed, I’d actually managed to save some money due to not commuting to work every day. This meant I could finally afford to get some new parts for the car, as I’d been dying to waste some more money on it. First up, I wanted to polybush the subframe in an attempt to stop the car rolling around like a tugboat in an ocean swell whenever I went around a corner. A quick look online and £144 later, I had a set of Powerflex polyurethane bushes coming my way from Abbott Saab. Another visit to my local garage and the subframe was sorted. I wish I could say there’s a massively noticeable difference, but there’s not. The car feels a bit tighter on initial turn in, but it’s going to take a combination of new shocks and springs to really make a difference.
With the bushes installed, it was on to my next mod. For a while I’d been considering a new exhaust to replace the 2.5inch Jetex Catback system. It did the job, but was pretty muted. I’d been eyeing up a 3inch system, but the AbbottRacing and Maptun sytems were incredibly costly for what they are. Eventually I came across a great 3inch setup with one muffler on Speedparts.se, which was considerably cheaper and looked to be the exact same as the pricer alternatives. £360 seemed a fair price to pay for a nice system, so out came the card and an order was placed. A week later and the new Swedish set up was at my door.
In terms of all the mods I’ve done, I think that exhaust has to be my favourite so far. It sounds the absolute business. Will pop and bang on the overrun in second and third gear, and gives a great throaty snarl under acceleration. It’s also not too droney, so 5th gear at 80mph on the motorway is no issue at all. I’ve been headache free so far. If I get chance, I’ll make a video with a couple of drive-by’s and static shots to show it off, but no promises.
The next issue to tackle was an intermittent check engine light that I’d been chasing for the past year. The fault code it issued was P0134 ( F308 on the SID error reader) which was for ‘no activity recorded at the O2 sensor.’ Throughout the past year, I’d changed the O2 sensor twice in the hopes of curing it, and for a while it would go away before reappearing a few months later. It was causing the car to run very rich, destroying my already no existent fuel economy and making the car accelerate incredibly lazily. This issue was a giant pain in the arse, it would come and go as it pleased, meaning I could never really rely on the car to be at its full potential all the time. Searching the forums was really no help either, most suggested checking for air leaks and cleaning the MAF with some contact cleaner. I did pull the MAF and spray it off, which once again cured the CEL for about 2 days, only for it to come right back.
I was pretty stumped at this point. I was even considering buying a whole new wiring harness in the hopes of fixing the issue. Thankfully, I stumbled upon an older post on the SaabCentral forums, that suggested that the O2 sensor wiring on the ECU side can deteriorate, resulting in intermittent CEL’s. To fix it, the J16 connection would need to be re-wired. I got in contact with a local auto-electric garage, who agreed to give it a go. 2 hours of labour later, and I’m happy to report that it worked, my CEL was cleared and hasn’t reappeared. So if you’re suffering from P0134 or F308, get your J16 connection sorted in the wiring harness. It’ll hopefully fix all your issues and save you from the same headache I suffered from.
And for now, that’s pretty much everything up-to-date. I hope you enjoyed reading this overly long thread about my struggles and stupid choices. It’s been a crazy three years of ownership, and I’ve really fallen for this big Swedish shed. My friends still take the piss out of me for owning a ‘grandad’ car, but I’m considerably faster than whatever they’re running, which always shuts them up. If you do intend to boost your Saab, do it properly and avoid my mistakes. I’m always happy to offer advice and point people in the right direction, but I am by no means an expert. Below I’ll put a list of my costs so far, so people can get an idea of the money spent if they intend to go down this route:
Buying the car - £1350
Maptun Air Filter - £35
3inch Downpipe - £350
DO88 Intercooler and piping - £569
3.5bar Fuel Pressure Regulator - £60
B234/5R Hybrid engine build - £2000
New clutch - £200
Second Saab 9-5 Aero - £300 (Original cost £1100 minus £800 after sale)
Uniroyal Rainsport 5's - £250
Powerflex polyurethane bushes - £344 (£144 plus £200 for install)
Speedparts.se 3inch Catback Exhaust with 1 Muffler - £400 (£360 plus £40 install)
Various services (oil changes, spark plugs, MOT etc.) - £350 approx.
Overall Spend - £6208 approx.
It did make me feel slightly sick when I added all that up, but oh well it’s all done now, and there’s still much more to do! I intend to update this thread whenever something new occurs, as I have plans for a new turbo, brakes, and suspension in the future. So once again, if you made it this far, thanks for reading!
Great write up OP.
If I added up everything I’d spent on cars in addition to their purchase price I know I’d be crying my eyes out but if it’s your passion and it makes you happy - it’s worth it.
You’ll never get it back so enjoy the car for as long as you can.
I do like an old Saab!
