Top Shedding (IMO) Saab 93 Aero (I know another Saab)
Top Shedding (IMO) Saab 93 Aero (I know another Saab)
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Discussion

MrTree

Original Poster:

139 posts

195 months

Wednesday 28th December 2016
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Hi I have been on PH for quite a few years and constantly browse the forum and news on here. My favourite sections being "Readers Cars" and "SOTW".

After having my old Volvo 850 T5 make it as SOTW and my 100k garage being published I thought I should add this for some light reading and something to update.

Now I know there is an abundance of saabs on here and people seem to be getting a little bored with them but humour me if you will.

So here's a little history of me and the car and basically the purpose of this thread as I am thoroughly proud of it.

I'm 26 married and a step father of one (he's 11 and not into cars :-( sadly but each to thier own) I usually stay in shed territory due to lack of funds and I find it a great way of motoring as I can usually own all the 90s barges I loved growing up and now a lot of other things are creeping into shed territory. Exciting times! I'm a big sweed fan and ultimately love a 5 pot turbo engine (hence why I have owned pretty much every Volvo body style with a T5 engine) I know some of you are starting to yawn now but each to thier own I'd say, not strictly stuck to sweedish though have owned all sorts along the way if interested just comment and I'll fill in the gaps.

So the car, it's a 2003 Saab 93ss Aero I'm black and a very well specced one at that. Headline figures 210bhp 310nm not bad imo and does go well.

I saw it come up on eBay back in April (2016) and the bids where slow on it and seemed a decent car it had a few issues but nothing major and a full service history too. Issues where slight oil leak, central locking can be a little funny and a few scratches here and there cloudy headlights and eml is on.I messaged the seller with a cheaky bid and a price was agreed went to pick her up the weekend following from Oxfordshire coming from leeds. Totally unseen and put all my trust on the sellers words but knew even if it was a bag of spanners I could break it and get the majority of my money back.

Saabs are now fairly cheap due to people believing parts are hard to come by but this isn't true as they share a lot of fm parts, "a vectra in a frock" I hear you say, well that's a myth to as it does share a lot of parts it's still Saab and thier influence and built by Saab engineers who blew the budget and pissed GM off so following the short stint with spyker saabs became a thing of history. In my experience (not my first one either) saabs are ultra reliable and are great cars to drive own and are extremely comfortable, safe, and modern for its age.

Here's a picture the seller had on eBay:






So once picked up until thoughts where all well and not much has changed since.

Once home:






So since buying her I have had the oil leak sorted (small washer needed replacing), disconnected battery and reconnected which sorted out the faulty cereal locking, had a dignitaries plugged in to see what the eml issue was and came back as SAI pump inoperative but this isn't an issue as post 2003 these where not put on as standard as they where surplus to requirement.

I have done a fair few miles since original purchase it was on 128k and now currently sits 134k. I have travel to south east Poland and back in July without any issues and was a dream to drive I did it none stop and I didn't even feel fatigued at each end. Even standard I managed a healthy 156mph (speedo recorded) on the autobahn and it still wanted more.

I have had the headlights polished and are working great full service with oem parts and has had an MOT which only required a drop link.

I have added fully legal embossed number plates and black carbon Saab badges other than that the car sits as it came out the factory.

A she stands:







So all in all extremely happy with her she hasn't let me down once and drives well everytime, future plans are a remap keep up with the maintnence schedule, some hirsch wheels, and maybe sort out the scratches and whatnot.

With the purchase of the car and including what I have spent so far I'm still quite a way lower than shed budget and extremely happy with it everyday. Saabs have a great following the forums are friendly and very knowledgeable which I think enhances the ownership experience.

Thanks for reading I will update any updates I do to her and any problems I come across.

I apologise in advance of the pictures are a bit naff as I have written this on my phone.

And if interested I can update with the story on my wife's shed, a sub £500 Alfa GT JTDM with a whole host of issues and work already done.

MrTree.

schuey

705 posts

239 months

Wednesday 28th December 2016
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Nice car,I had one until earlier this year. I had a few hirsch bits on it,a stage 1 noob remap and a ridiculously expensive Simota carbon induction system. It's was properly fast and never went wrong. I regret selling it really.

MrTree

Original Poster:

139 posts

195 months

Wednesday 28th December 2016
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This is the 3 one I have owned and I can't think of anything else that is better value for money.

steve-5snwi

10,268 posts

122 months

Wednesday 28th December 2016
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Nice Saab smile

PlayFair

201 posts

149 months

Wednesday 28th December 2016
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I've got a 2004 9-3 tid. Lost love with it now. Need a good £500-1000 throwing at it to pass its MOT in march.

