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Newbie questions buying 9-3

891 views 2 replies 3 participants last post by  Escargot 
#1 ·
Hi,

First off hello all this my first post on the forums. I am looking at buying a 03 9-3 Arc 175 2.0t. The car has 70k on the clock what sort of things should I be looking out for when going to view it before I buy ??

Many thanks

Ian
 
#2 ·
Remember that 2003 was the first year for the Sport Sedan body style, they had a lot of teething issues that showed up later.

I generally say to stay away from '03's. They seem to be much more prone to electrical and computer gremlins, and to automatic transmission failures. The '03's and '04's had defective seals in the transmission oil cooler that let engine coolant into the transmission, I'd guess easily half the '03's out there are on at least transmission #2. If this is a manual trans car then you don't have to worry about that, but a lot of the computer modules have slightly funky 2003-only software too.

Welcome to the site!
 
#3 ·
When I was shopping a couple of years ago, the online consensus was that the 03 and 04's were to be avoided, with 03 being worst than 04. Like DrewP said, if it's an auto, look out for transmission cooler leak for those years. Look carefully for electrical gremlins. These years have a fiber optic communication system that can be difficult and expensive to diagnose and fix.
 
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