'95 Saab 9000 Aero

Just what I needed was another Saab. Picked this up to replace my '96 Aero.

As it followed me home

The important bit: Southern California car from new until 2012. Undercoated as soon as it got to Vermont, and has seen two halves of New England winters. No rust!

Of course the catch... it did arrive on a dolly after all. It had the dreaded TCS/ETS system, which had failed... as they do. The PO (a friend) had started doing a TCS delete, but only got as far as removing everything before losing interest and parking the car in his dads driveway for a year.

What it looked like when I got it:

Engine wiring harness, ECU, throttle body, AIC, throttle cable, throttle pedal later (as well as an incident mixing up the connectors for the AIC and #3 injector, causing the injector to stay open permanently and do some quite interesting things) it runs!

Still chasing a high idle, thinking its the intake temp sensor.

This weekend saw a detail and some exterior stuff. Swapped the e-code headlights from my '96 as well as the front and rear emblems.

Detailing process:

Wash Clay M105 on LCC Yellow in particular trouble spots (bumper tops) M105 on LCC Orange M205 on LCC White Meguiars Swirl Remover on Meguiars finishing pad Poorboys World Black Hole Wolfgang Deep Gloss Paint Sealant 3.0

Before:

After:

Before:

Then it made its maiden voyage home:

Sooo jealous I'm surprised to see a '96 with TCS. I though that they learned their lesson by then

Enjoy it, when its completely sorted out, it will be one of the finest SAABs that a person could have.

Wow, gorgeous! Nice work!

I just LOVE a good detail before/after!!! Looks fantastic.

Nice job.

Thanks!

HappyAndy wrote: Sooo jealous I'm surprised to see a '96 with TCS. I though that they learned their lesson by then Enjoy it, when its completely sorted out, it will be one of the finest SAABs that a person could have.

For '96 they did learn their lesson and stop offering it, but it was still an option in '95. (this car is a '95, my other one (soon to be for sale with go fast bits!) is a '96)

Nice job on the paint detailing, really nice. There is nothing like a shiny black car.

Great job resurrecting a car that was otherwise headed for the boneyard. Is that a bullet hole in the RR door?

Thanks.

Thankfully it wasn't heading for the boneyard yet... it just would have been a take on the "ran when parked" story. Except it didn't run.

STILL chasing idle problems and the CEL. Now that it's gotten sunny and relatively warm I've been much more interested in driving the Miata around then working on the Saab. But it's getting there.

It would be super helpful if someone bought my other Aero... /shameless

Having done nothing with this car for 6 weeks other than walk by it, use it as a storage bin, and try unsuccessfully to run it often enough to keep the battery charged... I finally registered it yesterday. If I can actually drive it I'll be more inclined to fix it... right?

I actually looked at a 9000 when I was shopping for a daily some years ago. The car was at a small dealer and when I test drove it, while under boost it would start cutting in and out and violently "bucking" is the best way I can term it. Is that the TCS problem of which you speak? I walked away because the deal was in no way right for a car with any problem and they were not willing to come down, so I bought an E30 off a fellow GRMer instead.

Always kinda wondered what the deal was with that car, when it was boosting the power was impressive.

Sounds like either a bad DIC or it was over boosting and hitting the fuel cut.

I just picked up a black 98 CSE which is more or less an aero. It's front fenders are like swiss cheese with rot. I just picked up a replacement drivers fender and am working on sourcing passenger. I have a leaky oil cooler line which is NLA. I am probably going to have to have custom ones made up. These are great, underrated cars.

nice, I have $400 '92 9k turbo, stipped for track use and TCS deleted. If you still have the high idle yes the non-TCS does use a different temp sensor (the one under the intake manifold).

I enjoy both your 9k's and threads.... and super aero rims, my favorite

schumithecat wrote: nice, I have $400 '92 9k turbo, stipped for track use and TCS deleted. If you still have the high idle yes the non-TCS does use a different temp sensor (the one under the intake manifold).

High idle was a completely stuck IAC. Now I have an extremely low idle on cold starts. Won't idle at all initially, keep it running for a few seconds and it will settle and idle at ~400rpm. Once it's warm it's fine. Throwing codes for IAT and air/fuel mixture. Replaced the IAT, no change and same two codes.

Very cool! I've always thought 9000s were an underrated car; Last 9000 I had was I had a '95 Aero without TCS. Stupidly sold it after blowing the diff, but justified it because it was rusting.

Sounds kinda like me and my imola red '96 Aero... except, due to lack of interest, I'm about to part that one out and crush it

Well, this is what became of my '96 Aero after a complete lack of interest following 3 months of trying to sell it

Quite a few of its parts will be migrating to the black car.

Starting with the serpentine belt tensioner, tensioner pulley, and idler pulley...

This was the first time I'd really gotten to get a good look underneath. I like what I found. Why do we keep buying cars in the rust belt when these are out there?!

Also found these, which is nice.

And lastly, I turned the 3" turbo back exhaust from the red car into these super rare OEM 16" Carlsson/Griffin wheels.

After reading your thread on the red car I got very interested in these. I searched every craigslist semi local to me and in two years I have yet to find one for sale. I'm pretty sure I've never even seen one in real life. But you have inspired me to want one. This one looks like a very nice one. Looks to be a keeper.

Stay tuned, it may come up for sale in the not so distant future. Wanting another winter Miata

That has got to be the best condition 9000 I have seen in the rust belt. very nice and I cant wait to see it with those Carlsson rims on there.

It's certainly the cleanest one I've been under....

Todays progress.

My passenger seat was stuck in permanent gangster lean mode so I swapped in the one out of the red car.

I then turned my attention to the tunes. I'm no audiophile, but this thing was NOT cutting it. My $11 earbuds have better sound quality. The original 2 speaker setup in my 1996 Miata sounds better. It was bad.

Popped off the front speaker grilles and found this... clean install. Not sure what the deal is where the metal is bent, it's only like that on one side? But both front speakers were attached with one bolt.

Threw in the Pioneers I bought for the red car last winter...

Then proceeded to swap the blown stock HK in the right rear with the non blown stock HK from the red car... (see a theme?) as well as the rheostat. Massive difference.

With the car now road trip ready, I made an almost 400 mile (scenic route) journey to pick up a clean right rear door. The car covered more miles today than it has in the past nearly two years. Couple random pics along the way...