Are you seeing any smoke? I had a turbo seal fail, and my car was producing huge clouds of smoke. The dealer seemed to lose the plot and told me to drive it and see if it got better. I did and it was using about a litre (just under a quart) every 400 miles. If you are using 1/5 of that (remember my huge clouds of smoke), I would say it was excessive. At 200,000 miles, my '87 9000 turbo would use about a litre between 6,000 mile services (i.e. go from MAX to MIN between oil changes). Other than with the turbo fault described above, I have never had to top up the oil on any of my 3 9000s between changes.

As far as type of oil i sconcerned, my 9000s have always had synthetic oil, as this is what Saab GB specify and Saab dealers here use. They say not to use even semi-synthetic on a 9000 turbo. I believe the US is different, but I think it's a marketing thing. Americans appear to be very sensitive to the price of engine oil, but don't mind changing it every other week (OK, so I'm exaggerating slightly). In Europe, we'd rather pay for high quality oil, and consequently the service interval on later 9000s (92-on) is 12,000 miles.

According to the European service schedule, you would change the oil in your '91 every 6,000 miles with synthetic, and the filter every 12,000. My '87 was serviced like this and the engine and turbo were still sweet and without problems after about 215,000 miles. It was finally scrapped after too many other things failed to keep it on the road.

As you're not already using synthetic, bear in mind that some people have seen oil leaks after the changeover, as synthetic seems to clean accumulated muck off seals, etc.

I wouldn't use anything else, but then I've never had a 9000 that hasn't used synthetic from day one, so I have never had to switch over.

• Oil type & useage?, Chris Fullerton, Fri, 16 Feb 2001 15:32:44
  • Re: Oil type & useage?, Robert Davis, Sat, 17 Feb 2001 00:07:15
    • Mechanic recommends, adam , Sat, 17 Feb 2001 13:57:08
      • Re: Mechanic recommends, Robert Davis, Sun, 18 Feb 2001 01:08:24
  • Re: Oil type & useage?, Dick in Falls Church, Fri, 16 Feb 2001 23:34:04
    • Re: Oil type & useage?, Robert Davis, Fri, 16 Feb 2001 23:47:23
  • Re: Oil type & useage?, Dick in Falls Church, Fri, 16 Feb 2001 23:33:52
  • Don't want to start yet another oil debate, but..., BillJ, Fri, 16 Feb 2001 17:13:26 <-- Viewing This Message

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