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Re: auto 2.3L quickness Posted by sam96CS [Email] (#852) [Profile/Gallery] (more from sam96CS) on Sun, 21 Mar 2010 15:01:31 In Reply to: Re: auto 2.3L quickness, ChrisC, Fri, 19 Mar 2010 17:15:34 Members do not see ads below this line. - Help Keep This Site Online - Signup |
The 9000 series has the ZF 4HP18Q automatic transmission mated to every engine in the line except the 2.3 with the TD04 turbo. This transmission or other variations of the 4HP18 are also found in the Alfa Romeo 164 Spider, Audi 100, Audi A4, Audi A6, Dodge Monaco, Eagle Premier, Porsche 944, and Porsche 968. It was used in the Saab 9000 from 1987 through 1998.
Somewhere along the line the transmission seems to have become more robust. 1996 and later are not failure prone with reasonable maintenance if the car isn't driven like a dragster. I don't know when was the first "good" year for these transmissions. Either the transmission got better, or owners got wiser about the need for faithful maintenance, or the ECU got a new map for the automatic that dialed back the boost in 1st gear. Maybe it was a combination. I can recall one user, jj, who went well over 100K miles with no automatic transmission problems in his 250 HP 9000.
The most common failure is governor seals, which is a DIY repair. One of the topics on this board debated almost as enthusiastically as TD04 vs T25 turbo is regular vs synthetic ATF for these transmissions.
Keeping ATF fresh and changing the filter are easy DIY jobs. In the later model 9000s the transmission is better than its reputation. At 159K miles I don't worry about mine at all.
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