'01 9-5 wagon. started smoking out tailpipe bad. please help

[ben wigginson]

i bought this car three days ago. the guy i bought from said it spit a little smoke out when you let off the gas. i noticed it driving the car home from bristol to gatlinburd(about an hour drive) but it wasn't too bad. he said the turbo might be going bad. today, i drove it to get something to eat and on my way home it just started smoking continuously.. it got so bad i had to pull over and call a more mechanically inclined friend. apparently the oil cap was loose, and i was low on oil. put oil in it and it still smoked pretty bad, but i got the car home. TURBO? please help me out.. i love this car and want it to last a while. friend said he doesn't think it's a head gasket..

[DanielZ]

So, when you say the cap was lose I take it it was still on but not tight. Might want to check the oil filter.
My very uneducated guess is that air will be sucked in. Depending on where you live it might not be a problem but is you live in an area with high humidity that air will also carry water. Probably not in any quantities but, ya know.
I've heard that if you get smoke when letting off the throttle (with turbo getting to spin some) it could be the turbo seals.

Is it smoking like Quick Cal's? http://saabworld.net/showthread.php?t=32606

[ben wigginson]

The guy that sold to me said he thought it was seals.. I will check in the morning. thank you.

[ben wigginson]

And yes, it is smoking like cal's

[Finding41]

Here is a link to EBAY. I"m not sure if this is the right turbo cartage for your car.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/SAAB-9-3-9-5...BTmNk1&vxp=mtr
That is the type of rebuild I would do if needed. I have rebuilt one with the the parts kit. (About $30) It took about 4 hours to clean the carbon out of the turbo to install the parts.... PITA!
The cartridge is plug and play.

[DanielZ]

Then expect it to smoke a while after the problem has been solved. Seems he had a whole lot of oil in the exhaust parts.

[ben wigginson]

I pulled the turbo off, it's not the original turbo, it's from a 99 2.3l. I called about part, does anyone know if this was high output or not on the original turbo? is there a big difference? mine is '01 9-5 wagon, 2.3l

[Finding41]

I pulled the turbo off, it's not the original turbo, it's from a 99 2.3l. I called about part, does anyone know if this was high output or not on the original turbo? is there a big difference? mine is '01 9-5 wagon, 2.3l

What model is it? I think the Aero will have the big turbo.
Isn't the small one a Garret and the Aero one Missubishi? What does yours say on it?
I'm pretty sure you can't put a different one on.

[ben wigginson]

after calling the guy I bought it from, it originally had a garret, but the one I took off was a td04.. I'm thinking I should go with a Garret gt-17???

[nordwulf]

The 2.3t has the low-pressure turbo Garrett GT17 and the 2.3T (in the Aero) has the Mitsubishi TD04 turbo. You can put a TD04 on the 2.3t but the oil/coolant lines have to be changed as well. If they replaced the original GT17 with a TD04, you may have to change the lines back if you want to put a GT17 back on again.