Agreed, Saab was ahead of their time as far as innovation and styling...just take a look at the 2008 Saab 9-3 Sport Combi(Estate) turbo X with a 2.8l turbocharged V6 AWD(XWD) mated to a 6 speed manual gearbox w/eLSD. This Turbo X sportcombi had bigger brakes and stiffer springs and shock. After producing vehicles of this caliber you have to wonder how Saab failed to procure a buyer.
I've had three of these and I'm a big fan. They're not without their common faults but are very comfy, refined, fast and effortless to drive long distance. The Stage 1 Noobtune map makes a huge difference. A fair wedge more torque and power. Mine were never even the worst on fuel, 40mpg easily achievable if tickling it along.
Loved our 2004 Aero so much we brought it with us to Vancouver 🇨🇦 from the UK. Turns heads here everyday, just wish I could stop the rust! I paid £425 for it off EBay, that was 5 years and 70,000 miles ago.
If you press the AUTO & OFF buttons simultaneously the ACC will run a self diagnostic for any faults, the codes are readily available via Google. The Night Panel feature on the dash is great fun, press it and all the instruments lighting turns off at night to save eye strain. If the fuel level runs low the fuel gauge will illuminate to let you know, same thing if the temperature starts to rise above normal.
Love it! Can't wait for more content on the saab. Absolutely fantastic cars I used to have a 1991 900i 16v I bought for £250 and it was by far the best built and most 'solid' feeling car I have ever owned. I would say it is the one I miss most out of the cars I have owned & sold. I can't even check if it is around on the MOT website since it was sold to a chap in Southern Ireland. I now have a 2007 9-3 Sportwagon - much like you baught not on purpose cheep at auction. It is a lovely car and is fantastic on the motorway with its long gears (same gearbox as yours) but I would love to have an early 9-5 estate. Such pretty cars. Looking forward to more
I had 2 of these and even with their faults I loved them. Absolutely amazing cars and fantastic for hauling the family around only major problem I had was that they burnt oil like it was going outta fashion
Just picked a X plate Crystal green 9-5 2.3 SE with 60k, 2 owners, near mint for £1275, chap then knocked off £50 to get the A/C regassed, hoping it just the gas as well. really impressed with it. proper car in a sea of sh**e. really enjoyed the video.
Welcome to the club Dougie, had a 9-5 “Sportwagon” a few year back and it was a fabulous car, the most comfortable seats I have ever sat in !. Since then I’ve had a number of Alfa’s, great cars but not comfortable cruisers. Just bagged myself a very nice 9-3 Tid auto for a very good price and it’s amazing !.
My previous vehicle (until last year) was the last of the original saab 95 tid estate on a 56 plate. Absolutely loved it and still looked fantastic from many angles. Miss it...
I'm on my 3rd 9-5 aero wagon. Gluten for punishment! They are just a pleasure to drive, and just a small pain to own. Great vid hopefully you will get some content from it. They still have a great following
First time here new sub , I’ve had all the corsa since 1989 most vectras too and a Saab , I’ve worked in a Vauxhall garage here in Northern Ireland for a right few years I love them great cars , anyhow great channel 👍👌🇮🇪
Another brilliant video dougy. I think youve got a right bargain there. The springs and shocks alone will be worth half the price you paid. Looking forward to the next installment. Enjoy the car doug.
Hello mate, love your videos, been watching them for ages, I think a old Vauxhall has character to it and I am still partial to a Nova now even though I am 41. I have owned 3 Nova's back in the day, one I rolled being a teenager lol. The Saab although not Vauxhall technically lol looks like you had a result with it to be honest, I would be the same as you and defintely get that A/C sorted, proper pukka that all the shocks and stuff have been changed etc. Keep up the good work :). Thanks Jay
Good choice, hope you enjoy it. I have a 2006 with 260hp. Had a 2002 and 2004 too. Tyre wise you should be able to run 235 or 225. With the aircon I'd check the outside temp sensor first as it may have just fallen out....if that's not working they tend to blow hot on the motorway. You're also missing trim from the headlining where the dog guard mounts behind the back seats.
Great video and I'm happy to see more of this extra content. I'm a Volvo man and agree that some models are over priced but remember that a T5 is a 5 cylinder and makes a glorious sound. I have a 2005 D5 XC70 and live in SE rural Bulgaria and it is the perfect car for here and has the 5 cylinder roar (ish).
I’m a massive Saab fan, but nothing Saab sounds as amazing as my 850 T-5 did when pushing it. The only one that comes close is a 900 T16s. The noise of the 850 was intoxicating.