But this makes me rethink getting the scrap yard to come collect.

Looks good!

MrTree

Original Poster:

139 posts

195 months

Thursday 29th December 2016
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PlayFair said:
I've got a 2004 9-3 tid. Lost love with it now. Need a good £500-1000 throwing at it to pass its MOT in march.

But this makes me rethink getting the scrap yard to come collect.

Looks good!
Thanks for the comments.

Is yours the 120bhp version? I have heard that they can be quite troublesome and the 2.2tid was a better way to go. Instead of scrapping it get another there is a fair few cheap TID's available for the price of what you would need to sort yours and then just take of any good bits you can transfer and store then less of a headache if anything further goes wrong.

It's a shame all in all but don't give up keep the saabs on the road they don't make them anymore.

griffin dai

3,338 posts

178 months

Thursday 29th December 2016
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Good cars, I've had my v6 over 3 years now. Are you getting it noobed? I think a remap takes them to 250bhp

Black suits the Aero cool

HybridAero

1,531 posts

129 months

Thursday 29th December 2016
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Looks a tidy example, an 80 quid Noobtune remap will take your b207 to 250 bhp 340 NM.

This'd be a nice upgrade:

http://www.neobrothers.co.uk/front-grill-alternati...





Shame they don't do one for the 9-5.

Edited by HybridAero on Thursday 29th December 08:05

MrTree

Original Poster:

139 posts

195 months

Thursday 29th December 2016
quotequote all
HybridAero said:
Looks a tidy example, an 80 quid Noobtune remap will take your b207 to 250 bhp 340 NM.

This'd be a nice upgrade:

http://www.neobrothers.co.uk/front-grill-alternati...





Shame they don't do one for the 9-5.

Edited by HybridAero on Thursday 29th December 08:05
That grill looks great I might have to invest in one, your Saab is a bit of beast as I understand has it hampered reliability at all? What are the headline figures?

Yes I will be getting it Noobed in the new year I have spoken to Karl and he knows what he's talking about so it will be going to him within the next month or so.

HybridAero

1,531 posts

129 months

Thursday 29th December 2016
quotequote all
MrTree said:
That grill looks great I might have to invest in one, your Saab is a bit of beast as I understand has it hampered reliability at all? What are the headline figures?

Yes I will be getting it Noobed in the new year I have spoken to Karl and he knows what he's talking about so it will be going to him within the next month or so.
It's probably more reliable if anything as everything has been upgraded with an intention to over-engineer the car.

For example, when the intercooler split (which has plastic end tanks), I replaced with an all alloy one.

The bottom end is from a 9000 Aero and can handle up to 500 bhp without forging the internals, so it isn't stressed at present.

Headline figures are:

342 bhp and 520 NM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3oRmuNdUAw

100-200 km/h 10.9 sec; Faster than a mk1 DB9, Ferrari 355, C5 RS6: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKBcEpyvmPA

So much fun but desperately needs a slippy diff.

Good luck with your project.

HybridAero

1,531 posts

129 months

Thursday 29th December 2016
quotequote all
griffin dai said:
Good cars, I've had my v6 over 3 years now. Are you getting it noobed? I think a remap takes them to 250bhp

Black suits the Aero cool
Bloke at my rowing club has a V6 9-3 estate, keep telling him of the potential for huge torque but he says it's fast enough! Such a waste lol.

MrTree

Original Poster:

139 posts

195 months

Thursday 29th December 2016
quotequote all
HybridAero said:
It's probably more reliable if anything as everything has been upgraded with an intention to over-engineer the car.

For example, when the intercooler split (which has plastic end tanks), I replaced with an all alloy one.

The bottom end is from a 9000 Aero and can handle up to 500 bhp without forging the internals, so it isn't stressed at present.

Headline figures are:

342 bhp and 520 NM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3oRmuNdUAw

100-200 km/h 10.9 sec; Faster than a mk1 DB9, Ferrari 355, C5 RS6: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKBcEpyvmPA

So much fun but desperately needs a slippy diff.

Good luck with your project.
Wow shifts really well and still smooth power delivery by the looks of it, are you going for more power or are you happy as it is now?

The wheels you have on it are the ones I'm after for the 93.

HybridAero

1,531 posts

129 months

Thursday 29th December 2016
quotequote all
MrTree said:
Wow shifts really well and still smooth power delivery by the looks of it, are you going for more power or are you happy as it is now?

