9-5 Aero poor fuel economy

[SaabScott]

What grade of fuel are you using?

That could be one issue ...

[walawala]

I was running on 17mpg when one of my 1-way valve to the throttle body broke.

Now it's back up to 20-22mpg.

[rpiereck]

The fuel grade I am using is 93 octane, 5% ethanol. It's the lowest grade of ethanol available here.

I drove to Frankfurt and back on Friday (I was being followed by a friend of mine in his 2011 BMW M3, and he told me to slow down, as we were driving in some heavy rain and his M3 was fishtailing. The 9-5 did great on the rain), and after 250 miles the car did 24 mpg, that was all highway, going from 60-85 mph, with five minutes at 120 mph when the road was dry. A month or two ago I would do the same run with 26 or 27 mpg. So my gas mileage is not as atrocious as I expected, but it is about 10% worse than normal.

Walawala, are you talking about the little PCV valve in the oil breathing system?

[rpiereck]

Well, I don't know how this would relate to fuel economy, but today my car again put on the CEL and went into some sort of limp mode, but by the time I got home the limp mode and CEL were gone. I connected by OBD reader on the car and this time there was a code, P0705. Searching on Google I found out this code is for the Transmission Range Sensor Circuit Malfunction (PRNDL Input).

Apparently the problem is with the gear selector sensor on top of the transmission. Eeuroparts calls the part a Neutral Safety Switch and it costs $287!


Good news is that the sensor is prone to getting dirty and it can be cleaned. Burnsside42 posted here on Saab World a procedure for cleaning it; which I'll be doing sometime next week. Posts on other Saab sites say that running the car with the sensor inoperable for a long time could lead to an overheating transmission, but I still don't think it would affect fuel mileage.

When I get the sensor out to clean it I'll post a tutorial here.

PS: Apparently there is two tutorials on Scribd (http://www.scribd.com/doc/100542/DIY...osition-Switch and http://www.scribd.com/doc/56114322/N...r-Saab-95-2000), but I still want to make my own for Saab World.