Brilliant cars! I bought a similar one in the UK last summer. £1150 so more expensive than yours, but still an absolute steal. Like yours - new shocks all round, though I was getting a serious amount of really annoying noise from the rear. It’s been getting worse and worse. So this morning we got it up in the air and discovered the previous owners had fitted new shocks at the rear but had screwed up the order of the parts on both sides when they fitted them. 2 hours work this morning and it’s now sorted! My A/C has been playing up too, it would of course just this weekend when we had to drive 200km to a wedding in the South of France 🤬, also with a taped up passenger window. Getting the blower motor out was an absolute nightmare, it took 3 of us with a wiper puller to get the wipers off for access. The blower works fine on 12v. So looks like it’s the resistor, so there’s a new one on the way. Passenger electric window rollers have failed (had the same go on my dad’s 1999 saloon). They arrived this morning. It’s 35C here in France today, so that’s a job which will have to wait. I had à major coolant leak when I got her back to France. I was losing about 1L/100km. Put in some Alumaseal and amazingly it worked ! Nearly a year on and no more coolant loss. In France you can get E85 ethanol for 1€/litre, so I did a Maptun remap for E85. She now pulls 265hp. I absolutely love this car. No oil leaks for the moment. Quite a lot of work was done recently by its previous owners (cam cover seal etc). Mine’s an automatic, which is fine for me as it’s really a cruiser. For a manual box I’ve got my 1995 MX5 1.8iS for when I want to have fun ( also a UK purchase back in 2017 for £890)! Subscribed because I reckon we’re going to have the same issues and learning curve! Greetings from Ardèche, France and looking forward to your next video !
I really enjoyed watching that video from last summer Dougie, thankfully petrol prices have improved somewhat since then. Anyway the Saab is super cool, (or at least it will be when the a/c is repaired) lol, I like it this car, looking forward to more content on it❤.
having not seen the next video yet ... but the first issue with the A/C is the external temp sensor (located at the centre of the front bumper), the car will not engage the compressor if that isn't working. Tech2 showed it as faulty (a reading of -40 degrees C, at 31:24 in the video). As for oil consumption ... my previous 9-5 Aero of a similar age (54 reg) was using about 1.5 litres every 1,000 miles - after having replaced the turbo, etc I had to admit defeat and put it into a Saab specialist. They diagnosed valve guide wear - which lead to stem seal wear and in turn, the oil control ring on no.3 piston gumming up. So I had them fix that, plus replace the timing and balance chains - and the clutch whilst it was all out. Suffice to say it was a big bill, but it did cure the oil consumption. I also had them change the main and big end bearings, apparently the main on no.3 piston was starting to wear. I still run a 9-5 as a daily driver - one of the last, on a 10-reg plate - it's at stage 3+ which gives (allegedly) 305BHP and 450Nm - enough for daily use. My first Saab was a 9000 Aero auto - bought when my daily at the time was a 3.2 V6 Omega estate. The Saab wiped the floor with the Omega both in terms of performance and economy, albeit the V6 did sound better when being pushed. Check inside the rear arches for rust, I noticed they're showing signs of rotting out on the outer edge - you need to remove the wheel arch liners which hide what's potentially the worst of it. Oil spec is 5W30 fully synth GM dexos/dexos2, as others mentioned below stage3+ is about as far as you can go with stock internals, what the seller told you about the engine having forged internals only applies to the earlier version of the engine used in Saab 9000's, 900's (and possibly 9-3's?) which are B2x4 (Trionic 5 models) - not what you've got there which is the B2x5 (Trionic 7) engine - the engine model you have there is B235R.
My folks have owned one for about 10 years now. Apart from normal service items, the only thing that's been needed were the coil packs.... Which were pricey, but it's cost them next to nothing in the long run
Good to see a cool older car giving a new lease of life. Good to know a man in West Calder with a tech 2 lol I'm in the Forth. Pass through west Calder in my 9-3 all the time, will keep an eye out for your 9-5
I’ve always had Vauxhall no issues got a Zafira tourer last year and has issues all the time sensors but these Saabs were built to last u got a solid car there pal glad to see u visited Newcastle my home town
Great channel just subscribed. I had a Vauxhall Signum some years back with the Saab 2.0 turbo petrol fitted, was rapid for a large estate shaped car, never any issue with it.
Definitely the most handsome estate car of the period, they have a real presence. I love my Noobtuned 93 cabriolet, the mid range acceleration gets rid of most tailgaters in shite cars! Hopefully see more of the 95 in future videos.
Dunno how I missed this video when it came out! Bought à 9-5 Aero identical to this one (but an Auto) 2 years ago for £1150 and drove it back home from Bedford to France. I did a Maptun stage 1 remap for E85 ethanol before I left the UK. (E85 is €0.95/litre over here at the moment). Absolutely love the car. Fast (265hp After the remap!), comfortable, practical, easy to work on. My air conditioning went like yours last summer. It was the heater resistor. €100 on eBay and a bastard to replace but I managed eventually and she’s been Fine ever since. As far as oil is concerned, these beasties demand nothing less than fully synthetic.
