Re: 1999 9-3 buying questions - Saab NG900 & OG9-3 Bulletin Board - Saabnet.com
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Re: 1999 9-3 buying questions
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Posted by 93Gator (more from 93Gator) on Thu, 3 Mar 2005 15:36:44 Share Post by Email
In Reply to: 1999 9-3 buying questions, drew shane, Thu, 3 Mar 2005 14:04:09
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You can get a lot of potential problems just by reading through some of the posts on the 9-3 and NG900 boards. For a 1999 9-3 non-SE there are a couple of things I'd check (I have a 1999).

Heater box. The temperature control knobs should be easy to turn. The manual controls have a tendency to bind and it's a 10-hour job to replace the heater box.

Head bolts. Look for seeping around the block, particularly around the front of the block on the driver’s side. The machine that tightened the head bolts at the factory left the #10 bolt loose. Re-tightening the bolts will fix the problem, but if not caught early could allow coolant to leak into the oil and cause a head gasket failure (or oil sludge). This is not a 1999 problem; a lot of NG900's and 9-3 have this problem.

Blue smoke at start up. A leaky turbo gasket will require a new turbo. My 9-3 never had this problem, but it has come up from time to time on this board (but not recently).

At 75k I'd check to make sure all the major service work was done. Brakes? Serpentine belt done at 60k?

The T5 engine in the 1999 is easy to modify for more power. The Direct Ignition cassette in the T5 lasts a lot longer than the T7 engines. I swapped mine out at 80k and kept it for a spare. Some people have reported them lasting to 130k.

I wouldn't hesitate to buy another 9-3, I'm very happy with my car. However; it does keep me a lot busier than my wife’s 1999 Camry. Her car is not nearly as much fun to drive as my 9-3 though.

1999 9-3 base
104k miles

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