Saab 9-3 Quick Fix - AMP1 Replacement 

This literallly happened to me this morning, what a timely video for me.

Crud under seat stories.....lol. When I first got my 05 linear and was vacuuming it out, I ended up pulling the driver seat after looking under it..... it had what originally was a paper funnelbag of candied pecans like you get at the county fair, but the nuts were long gone, replaced by tiny little empty larva cocoons and pecan dust piles and bug mess everywhere the nuts scattered under the seat. Found plenty of fries and other bits of food on both sides of the console after ripping the other seat out to clean. I kinda expected it when there was a gray greasy buildup everywhere the previous driver commonly touched, steering wheel, doorsill elbow spot, signal stalks, dash buttons and knobs, shifter....major sanitizing project. 🤢🤢🤮🤮

Like you, I bought a 2004 9-3 arc vert with the following faults. 1) SID not lighting up or working, battery drain ( but randomly doesnt) no blinker audio. Can this all be due to a bad Amp1?

On mine 2005 SAAB 93 Arc Conv. the AMP 1 was not under the seat, rather, after much searching, I discovered it on the left side beside the rear seat, bellow the side speaker ! Only than I realized, that there must be an AMP 2 in the trunk, and indeed, that was the culprit. Upon replacing it, the whole radio system came to live. It was quite a puzzle.

I have an ‘02 NG 9-3 in black also. It’s had me absolutely flabbergasted more than a few times, and basically at the end of my wits with conniption fits at least twice now, all stemming from electrical issues that more often than not end up being something entirely different than the symptom/problem would have you think. The bus system and it’s numerous checks will fault and disable something downstream of the actual malfunction. I’ve literally had my car bricked, key stuck at “off” and a constant alarm until dead/disconnected battery, after having my entire dash apart tracing wires that were fine and replacing every fuse/relay TWICE to make sure, I even disassembled the fuse boxes and cleaned the actual electrical board with alcohol & toothbrush the 2nd time… and nothing, except a ruined battery from discharging it so many times. I gave up 🤬😭 but a week later tired of my mom driving me to work my determination was restored, so, I bought a brand new battery & multimeter, surfed some youtube and took a freakin oath under all the stars, that “I’m gonna fix what’s broken and restore my Saabrina to her rightful glory ✊🏼” I hooked the new battery up and she cranked right up, I have no idea what the problem actually was or which of the things id previously done fixed it 🤔🫣🫠 that was the worst/weirdest problem I’ve had so far, I guess ima be dumbfounded forever on that one. Possibly was the rear fuse box gets wet from deteriorated tail light to truck seals and possibly sunroof drain lines, so check that car! Forreal, especially after/during rains or washing, I’ve literally seen mine dripping soaked asf. Lol An excellent battery, triple checked dialectically greased connections, ALL bulbs made sure unblown, and an infinite supply of devotion has kept everything but my alarms “ultrasound😑” sensor working just fine. Anywhos Good luck to yous guys, and I’m glad it’s this model year the best SaaB channel on RU-vid is getting deeeep into!

So i have a draw, but everything works except my hvac. Any thoughts?

you can loop the optic cables to keep some functionality intact, you can also open the amp1 up, check where water caused some damage, fix that damage and replace the caps, usually (except if the big mosfet is broken) that fixes it. goodluck tough

Without failure you cannot appreciate success 🤣👍who said that...

Hey brother I know this is off subject from the vid but really wondering if you know how to stop a 03 9-3 from the alarm keep going off by itself would truly appreciate the help!

Why are you taking the seat out? I do it faster without pulling.

Hey man do you have an Instagram where I can send you a picture of a problem I have on my Saab 9-3. I have an oil leak and located the spot but don’t know why the part is called. I tried to match it to your common oil leaks spots video but nothing matched please help me as soon as you can

I don't think you need to remove the seat. Just push forward all the way and remove the bolt holding g the unit Slide it the unit back and undo the wiring connector I installed a rebuilt unit rather than buy a used

hey man, can you tell me what is that black plastic box under a seat? 2:20

my turn signal isnt making noice but my radio and all my speakers are working just fine? is it still the amp?

My 07 9-3 convertible has had a dead radio for 4 years. Just replaced the top for the first time ever, and had to take a week under heaters to get it dry. So now that trauma's over, but the radio is the least of my issues... cruise control is broken, so are seat butt warmers (they go on and shut off, likely short out). My solution: cell phone with bluetooth speaker. Done.

This literally happened to me a month ago, it was a pain in the ass to diagnose 😵‍💫

Do I need to program amps if I switch them out. ?

I have a quick question I have a 08 93 2.0T the only speaker that plays is my rear center. I have tried unhooking the amp in the trunk to reset it yet nada. Could it be a bad head unit?

What is that thing on the right side of amp1

2004 Saab 9-3 Arc 4D Turbo

Check fuses underhood, side of dash and in the trunk. Replaced 4-5 blown fuses and found a fuse in the trunk that I believe runs amp1 or some other module? Tech2 indicated icm2 fail, and I replaced it with a known good one to no avail but it was actually the trunk fuse that brought the optical bus loop back online.

I saw a video from another RU-vidr fixing the amplifier. He opened up the amplifier, connect the 2 optics and everything runs again !

I usually follow your videos but I guess I missed this one. When I got my 05 Linear a few years ago it had the same problem with no audio or chimes or SID and I spent months researching it and replaced every fiberoptic part figuring it out, and it ended up being the EHU behind the climate control panel which was literally the only part I never read anything about that being bad. I bought a new EHU from eBay for $40 and as soon as I plugged in the new one all the audio and chimes came back. I even scanned it with a Tech2 and it said the EHU was fine. I did put back the old AMP1 to see if that was actually dead, and it was, but messing around with everything else like the OnStar box in the trunk and the ICM were fine. I did upgrade the crappy ICM1 it came with to an ICM2 I got from a junkyard car, but if you're still having this problem with this car you should try swapping in a different EHU to see if that fixes it.