Possibly looking at a '99 9-3. Are there any specific problem areas I should be looking for? Hidden rust areas? Do these tend to sludge? (I can never remember what saabs have sludge problems)
thanks!
Possibly looking at a '99 9-3. Are there any specific problem areas I should be looking for? Hidden rust areas? Do these tend to sludge? (I can never remember what saabs have sludge problems)
thanks!
Make sure it runs and has keys and a title. Mine didn't 
The 99 was supposedly less prone to sludge than the later cars. They also are the only year of the 9-3 with the more tuner friendly t5 ecu.
The T5 is the best injection system to have. It is tunable with a program and an adaptor for your laptop.
It is also less prone to sludging than the later T7 cars.
As for Rust.. I had a fairly beaten GM 900 (1994) that even with a couple of dented panels.. did not have any rust issues. These cars are a lot less prone than the earlier cars
What to look for when buying? I'd look for another car.
I belive if it is an SE model it has T7 only the base 99's had T5. They are fun cars I had one for a couple of years. I loved the heated cloth seats. never had any problems with mine.
The only 9-3 of that vintage to not have the T5 system was the Viggen. The car to get is an SE with a stick because you get the turbo and inter cooler from the Viggen so you get 200+ hp verses the 185 or so from the auto cars and with the tunability and lack of adaptive learning of the T5 system you can really wake those cars up with very little money. Rust does not seem to ba a big issue with these cars.
One thing to check is the way the back seats fold down. On these cars when you fold down the whole back seat everything gets folded down to include the seat belts. As these cars age the retracting mechanism sometimes gets stuck and once you put the seats back up the seat belts will not release. You have to undo the bottom bolt, feed the belt all the way into the retractor, then the belt will work correctly until you put the whole seat back down again. I got rid of my car shortly after I discovered this so I have not looked at a fix.
Another thing to look for is if the ABS and Traction control lights are on and the speedo does not work it may need the box that controls the ABS fixed replaced. This happened to mine and I just got one from Pick-N-Pull and it was good.
It may not have "all the pixels" but other than that they are not bad cars. In the time I had mine, from about 75,000 miles to about 290,000 miles, I put on an exhaust, downpipe, MBC, opened up the air box and that made a big difference in the car.
If you have any other questions let us know.
Rusted_Busted_Spit wrote: It WILL not have "all the pixels" but other than that they are not bad cars.
FTFY. 
Read this thread: http://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/grm/what-can-be-done-to-make-a-94-00-saab-900or-9-3-not-suck/101341/page1/
Something like this:
I am selling my 1998 Saab 9000 CSE. It is in better than average shape and has had a lot of work done to it.
ccrelan wrote: I am selling my 1998 Saab 9000 CSE. It is in better than average shape and has had a lot of work done to it.
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