SRowell's Saab 9-3 Aero 2.8 V6 Turbo

[lolsteve]

Whats a sump plug washer? always just put the plug back in

[Poodle]

Please tell me you're joking, Steve..?  

Steering/knock problem sounds like balljoints to me, you can find out by jacking up each corner and shaking the wheel. Or lever it up with a bar to see if you get too much movement in the top mount.

[Eeyore]

Please tell me you're joking, Steve..?  

Steering/knock problem sounds like balljoints to me, you can find out by jacking up each corner and shaking the wheel. Or lever it up with a bar to see if you get too much movement in the top mount.

Hes not joking. He does the same with headgaskets ive heard...

Yeh I need to have a look. I havent jacked it up at all yet! I think the notchyness is either top mounts or its the steering rack drying out. Apparently there is a drain hole that drains directly onto the joint and washes the grease off over time!

[Poodle]

Oh lol, smooth design there. Be imterested to see what's causing it.

[lolsteve]

Yeah of course of joking ..sometimes I drop the plug in the old oil first and swear for a bit as I fish it out
but really only changed the sump plug washer on the hdi never bothered since ans nit had problems

[Eeyore]

Right. Done the oil change on this now. 6.5L of 5w30. Possibly overfilled at the moment so will check tomorrow and drain a bit out. SW15 sump plug seals and the oil filter comes with its O ring. Old oil was dark brown and had a few lumps. Old filter was dire. Seems to run smoother already!

Just the sparks to change now which sounds like a mission! Also one of the sidelights have blown and there is too much engine to access the sidelights.... So its a arch liners out, front bumper off, headlights out job just to change the sidelights!

Otherwise Ive just been keeping it clean...

[Dum-Dum]

So what MPG are you getting out of this then?

[7057sam]

Had a ride in this a few weeks ago bloody quick car and very under estimated

[Eeyore]

So what MPG are you getting out of this then?

Worst I have had is 19MPG towing a boat Weymouth to Ipswich. Best I have had is 35MPG London to Ipswich. Gets about 26/27 normally.

Had a ride in this a few weeks ago bloody quick car and very under estimated

And thats without any remaps or mods!

[Eeyore]

Got some Michelin PS3s fitted on the front last night. Cheers to Bash for getting them in at Trade and fitting them for me. Will have to wait for them to wear in but the front end feels super planted and grippy right now. Steering is still super notchy at 90 degrees and is only getting worse. I believe it to be the UJ which we doused in white grease but it seems to have had little effect so far. Might require the UJ to be turned as its applied.

Needs a good clean as per usual. Getting 32MPG on motorway runs and managed 360 miles on a tank which was worryingly far into the red.

[Eeyore]

Drove to St Tropez and back with no problems apart from the drivers inside door handle breaking so i either had to put the window down or get a passenger to let me out. Averaged probably about 29mpg over the entire 2000 mile round trip. Many many fill ups!

[Piggy]

sweet. comfy as?

that beats the mpg the 1.8 would do though surely!?

[Eeyore]

sweet. comfy as?

that beats the mpg the 1.8 would do though surely!?

yeh its still way more efficient than the 1.8 and it was 2000 miles in comfort with air conditioning in 38 degrees! Im not sure the 306 would actually have made it onto the ferry let alone the entire trip! Even if it did im not sure I would have made it without air con!

[cpikey316_]

I seriously want one of these now!

Ive been looking at silly fast uneconomical cars for when Katie finishes maternity leave

[Eeyore]

I seriously want one of these now!

Ive been looking at silly fast uneconomical cars for when Katie finishes maternity leave

Its silly fast but its not exciting. You put your foot down and it wafts along but there isnt much drama to it. Maybe a remap will spice things up.

[Eeyore]

So this evening I decided to fix the drivers door inside handle. Turns out the hook had come off the end of the cable. It wouldnt go back on whether it was glued or crimped so the cable ties were broken out in a creative manner. It works but for how long is questionable. Long enough for me to find and order the proper part.

Also changed both sidelight bulbs as they had blown which amazingly involved removing the front bumper and both headlight units. I found the euro adapters that i had been looking for when i was in france. Nowhere near where i was looking and one of them fell off inside the unit so i had fun fishing that out and putting it back where it should be. I did have some nice led bulbs to put in but they were in the 306 and mum wouldnt let me take her landrover out to go get them for some stupid reason.

Anyway... fluids checked and topped, all the bulbs working, drivers door handle working. Just needs a clean now!