The wheels you have on it are the ones I'm after for the 93.
Mapped by Karl, this is the map he's put on it (Noobtune 360), but in reality various restrictions mean it won't make these exact figures, they are more of a target/request for the ECU:



Was going to upgrade to a GTX3076r but realised that I would need to upgrade cams and clutch so decided it'd be too expensive. I will eventually but fine as it is for now, more than fine! Any plans to take yours past stage 1? There was a lad at a recent dyno day in Leicestershire who made just over 400 bhp out of your lump with a GTX30-something turbo. It just revved and revved, bit of an animal it was.

MrMoonyMan

2,689 posts

240 months

Thursday 29th December 2016
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MrTree said:
...I have done a fair few miles since original purchase it was on 128k and now currently sits 134k. I have travel to south east Poland and back in July without any issues and was a dream to drive I did it none stop and I didn't even feel fatigued at each end. Even standard I managed a healthy 156mph (speedo recorded) on the autobahn and it still wanted more....
Snap! I also have a black Saab (9000 in this case) Aero and I've just driven back from Poland yesterday! Was 16 hours in total and was as comfortable as you could ever hope for.

Also.. The top speed I've had out of mine (gps recorded, speedo stops at 140) was 156 before having to slow.

Great write up.

MrTree

Original Poster:

139 posts

195 months

Thursday 29th December 2016
quotequote all
MrMoonyMan said:
Snap! I also have a black Saab (9000 in this case) Aero and I've just driven back from Poland yesterday! Was 16 hours in total and was as comfortable as you could ever hope for.

Also.. The top speed I've had out of mine (gps recorded, speedo stops at 140) was 156 before having to slow.

Great write up.
Thanks, id love a 9000 Aero it has to be my favourite Saab I very nearly bought one a few months back but the Mrs wouldn't allow (I know under the thumb and all that jazz) but to be honest couldn't justify it at the time.

Do you have any pics of the 9k?

MrTree

Original Poster:

139 posts

195 months

Thursday 29th December 2016
quotequote all
HybridAero said:
Mapped by Karl, this is the map he's put on it (Noobtune 360), but in reality various restrictions mean it won't make these exact figures, they are more of a target/request for the ECU:



Was going to upgrade to a GTX3076r but realised that I would need to upgrade cams and clutch so decided it'd be too expensive. I will eventually but fine as it is for now, more than fine! Any plans to take yours past stage 1? There was a lad at a recent dyno day in Leicestershire who made just over 400 bhp out of your lump with a GTX30-something turbo. It just revved and revved, bit of an animal it was.
I'm playing with the idea of a 3" downpipe so that I can get 275bhp but I probably would go for the V6 aero or 95 if I wanted any more.

MrMoonyMan

2,689 posts

240 months

Thursday 29th December 2016
quotequote all
MrTree said:
Thanks, id love a 9000 Aero it has to be my favourite Saab I very nearly bought one a few months back but the Mrs wouldn't allow (I know under the thumb and all that jazz) but to be honest couldn't justify it at the time.

Do you have any pics of the 9k?
My missus loves the 9000 because of its heated wingback seats. It's her favourite car and she always misses it when it goes into storage.

I bought her a convertible Saab 900 last year so she is now feeling the Saab love too. smile

You've just reminded me to update my ones thread here

MrTree

Original Poster:

139 posts

195 months

Thursday 29th December 2016
quotequote all
MrMoonyMan said:
My missus loves the 9000 because of its heated wingback seats. It's her favourite car and she always misses it when it goes into storage.

I bought her a convertible Saab 900 last year so she is now feeling the Saab love too. smile

You've just reminded me to update my ones thread here
Literally just read your write up, well written and an absolutely beautiful car I'm jealous haha. Love the wingback seats that's a big selling point for me.

Ahh I think I have seen your Mrs 900 on uksaabs I maybe wrong?

Where in Poland did you go? I went to visit the in laws in Zamosc (small city next to Lublin) we where meant to be there now but they are visiting end of Jan but will be going again by car in April/May time.

GrantB5

594 posts

117 months

Thursday 29th December 2016
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Would love to do a drive out to Poland.

Keep up the good work

MrTree

Original Poster:

139 posts

195 months

Thursday 29th December 2016
quotequote all
GrantB5 said:
Would love to do a drive out to Poland.

Keep up the good work
It's a great drive and Poland is beautiful there are some really nice forest routes that go on for miles and miles plus you get the added bonus of going through a couple of countries so good variations local beers and the autobahn, get it done! The trains and ferris to get that side of the pond are daily cheap and depending on what your driving the fuel costs are not too bad.

I drove to Barcelona in a gttdi golf in 2015 and that cost less than £250 including Eurostar and fuel.

Love long haul trips!