KenD,
Hey! You don't have one of these:
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Don't let me or anyone else convince you to do anything you're not comfortable doing. Please understand that my comments are only what
I would do if it were my new Saab. If anything here makes you queasy, then it's better to do the "safe" thing & be able to sleep at night.
First off, I'm surprised that Saab/GM has lengthened the 9-5's OCI w/o increasing the oil capacity. Of course, now they're also
requiring the use of premium, fully synthetic oil, where before they only
recommended that a syn-blend was used. Will Saab pay for
all oil changes signalled by the Time For Service message during the Intermediate Service periods, or only once every 15k miles?
I don't have an OLM on my '99 9³, but according to the TSB you've quoted (from Taliaferro's site?), it wouldn't have told me to change before 8k miles anyway. The GM OLMs on other vehicles seem to have this OCI thing nailed, so I
have to assume that they've done their homework here as well.
As
Finklejag said, at 5k mi OCIs you can pretty much use whatever full syn oil you want, w/o mixing. You'll still be in warranty 'cuz the GM-LL-A-025 oils are only "required" if you're going follow the OLM, which you're not.
That being the case,
if it were my new SoCal Saab, I'd run
only M1 15W-50 in it.
Period. It's definitely
not too thick for these engines & turbochargers.
If you want to use the free changes, then I'd say the Saab 0W-30 full syn is good for your planned 5k mi OCIs. Or, you can bring in your own oil & have them use that, then give you the "free" stuff (since you really paid for it up front when you bought the car) & take it home & use it in another vehicle.
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