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New 99 9-3 owner

1K views 8 replies 7 participants last post by  Tweek's Turbos 
#1 ·
Hey all, I just bought my first Saab, a 99 9-3, and I love it! I've been searching around these forums and there's a lot of great information here, and I've been self educating myself.

My car has 115k on it, and from looking at the owners manual the previous owner didn't keep great records, so I'd like to do a full tune up and just had a few questions.

I'm going with Mobil 1 synthetic...consensus seems to say that 30W or 40W is the best. But about the oil filter...I've seen some posts where it's recommended to get Saab only parts and order the Saab oil filter. Is this just personal preference, or something that's recommended for a reason?

Same thing with plugs and wires, a lot of posts recommend getting these from genuinesaab, but would I benefit the same by getting high performance plugs and wires from a local autoparts store?

Lastly I'm not a really good greasemonkey...I can do the basic stuff but don't get too involved with anything more than basic maintenance for fear of doing something irreversible. The only mod I had thought about doing was dropping in a K & N air filter...is this worth the extra $50?

I've seen some mods on open air intakes and they look interesting, but I worry about having to adjust the ECU which I don't think I'm ready to do. Also, with 115k I don't want to put too much stress on the turbo.

Basically I want to keep this car alive for as long as humanly possible, so any tips or tricks you have, pass on down!

Thanks!!
 
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#2 ·
Napa Gold filters are excellent. Incredibly higher quality than most others. And about $6.

No plugs and wires on your car, just a DIC. Might be good to find a spare, you need a red one for the T5 engine management your car uses.

A drop-in is not a bad idea, little performance gains from OAI's but they sound cooler!

Enjoy it!!! Keep up on the little stuff and your eyes peeled for signs of the big stuff and it will be a great car!

Terry
 
#3 ·
welcome to SaabCentral
its a shame when ppl dont keep up with maintenance
as for filter i would have to say anything is better than FRAM... so the saab one or any other filter of equal or greater value
plugs (we have direct ignition so no wires) , again the same thing... as long as you get what supposed to go in the car you'll be set (NGK cant remember off the top of my head which one but someone will chime in)
our stock intake boxes are rated up to something like 400hp, but if you wanna be able to hear the turbo spool up a lil better then you could go to an open air filter. theres no need for ecu tuning for an open air filter

115k is not that much.. you'll see some other guys on here with more miles than that and they're really laying down numbers
 
#5 ·
yea buddy trust me i put a boost controller i had from my eclipse gst on my 01 9-3 this week without putting a gauge on. OMG the difference is night and day.

i bought the controller for $15 on ebay like 3yrs ago and its one of those little gay click designs that locks down. It worked great on the gst and works just as well on the saab. the only difference is i think the td04-15t i have on my saab pulls way harder than the dsm td05-14b.

I haven't looked at compressor maps yet but it seems as if either my td05 was really worn out or the td04 on the saab is just way more efficient. Mind you i haven't been driving a boosted car daily in almost 3yrs but this thing really pulls for a factory hp of 205.

Buy yourself a hard pipe inlet kit for the motor and an open air intake and a 3" downpipe. i gurantee your car will not get old for a very long time. i ran times of 14 flats with the dsm with almost this same setup and 16psi

Granted YOU need gauges first and a pod to put them in (i suggest the dual pillar pod on genuinesaab.com). Since you are new i advise you NOT to put a controller on a stock car and rely on the factory gauges to keep you out of trouble (yes i am stupid for running mine without upgraded gauges). You have to monitor egt/boost/oil pressure to keep your car running reliably.
 
#8 ·
I love my 1999 9-3! In a few weeks I'm going to lose the MBC+A and I will T5Suite the ECU to Stage 3. I have everything I need: spare ECU, CANUSB cable, DB9 connector, 120 ohm resistor, Cat 5e cable, alligator clips and the T5Suite software. This is the culmination of a few years work and I absolutely cannot wait!!
 
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