Congrats on a great purchase. I enjoyed your video and I hope you have many trouble free miles with your 9-5 Aero. I have a S belt and oil filters I wish I could send you from the States since I no longer have my 9-5 Aero.
I've had Vauxhalls for 30 odd years and last year bought a saab 9-3, it feels familiar but better to drive than the vectras ect. a little more unique and better styling, also starting to hold/go up in price.
I've always wanted one but never dared go through with it as I've always stuck with vauxhall too but I do like them 🤔 think I'll find a cheap one like this and try and fix it up to play with.. are they only in front wheel drive ?
@@nubie1100 you should do it, all newer saab are fwd apart from the turbo x i think (or one of the v6 turbo versions), probably old vintage saabs were rwd.
absolutely stonking car. Definitely make sure the sump has been cleaned and it has had the breather system upgrade. The spec you have for that car is pretty rare and I'm really hopeful you can give it the love it deserves. Getting rare now, i think they will go up in value in a few years and this spec and black is a great combo!
Honestly mate not sure if your realise but your content is some of the best I'm subscribed to - keep up the good work and thanks for taking the time and effort to edit the videos. If you turn on monetisation I'd definitely sub you a quick couple of quid a month.
The blue smoke on start up is more than likely the PCV system has packed in. Mine would do the same at start up but would go away once the oil dropped below a certain point on the dipstick. My theory was it was sucking oil from the pan once at a certain level as the system drains into it. A new PCV system soon sorted it. I too changed the turbo core thinking it was the turbo that went so I guess that is what they have done here. The leak in that area is more than likely the crank pulley seal.
Superb bit of kit assuming the oik burning isn't too big an issue. Had 5 Aeros (plus a few non Aeros) varying from 5k to 180k, they shouldn't use any oil at all between services even with leaks which is probably the the rocker box along the back and front right corner, dripping down from there. Need to check power steering pipes and change if not relatively new (they rot where you can't see and can leak quickly, don't want that if in Sutton). You need to get that oil out, needs to be 5W30 or 0W40 fully synthetic otherwise it'll sludge up. The oil burning might not be major, perhaps some residual turbo failure oil in the intercooler or even be the rocker gasket weeping oil into the plug recesses and then into the pots if the plugs aren't all tight. Plugs need checking anyway as if they are wrong ones (have to be NGK PFR6H10) or old, the DI cassette can fail. All that said, looked after, it should be very reliable and just need normal service items and using!!! They don't like being left unused. It's ideal for your trips. Love them and the reason for Saab going bust in my view, you never need to buy a new one, at one point we had 2, one at 100k and another on 10k at the same time, drove exactly the same in a good way. I sold the 100k one when it got to 180k and still have the other, now on 125k. ZX1 works well too used it in all of ours.
It's running Dexos 2 5/30 now and the cold start smoke is much better after a dose of Liqui Moly stop smoke. It was getting booted hard on the Cannonbawz and the cars behind me reported only a minor bit of black smoke at high revs/full throttle. Will drop the oil again soon and do the same with the Liqui Moly. Be great if it revives the valve stem seals.
Wonderful cars 👍 ive got a 2003 aero, change the little breather pipes that run on the right hand side of engine can get 4mm silicone cheaply there rubber & go all hard & brittle When you were driving at night there deffo something up with coolent system your temp gauge should be rock solid at 9pm, could be stat or sensor maybe both
Bloody love these older 95’s, I had one as a courtesy car while my 93 was having some work at a local specialist . It was the most comfortable car I’ve ever driven. For below a grand you’ve got a decent one there!
I brought a 93 vert for my stag do, a tour around France. Last minute it let me down. Scrambled and picked up that exact model for £750, with a front bumper held on by cable ties! Such fun to drive. Held 4 lads and our luggage with ease. Never skipped a beat! For the price you can pick them up, nothing pays more per horse power. Shame about the tax.
Congratulations on the 9-5 content! I'm sure I will have repeated someone else with this... They remap really well however, these have a B205/B235 motor which is good for 315bhp at the most with mods, the earlier B204/B234 from the 9000 and 900 are capable of 600bhp😊
You did amazingly well getting that motor for under a grand Dougie as here in near London same car in diesel form is £1600 and thats one with high miles but they are very good cars for the money.
Dougie, Headswood Garage in Denny has a couple of 9-5 Aero estates in for part out, I was there in March getting some stuff for my 9-3 og, Sandy the owner is a stand up guy and wont pull your drawers down on prices.
