I am honestly new to the new generation saab but I can tell you for sure is that if the check engine light blinks it means your catalytic converter is in danger of over heating and failing due to excessive fuel or improper burning of it. It is a standard feature on OB2 systems (vehicles '96 and newer). A number of things can cause this issue. lots of misfires, oil in the spark plug tube causing a grounded short, incorrect spark plugs, loose connection on the coil. What spark plugs did you install? I am not sure about the newer saabs but my 97 900 2.0 turbo requires normal resistor plugs. If you put something expensive like platinum or iridium plugs it may be an issue. vise versa. If you have bosch platinum plugs or ngk e3 plugs then spark plugs are a great place to start. It is just what i have noticed as a part salesman and mechanic. Hope this helps.

 

thanks!

Your knowledge of what the blinking means definetly narrows it down... ill check the plugs and the coils and report back. OUCH the coils are pricey!

 

Spark Plugs

Well, I feel like a dummy... it was the spark plugs. I thought I changed them, but that was on my car -ooops. They were pretty bad - the gap was huge. Dropped in some NKGs with .039 gap, and I just turbo'd around the neighborhood, problem solved.

 

P0304-crankshaft position sensor

Only known fix on these cars:replace direct ignition cassette.

Really sux my friend, but I am an expert in this area. Sometimes you can make it months with a bad ignition cassette, but what's happening is that one or more, in your case probably more than one, cylinder is misfiring
. This occurs when your ignition packs within the cassette fail, and the cassette cannot determine the spark timing for each stroke. So your fuel is not getting ignited properly.

This can cause your engine to send more unburned fuel out your tailpipe than usual. If you know anything about catalytic converters, if they are old, and a little clogged, and you start sending rich fuel vapor into them, they can overheat, ignite, melt, and severely damage your engine...ask me how I know...

Anyway, number one before replacing the expensive cassette, pull your spark plugs and make SURE that they are SAAB specified RESISTOR TYPE NGK PLUGS!

If a not, you cannot run regular type plugs, no matter how much Napa or autozone tells you you can. This is all experience, so I am trying to save you time and money.

Change your plugs with correct one from genuinesaab, or thesaabsite, pull the battery negative terminal, let your ecu reset. Then run your car. If you ae still having problems, your DIC is shot, and you'll need a new one.

As far as your c.c., replace if glowing red, smelling, losing power, making your engine sound like its putting at operation temperature. You don't want your turbo wrecked.

Hope this helps.

Nick

 

Wow. Should have hit "enter" hours ago. Glad you solved the problem. At least I was right lol.

 

Wow.

So recently I noticed that when I cold start my car, it chokes and has a lot of trouble starting until I hit the gas a bit, then the engine turns (struggles). After I let it warm up for about 5-10 minutes, it is fine and runs normal. After that, if I turn off the ignition and restart the engine, it starts up fine until I cold start it again and the whole mess begins again. Sometimes I will get a P0304 error, sometimes along with a P0300 "random" CEL message. Also, before all of this happened I was getting an average of 30 MPG, now 26. I called a Saab mechanic who said that it was most likely the plugs and that my model doesn't use a DIC. That sounded wrong to me but I'm not sure...

I'm wondering if this issue is as nradner described or if someone can give me some insight here. I have very little knowledge and am car-stupid

 

If this is for the 2007 listed in your profile, you need to post in the 9-3 SS group. We end in 2002/3.