T7 Throttle Body Limp Home Mode

[hutch]

I know theres not a ton of love for the newer Saabs but I think a lot of you have owned one at some point so I wanted to tap the collective knowledge on here. Car is a 2001 9-3 and I was driving down the highway when suddenly the CEL and TCS lights came on and it is definitely in Limp Home Mode. Certainly not the end of the world, I can drive the 900 for a bit, but I'd like to get this fixed.

I plan on getting a remanufactured TB from BBA because I need to send them a SID too. When it gets here can I just swap out the TB and fire it up? I saw one possibly crazy person say it needed a Tech2 but most people said you just need to clear the codes with an OBD2 scanner or it will just throw it back into LHM. I don't have an OBD scanner so can I just unplug the battery and/or ecu fuse and it will clear itself or do I need to take it to Autozone and have them clear it for me?

And finally, I've seen videos of people just resetting the TB out of LHM and it certainly looks very easy but again they say you have to have the code cleared or it will just go right back into LHM. For anyone that has done this, if I do clear the code does this actually work for any length of time or is just a quick fix to get home a little quicker before you can fix it for real?

[Jordan]

pull the battery terminal first and then do the reset. When you put it all back together the code will be cleared and it should not jump to Limp.

[DrewP]

^^ Correct. Clear faults, key off, re-set limp-home solenoid mechanism, start car. If the lock ring is really really stiff or hard to turn to do the re-set, lubricate around the ring and the springs lightly with WD-40, then rinse with brake cleaner or Simple Green or something. If the mechanism is sticky it'll throw it into limp mode.

Also, buy yourself a scanner. I have both of these, they work great and I just keep it in my glovebox. If you're going to keep your 9-3 it doesn't make sense to play the guessing game whenever the CEL comes on.

http://www.amazon.com/Autel-MaxiScan-MS ... ords=autel

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001LH ... UTF8&psc=1

[hutch]

Cool sounds good, perhaps it was the Saab gods laughing at me but I was actually looking at scanners on a whim a few days ago when I went in to get some oil. Since its free to have them look at the codes, and knock on wood this cars only ever shown like 3 CEL's in its life, I never looked into it too seriously but now I will.

Maybe I'll swing by and pick up a scanner tonight, I thought I remembered seeing someone on here use it on their T5 900 so that would be cool too, and maybe try the LHM fix and see how it works. From there I guess I'll probably still order a reman TB since this has 150k+ miles on it and that seems to be about their useful lifespan.

[Jordan]

For $20 the cheap scanners work great for just pulling codes.

[DrewP]

Ditto. My co-workers are always asking me to borrow it too. Maybe you'll make new friends with a cheap code reader.

[hutch]

Yeah for some reason I always thought they were much more expensive than that and never felt the need but I'm definitely going to pick one up. Now I just want to see if any of the local cheap ones look ok or I'll just order from Amazon.

[DeLorean]

Sometimes they pop into limp mode, you reset it, and then it just never happens again...

[hutch]

Got the new TB and the car runs great, no more hunting idle (never as bad as a c900) or rough startups so I'm very pleased with that. I was tempted to see if I could have reset the LHM and driven it for a while but I'm glad I won't have to worry about it again for likely the rest of the car's useful life. Still need to find what is leaking or burning coolant but knock on wood the car should be reliable for a while.

After only finding OBD2 scanners locally in the $80-100 range I am not so pleased that I don't have Amazon Prime as they are saying the $20 scanner I ordered has shipped, but it supposedly will take 12 days(!) to get here. Not sure if its coming by horseback or they just haven't updated the info but luckily I don't need it as of yet