[Eeyore]

Another new Michelin Pilot Sport 3 went on last night and we found that the other was severely worn on the inside edge so thats another ordered. Will have to get a full geometry alignment booked as its rediculous. Tyre is new on the outside and cord on the inside inch!

We finally got the NGK LFR7AIX Iridium spark plugs fitted. Inlet manifold had to come off the top and it probably took an hour to do. Car doesnt stutter and hesitate now between 2.5 and 3k. It idles smoothly and feels good to drive again. Old ones werent noticeably terrible however they probably had never been changed. These are the spark plugs needed for a remap so car is more remap ready than it was before.

Also fitted a new fuel filter and wiper blades. Service complete!

Big thanks to bash for all his work and keeping me in cars! Leaving the garage on the way home I saw a 6 in the mirror which happened to be bates. Had a little meet.



Unfortunately parked in london last week somebody pinched the 9 from the 93... so its now a 3 A EO. I think Im going to debadge it and maybe see if I can cut some vinyl ones. I have to go into london regularly so its pointless replacing and having them repeatedly stolen... Didnt realise there was such a black market for saab badges.

[C2K]

Rear tyres? Isn't this built on the vectra c platform? They like to murder rear tyres like that. Everything from worn bushes to budget tyres to saggy springs contribute to that.

[Toms306]

The Vec C does have a lot of rear camber to help with corner grip so this probably the same, mine didn't get through tyres like that though. Hunter 4 wheel alignment seems a good idea there tbh.

[C2K]

I didn't infer it was by design, it's a common fault on the shitbox Vectra C.

[306Dan]

You'll see a corsa 9'r rolling round london soon

[Toms306]

I didn't infer it was by design, it's a common fault on the shitbox Vectra C.

Regardless of what you implied, they do wear tyre inners more quickly due to the designed camber...but not to that extent lol. Also you said about saggy springs, the springs snap long before they sag on Vectras!

[C2K]

What do you expect from such a hateful, hateful, hateful pos of an excuse for a motorcar?

[7057sam]

Yeah was a good meet,hope you enjoyed driving my car

Vinyl is a good idea atleast if they try it again it's not going to cost you much.

[Toms306]

Yeah was a good meet,hope you enjoyed driving my car

Vinyl is a good idea atleast if they try it again it's not going to cost you much.

I dunno how difficult it is, but if Sam could make the gel domed badges that'd look pretty good. Think normal vinyl for a standard badge would look a bit cheap though.

[Eeyore]

Yeah was a good meet,hope you enjoyed driving my car

Vinyl is a good idea atleast if they try it again it's not going to cost you much.

I dunno how difficult it is, but if Sam could make the gel domed badges that'd look pretty good.  Think normal vinyl for a standard badge would look a bit cheap though.

yes itll look cheap but anything nice would be stolen...

[Eeyore]

Right a quick little update. It passed its MOT with 3 advisories, stiff gearstick, rear discs and jacking point missing. Theres also an intermittent problem where electronic stability control is turned off. Ive read about a bit and this is either worn wiring on the rear ABS sensor or steering sensor. Will have to investigate.

I paid £415 for a JZW remap. The cable came in the post on friday. I sent the map off today and it came back an hour later with a stage 1 soft and a stage 1 aggressive. Stuck the aggressive one on and it started misfiring under load. Put the soft one on and it starting misfiring under load. Put the stock map back on and its fine. Its got the right sparks so it will be the coil packs. They are individual and from saab UK they are £300+ but from neobros and claimed to be genuine they are about £50. Im going to order 3 and put them in the back row as this is hardest to get to and easiest to replace them all at once. If it doesnt solve it then it must be the front row in which case the back coil packs get fitted to the front and should be good to go.

For the brief mile i got before the car started misfiring the power was unreal. Its meant to be 320hp i think so 70hp more than the 250hp stock. Really livens things up so cant wait to get it properly working.

Ive also ordered new rear discs and pads and all the filters and oil the tune it again. Sparks I wont be swapping out as they werent done long ago and theyre pretty expensive to replace "just for good measure".

[Eeyore]

Ordered 3 coil packs from ECP. Price was reduced from 130, to 75 to 51. Then i used the blackfriday discount code so got 3 packs for £130. Doesnt seem to mention a brand but it also seems impossible to find any genuine BOSCH ones. Hopefully at an original price of 130 they will be legit.

[zx_volcane]

£415 for a stage1 ? mother of god.

she running that at the xmas meet, or back to standard atm?

[Toms306]

£415 for a stage1 ? mother of god.

she running that at the xmas meet, or back to standard atm?

I thought that was a typo! How does everything cost so much for this?