ehh stock boost gauge....

so yeah.... I have a 1996 saab aero 9000 5speed. anyways to get to the point the entire car itself is cleaner than hell... 1 owned car and it was bought in 1996 garaged up until now and will be from me :) I just had northeast aftermarket <--- (local big name aftermarket parts distributer) install a custom 3" intake for me bolted to the turbo and has the filter in the fender to get away from heat. Works amazingly and looks sexy. Secondly i had a Blow off valve installed... a turboxs One (louder than Hell!) works amazingly no idle problems... runs like it was made for it. now... to get to the point when i want to race some ricer or a nice car i know i have a chance against I will downshift into 2nd and sometimes 3rd... I will be going oh 40-45... I then hit on it and my car runs fantastic until maybe 4-5 seconds after it bogs out.... still moves but studders and bogs.. now when it does this i realize that the stock boost gauge in the cluster bounces off the red...(max part) now... does this mean i need an aftermarket boost gauge that can hold up to 30 psi... and me running 15 with a boost controller... will it help me??? Plz help.

Hello again Ryan, tricky bugger this.....

my '94 cse will only hit 6000rpm in any gear (57mph in 2nd),(93 in 3rd)

it is a light pressure turbo though, not sure if fpt's/aero's rev higher.

it could be one of many things causing this, did you have this problem before you modded the intake?

you could be hitting the overboost cutoff, end of red on stock gauge is about 21psi i believe(which is 8 psi short of "cutoff" level)

best to get an aftermarket graduated boost gauge to check exactly what boost pressure you're getting. not expensive and (fairly) easy to fit

If you changed the spark plugs recently this could cause your problem if they are incorrectly gapped, my old car would be great up to a point and then it would just shit itself. the gaps were out by a tiny ,tiny little bit.
Also check they are the correct plugs for your car, and that the boots of the di box have a smear of dielectric grease in them....

Make sure that your base boost is set properly(with a graduated boost gauge)if it's too high , your car may slam into the boost cutoff.

If you don't know how to fit a gauge or check your base boost but want to, let me know, i have done both in the real world.....

Other culprits could be the wastegate actuator itself or the apc solenoid(unlikely in your case)

on the subject of manual boost controllers , i cannot help you , although i can say that they are listed as being "not recommended" for trionic saab's (post '93)
(i am currently trying to find out why)

Are you using a manual boost controller, or just thinking about it?


let me know how you get on, but don't do anything drastic unless your sure, as i am only giving you stuff to consider checking, but i do recommend a boost gauge

Yeah man as a matter of fact i did just get new spark plugs and i know they're right for the car because the manager at autozone did them for me and gapped them correctly as i watched... now I think i do need an aftermarket boost gauge because i avn't a clue what im running for stock boost now. Im guessing around 8-10... eithe way its enough to get it moving but i do baby her and i think i figured that its the rev limiter that im hitting... its very weird because ive never had that happen in any of my older cars. Awd turbo eagle talon, Rwd turbo volvo.. but hey every car is different right? im not going to worry about it however because right now i have a bigger problem... let me explain... on my way to work (shaws) we had a huge rainfall out of nowhere and there is a huge slant to the entrance to shaws a big pothole i should say. now the entire section of the parking lot was full of maybe 2-3 feet deep of water. it was ridiculous needless to say but i went over it with my car and just then my car shut off... i havnt a friggen clue why but i cant get it starting.... i did my research and it sounds to me like water got into my intake somehow even though its in my fender away from the engine... i havnt a clue man but im worried... it was towed to my friendly mechanic and i am dying to hear the news he says tomorrow he will fill me in. say a prayer for me man i would hate to see an aero hydrolocked... even though my intake is bolted right to my turbo so i would imagine if water did find a way in the fan of the turbo would evaporate the water... so maybe it was irrelevent to the water it may just be time and place... possibly a blown fuse... even though when i turn the key my car makes an AWFUL noise its like "CRRRRRRRRRKKKKK" i dont know i just hope for the best.