I received my saab 9-3 back in feb 2003 and have experienced numerous problems with the onstar system as well as the electrical system (radio snd sid). The onstar computer has been rebooted twice, the sid has finally been replaced, however, I still experience problems with the radio. Periodically, when you start the car, nothing but static comes out of the speakers and the system needs turned off and back on to correct the problem. One last item I forgot to mention. After the last reboot of the onstar system, I discovered that the steering wheel controls no longer work except for the volumn and channel changer.
2003 Saab 9-3 electrical complaints
Page 3 of 3: complaints 41 to 46 of 46, newest first, as owners wrote them.
I picked up my car on february 24, 2003 at night. The next morning I was testing the cd player in the car and it wouldnt work. So I brought back the car for the first time. They said they had to fix something with the computer. About 1 month later my wife was driving my 2 month old son and the car stalled in the middle of the highway. While I was trying to bring it into saab it stalled another 2 times. They said they have to replace some computer. About 1 month later I started noticing that I was having serious pickup issues. For example, if I was accelerating after a red light I could hit the gas as hard as possible and I still wouldnt move for a solid 2 seconds. This almost became disastrous when a truck nearly hit me because I couldnt move the car. Again I brought the car in and again they replaced some computer. This time they said it was an issue with the fuel injector so they replaced the entire computer. Now about 2 weeks later the car seems to be having the first stages of the same problem. Im trying to get out of my lease but saab says they believe my car is fixed.
The car stalled on me under normal driving conditions - twice. The first time I was driving home from work and was on a side road going about 30 miles an hour when the gas pedal totally stopped working because the car actually had stalled. The second time was about a week later and unfortunately I was in the middle of the highway during rush hour crawling at about 5 MPH and the car totally stalled again. In both instances I turned the car off and turned it on again and the problem was gone. When I called my saab dealer after the second occurrence, the service consultant told me that there was a reprogramming effort that would fix the problem. I was surprised that he offered a solution right away, so I asked if he knew there was a problem and they weren't sending a recall notice to fix it. He said that not all cars were stalling, only about a quarter of them, and if a customer called with a complaint then they would fix it. So I brought it in for service the next day, and they said that they called the hotline, found a problem and were able to reprogram the car so it should be all fixed.
After slowing down in traffic, my wife attempted to accelerate, but the engine stopped and the engine icon on the dash display was illuminated. The saab information display (sid) did not show any problems. Luckily she was able to restart and continue on to work. Approximately 25 miles later the engine was sluggish and almost stopped again. In addition the radio has been known to change stations by itself, and the remote mirrors will sometimes move by themselves. The car has been taken to the saab dealer and a software update has supposedly taken care of the mirrors and engine/ignition, but the radio problem is new. It would have been nice if saab had been proactive and sought out owners of this particular model (9-3 linear) sooner and notified them of a necessary software update. An engine dying in traffic, an intersection, a train crossing, etc., can be a danger. Also, I'm still waiting for the onstar service to be installed. We purchased the car the first week in january, and now it's may and still no onstar!
I purchased a 2003 saab 9-3 linear w/ launch package (steel grey) approximately 2 months ago. Four days after my purchase I was driving using the steptronic shifting and the car lost power. Warning lights came on and the dash said to pull over and contact saab. When I attempted to accelerate and pull over, a severe grinding noise was heard and felt under my right foot. I called roadside assistance and they brought it back to the dealership. After several days the dealership said they saw a computer event "wheel speed mismatch" but was not sure what happened or how this was caused. They said when the car detects a problem it disables portions of the engine and computers and only allows you to go approx 20 MPH to make a safe stop. The dealership called this "limp home mode" they said it was similar to a windows "safe mode". As you could imagine I was angry but understand sometimes unexplainable things happen. Now less than 2 months later it happened again. This time though I was on the freeway in rush hour traffic. After nearly getting into an accident I managed to call saab roadside and again they had to tow me. All of the symptoms were the same and even the grinding.. I sit here with a loaner waiting for info on the cause. I was wondering if anyone else here has experienced anything similar? Or has anyone here heard of anything like this with the saab? Any information or insight would be greatly appreciated.
My 2003 saab 9-3 with 900 miles has been back to the dealer to be serviced on 3 separate occasions for computer malfunctions. I have leased this car for about a month. The dealer has attempted repairs but has not been successful. The computer problems have been a hazard while driving the car and have also been a nuisance. The locking system on the car has failed to work on more than 3 occasions leaving the car un-lockable and it has triggered the alarm system on many occasions. The dome light will light and stay on when I am driving making it difficult to drive at night. There have been other computer malfunctions that I can discuss in detail if needed. The computer problems make this car unpredictable and in my opinion dangerous to drive.
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