I've had my car for one year now. Bought it with 42K, and had to have the tranny replaced immediately due to hard-shifting into 2nd. The new tranny then had to be replaced back in March due to a manufacturing defect where the shift linkage enters the case--the seal wouldn't stay in the hole. Now, I have 57K on the car with 6K on the newest tranny. Even though I've weathered these problems, I'm not dismayed by owning an auto.

I've installed a BSR Stage 3 re-mapped ECU, JT 3" complete exhaust, and K&N air filter in the stock box recently. This is all good for 250+ hp. Before doing any of this, I checked with Saab Performance to make sure the tranny could handle it, and they said it definitely could. They actually were quite surprised to hear me tell them how I had read about people's gripes on this board about the ZF tranny. My Saab dealer service manager also told me that he had more stickshifts come into his shop than autos.

BUT--> as you will see on this board, take good notice of the tips of prolonging the longevity of the tranny. Frequent fluid changes (10K to 12K miles, faithfully), no hard starts from a standstill, and try to shift it manually if looking to prove the car's prowess (don't go too crazy in 1st and 2nd, and downshift from 4th to 3rd manually when looking to overtake someone and let up on the gas a little when going back into 4th). As for synth versus fossil fluid, that's a matter of preference. Saab performance said it wasn't necessary to go to synth, and they also recommended against running the tranny with a fossil/synth mix.

As much as it would have been nice to have a manual, commuting takes its toll on the left foot, and (as someone once told me) there's nothing sweeter than mating a turbo engine to an auto--they belong together!!!

Good luck and enjoy!

Joe

posted by 12.111.48...

• Aero w/ Automatic Tranny a REAL risk?, Todd L, Mon, 7 Oct 2002 00:22:18
  • My '98 w/Stage 3 ECU has no problems..., Joe98, Mon, 7 Oct 2002 16:24:58 <-- Viewing This Message
  • Re: Aero w/ Automatic Tranny a REAL risk?, tom, Mon, 7 Oct 2002 16:12:23
  • Re: Aero w/ Automatic Tranny a REAL risk?, Jeffla, Mon, 7 Oct 2002 13:20:34
  • Re: Aero w/ Automatic Tranny a REAL risk?, Sterling, Mon, 7 Oct 2002 05:09:39
  • Re: Aero w/ Automatic Tranny a REAL risk?, Paul , Mon, 7 Oct 2002 01:29:57
    • Ditto..., SteveB, Mon, 7 Oct 2002 08:35:53
      • Changing Auto-transmissin fluid, Steve Brown, Mon, 7 Oct 2002 11:07:24

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