Gearbox

[Mark_Sims]

Car - Y reg 9-3 SE convertible, 27K miles.

I am having the odd occasion when it is hard to get in to gear, either 2nd or 3rd usually. it seems to occur having just been around a roundabout or tight bend. Dealer has so far changed gear selector mechanism, and last Friday took the clutch apart in case one of the springs had broke. But today I had to double the clutch to get it into 2nd. In addition sometimes the gear change can be very smooth and others it can be quite notchy.

Anybody had similar and know what the problem is ?

regards,
Mark

[Richard A]

Have had similar problems on my '98 900.
Initially the notchy gearchange was eliminated, briefly, by the dealer changing a couple of plastic and rubber components in the selector mechanism (sorry - haven't the tech knowledge to be more specific) at a cost of about £100 added onto a major service.
A few months later, 2nd gear was crunching on selection and within a few days became totally unusable. Apparently, 2nd gear synchro was 4nackered. Cost about £300 to fix at a local indie.
Good luck .

[tonytiger]

2001 9-3 had gearbox rebuilt 3 times and clutch changed under warranty, now done 70k out of warranty Saab don't give a S*** doesn't always go into 3rd or 4th on some days its perfect over150 miles other days its notchy and then just won't gointo 3rd or 4th until 3 attempts. Had a loan car 9-3 this did the same once over 120 mile trip.

Are all Saab gearboxes like this, how long will it go on in this condition? why don't Saab accept its a design fault and sort it out. Makes me feel like buying something different next time.

[maartenvandorst]

Replacing the gearboxoil with Saab MTF0063 seems to help for a lot of NG900/9-3 gearboxes.

[Blaque_Out]

Along with the last post, Redline also made a manual transsmission lube that seems to take away problems like linkage. Good luck find it though.