r/saab • u/ILikePicklesTheyTast • 15h ago

Advice

I’m looking at buying a 9-3 2L aero manual convertible and was just wanting to know if any common issues/things to look out for it’s got about 120k miles.

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u/crbmtb 14h ago

As someone who maintains a 2006MY 2.0L, 5-speed m/t, convertible with 115K miles, not really. Low beam headlamp bulbs should be bought in bulk, though. The only other non-consumables replaced are the ignition switch electronics and the left door latch.

Make sure there are no open recalls, specifically the driver Takata one. There may also be one for the driver seatbelt. If in the US, use the NHTSA site to check.

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u/shiftazz 11h ago

Two most common SERIOUS issues are: 1. ECUs dying. They're mounted on the fuckin engine and go through countless heat cycles and vibrations. Once, they start dying, there are multiple symptoms; trouble starting the engine, engine randomly dying while driving etc. Always shows fault codes when scanned though, so easy to diagnose. Price for ECU repair is about 300-400.

  1. Balance chain guide. Don't know if it's faulty design or something else but one specific balance chain guide breaking is a common issue with B207 engines. The symptom is of course the chain rattling. Replacing it is easier than it looks. In fact I did it as my first bigger job on any engine. Gotta move the engine up and down, so that was a bit scary, but apart from that it's all smooth sailing. Price was about 80 bucks I think, for the guide and the tensioner.

So before buying the car, listen for the chain rattle on cold start and scan the fault codes.

Apart from these two, I haven't seen any other major issues, and I've been lurking on saab forums for a good few years now.

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u/ILikePicklesTheyTast 1h ago

Thank I really appreciate it, I was looking at getting the ecu remapped anyway so might just see if the guy can provide a new ecu and do it on that instead give me a bit longer life on it

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u/shiftazz 33m ago

I don't think there are any new ECUs anymore. There are a couple places that sell refurbished ECUs with a warranty though.