New Purchase | 2008 Aero Convertible - Anything specific to look out for?

[JJD]

or NOT! Blowing white burn smelling smoke on startup and when try to accelerate too quickly. Smoke only lasts a few seconds and only at those two times. Other than that car runs quiet. Tech2 says two faults in Boost Pressure Sensor and Manifold Pressure Map. Both parts on order, but wondering if that is going to fix the issue, or if its a problem with TURBO. UGHH!!!

[JJD]

Hello Everyone: Here is a update.
Dealer I purchased the car from in PA was amazing. There for me through the entire issue which wound up being a blown Turbo. In addition, the intake tube to the Turbo was completely clogged with oil and also needed to be replaced. He said it was like hard crystal in there (from Mobil1 oil from being heated up so high). Happy ending, dealer split all costs with me, which wound up being about 2k with parts and labor. In the end I am happy and the car is perfect

[Aero51]

JJD, So sorry to hear of your troubles with your "new" Saab, but glad to know that you are happy with the outcome. 2 weeks ago, I purchased a sort of sibling to your car, an '09 9-3 Aero convertible, white with tan top. The interior is sort of the opposite of yours, parchment with black inserts. Coincidentally, I also drove (from MD) to PA to purchase, from Swedish Motors in Marietta, PA. They were awesome. It's somewhat alarming that you had such a drastic turbo failure at "only" 69K miles. I'd like to hear more about what the dealer said about this, what the reference to Mobil One means, and how to prevent such a failure. Hope that from now on you enjoy happy, trouble-free miles. Cheers, Steve

[JJD]

Congratulations on your new baby. Apparently from what I was told, when Mobile 1 Oil heats up significantly it hardens. So, when Turbo started to fail, the oil was staying in the intake tube and began to harden within the tube which caused the Turbo to fail more quickly. I was told it was 'torn apart' on the inside. I'm not a mechanic so sorry if I am limited on my explanation of the issues. That being said Mobile 1 Synthetic oil is the one I was still told to use going forward. The car had 64k miles on it when I purchased, and yes, odd that there was a failure at such an early 'age'. Not really sure why it began to fail, but I have read of it happening from some other boards with this many miles on the car.

Best of luck with yours and hopefully from here on out, there won't be any other major issues.

[Digger]

Turbo's spin inside what is called an oil bearing, no mechanical bearing manufactured today would last at the speed these turbo spin. Full synthetic or not, running a turbo on the highway and shutting it down hot can cause the lubricant to crystalize and eventually lead to turbo failure. When you drive a car with a turbo a good habit to develop is to let the engine idle for at least 30 seconds before turning the car off.

Most people don't live on the freeway off ramp and they get slowed down and pretty well cooled down on the side streets leading home. For most turbo owners the most likely cause for early turbo failure is that sometime in its life the car got the wrong kind of oil. If you don't change the oil yourself and you weren't there to watch, you don't know for certain that the oil that came out, is the same kind that went back in. If you're not there when the work is done, you aren't there to spot a rip off, or an honest mistake, but if your oil change cost less than expected when you go to pick the car up, you probably got filled with semi and not full synthetic. This would be an honest mistake, the real mistake comes when you drive away happily accepting the lower price without questioning why.

[JJD]

And there you go! A real expert tells us all how to save our SAABS from future Turbo failures Thank you Digger!

[lowrider_rt2000]

Turbo's spin inside what is called an oil bearing, no mechanical bearing manufactured today would last at the speed these turbo spin. Full synthetic or not, running a turbo on the highway and shutting it down hot can cause the lubricant to crystalize and eventually lead to turbo failure. When you drive a car with a turbo a good habit to develop is to let the engine idle for at least 30 seconds before turning the car off.

Most people don't live on the freeway off ramp and they get slowed down and pretty well cooled down on the side streets leading home. For most turbo owners the most likely cause for early turbo failure is that sometime in its life the car got the wrong kind of oil. If you don't change the oil yourself and you weren't there to watch, you don't know for certain that the oil that came out, is the same kind that went back in. If you're not there when the work is done, you aren't there to spot a rip off, or an honest mistake, but if your oil change cost less than expected when you go to pick the car up, you probably got filled with semi and not full synthetic. This would be an honest mistake, the real mistake comes when you drive away happily accepting the lower price without questioning why.

So true. I let my 9-3 sit for a min after every drive. I also thought of installing a turbo timer after I get my tune done.

Sent from my 9-3

[Aero51]

Thanks for the good info folks. I read a lot of the oil thread for 9-3 last night and confirmed that we should be using Mobil One, or other oil within spec. I had heard in the earlier days of Saab turbos about letting them cool down, but had not heard of the issue lately. Honestly haven't searched the manual, but I don't remember seeing anything specific about a cool-down. I will make sure that I'm mindful enough of this in the future. Most of my drives would allow the engine to have a natural cool-down as Digger mentions. Cheers, Steve