If I added up everything I’d spent on cars in addition to their purchase price I know I’d be crying my eyes out but if it’s your passion and it makes you happy - it’s worth it.
You’ll never get it back so enjoy the car for as long as you can.
I do like an old Saab!
To be fair see what 6K buys you in the large saloon catergory. Not much with 300 BHP i can tell you that and on top of that you know all the issues have been ironed out with the Saab 
I have a 04 9-5 Aero Estate. Just a stage 1 Noob on mine as it is a daily driver but 280BHP and 420NM is plenty enough for a dog carrier. Went all over the continent in it too. They make great 4 door GT cars in that respect and will happily sit 100+ on the Autobahn all day long.
I have a 04 9-5 Aero Estate. Just a stage 1 Noob on mine as it is a daily driver but 280BHP and 420NM is plenty enough for a dog carrier. Went all over the continent in it too. They make great 4 door GT cars in that respect and will happily sit 100+ on the Autobahn all day long.
Edited by BricktopST205 on Thursday 3rd September 17:24
BricktopST205 said:
To be fair see what 6K buys you in the large saloon catergory. Not much with 300 BHP i can tell you that
That's what me and my mate tell each other. For the money, its hard to find a faster saloon unless you buy something that's a complete shed. Plus it has that sleeper factor to it which I always enjoy.With the greatest of respect you write really well for a 21 year old! Great story, well written.
I'm a Saab fan having had a 99 Turbo and various pre GM 900's.
They're a marque that really get under your skin no doubt.
My cousin has had a 93 Aero for 17 years (he was a fighter pilot in the RAF) and he spends whatever it takes to keep the thing on the road. Current mileage is circa 250k but it is mint. I mean mint like new!
He reckons he could've bought a good 911 with what he has spent over the years.
My ex wife's brother had a 95 Griffin in around 1997, with some modest tweaks, IIRC, around 360bhp? The thing would pull a house down.
Well done you.
Chapeau!
I'm a Saab fan having had a 99 Turbo and various pre GM 900's.
They're a marque that really get under your skin no doubt.
My cousin has had a 93 Aero for 17 years (he was a fighter pilot in the RAF) and he spends whatever it takes to keep the thing on the road. Current mileage is circa 250k but it is mint. I mean mint like new!
He reckons he could've bought a good 911 with what he has spent over the years.
My ex wife's brother had a 95 Griffin in around 1997, with some modest tweaks, IIRC, around 360bhp? The thing would pull a house down.
Well done you.
Chapeau!
Trophy Husband said:
With the greatest of respect you write really well for a 21 year old! Great story, well written.
Thanks for the kind words, I was trying to make it a somewhat entertaining read!Trophy Husband said:
They're a marque that really get under your skin no doubt.
And they really do. There's just something about a Saab that I haven't quite found when in other people's cars.
Great writeup. I still have a soft spot for my old 1999 9-5 estate, which was a 2.3 LPT with Eibach suspension and a Hirsch map on it, and was I think 220-230bhp. That seemed quite enough for the chassis to be honest ! I've been running a 9-3SS as a second car for the last 5 years, and it's been absolutely brilliant for 25K miles or so - cost nothing apart from consumables.
What a cracking write up. I've got a low mileage 56 plate 93 Aero 210, which feels quicker than it should be.
Reading your thread (which is brilliant) makes me want to extract a little more power, but at the same time it feels as soon as you start, it's a slippery slope of reliability or liability.
Reading your thread (which is brilliant) makes me want to extract a little more power, but at the same time it feels as soon as you start, it's a slippery slope of reliability or liability.
outnumbered said:
Great writeup. I still have a soft spot for my old 1999 9-5 estate, which was a 2.3 LPT with Eibach suspension and a Hirsch map on it, and was I think 220-230bhp. That seemed quite enough for the chassis to be honest ! I've been running a 9-3SS as a second car for the last 5 years, and it's been absolutely brilliant for 25K miles or so - cost nothing apart from consumables.
I really admire the OG first-gen 9-5's, they've got such a timeless look and I'd love to own one at some point, especially an estate! I've never been in a 9-3 but from what I've read they're also a great car, like you say they cost so little to run.
skullandbiscuits said:
What a cracking write up. I've got a low mileage 56 plate 93 Aero 210, which feels quicker than it should be.
Reading your thread (which is brilliant) makes me want to extract a little more power, but at the same time it feels as soon as you start, it's a slippery slope of reliability or liability.
Most people recommend a stage 1 remap, they really open up some untapped power in the car without having to install any new parts. But once, you get a taste of power, you're always left wanting more hahaReading your thread (which is brilliant) makes me want to extract a little more power, but at the same time it feels as soon as you start, it's a slippery slope of reliability or liability.
Gassing Station | Readers' Cars | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff