[Brian Wilson]

Hey All,

Looking for a little advice. I have a 2000 9-5 with approx 25K miles. The car is all stock with the exception of a factory installed Viggen exhaust system. I'm getting around 205 hp out of it and am always happy with the performance. However, I have lately been researching a potential ECU upgrade and wondered if any of you have any experience with this type of upgrade and are you happy with it? I am also open to hearing any negative experiences. Thanks.

 

[sgould]

Hi! and welcome to Saabscene

Which engine have you got? In-line 4 or V6?

 

[Brian Wilson]

It's the 4 cyl.

Thanks sgould. I haven't found a beter forum on any other site. Hope you guys don't mind a Yank eaves dropping on your party from time to time.

 

[burre]

An ECU is the best way to gain engine performane quickly and safely with a Saab. The tuner will raise boost and change fueling and ignition timing to match. I have heard mostly all good things about ECU upgrades. I personaly, am a very happy Hirsch Performance customer. You will perhaps get many opinions from a topic such as this but in the end, I have heard almost nothing bad about all the main ECU tuners, i.e. Maptun, SQR, Abbott, Hirsch, Nordic and a few others. just do your homework as you have just started and then have fun!

 

[SteveN]

Welcome to SaabScene And there are plenty of Yanks here already.

I use the Speedparts/BSR ECU in my 1994 9000 and have only good things to say about it. There are a lot of people here who've upgraded 9-5s with Speedparts, Maptun, Abbott & Hirsch

.

 

[burre]

And don't worry about being a Yank. We are everywhere! There are people from all over the world here and all are welcome!

Welcome to Saabscene!

 

[Brian Wilson]

Is your experience based on swapping out your factory ECU or having it reformatted? Thanks.

 

[sgould]

I haven't done this myself, but I've seen it posted here. I believe that most of the ECU upgrades can be purchased against a deposit/surcharge.

You send some details of you existing unit to them with the money. They send you a New ECU. If you decide to return your original one they refund the deposit ($200 or so??). Or you can keep it as a spare. This way your car is onlty off-road for the half hour it takes to fit.

(that's half an hour if you can get the ******* wiper arms off the spindles!!)

 

[sj]

(that's half an hour if you can get the ******* wiper arms off the spindles!!) [/QB][/b]

You need a screw and cup type balljoint splitter...
seized wiper arms off the spindles, with no hint of damage, in 20 seconds. If you don't have one I guess they are probably about £10 max. from most auto parts shops.
Could be cheaper than a damaged wiper linkage???

 

[sgould]

Originally posted by SJ:

You need a screw and cup type balljoint splitter.. [/QB][/b]

Been there - still chickened out

 

[sgould]

Only for 2.0 litre engines at the moment

 

[Brian Wilson]

I just talked with Engstrom Motorsports in Chicago and they said that they have PPC's avail for all models since 1999 with the exception of the 2004 models. They are a little pricier than a straight ECU swap out but it may be nice to be able to convert from Stage 1 back to Stock settings whenever I want......