Technical service bulletin August 1, 2010!!!
 

Hi everyone, I'm new to the forum. I recently bought a Saab 9-3 2.0T 2006, sports sedan. Love the car, I've had it for about 3 months and it started giving me trouble about 3 weeks ago. The engine light came on and when I would press the gas pedal the car would take a long time to get up to speed. It was like that for about a day and the following day the engine light went off and the car was back to normal. Took it to a mechanic and a code 1381 showed ABS road sensing error, I was told one of the sensors was probably damp and I had nothing to worry about. A week after that I had the same problem, took it to another mechanic and the code 2138 showed throttle pedal position sensor, the mechanic said it was probably the sensor in the pedal and not the throttle and to clear the codes and wait to see if it showed up again before changing anything. anyways, it happened again today. A few days ago doing a search on google I found the following Technical service bulletin. I copied this from the national highway traffic safety administration site,

Make / Models : Model/Build Years: SAAB / 9-3 2003-2009
SAAB / 9-3 CONVERTIBLE 2003 2005-2006
SAAB / 9-3 SPORTS COMBI 2005-2006
SAAB / 9-3 SPORTS SEDAN 2005-2006
Service Bulletin Number : PIC-4603A NHTSA Item Number : 10033304 Summary Description : SAAB: ACCELERATOR PEDAL POSITION SENSOR DTCS SET IN ECM 2003-2009 SAAB. APP SENSOR DTC'S OF P2122-00, P2123-00, P2126-00, P2127-00, P2128-00, AND/OR P2138-00 IN THE ECM. THESE DTC'S MAY BE VERY INTERMITTENT AND ARE DIFFICULT TO REPRODUCE. THE APP SENSOR, T8, AND/OR ENGINE HARNESS MAY HAVE BEEN REPLACED WITH NO CHANGE TO THE CONDITION. *PE

Anyways, my car has shown the code P2138 which leads me to believe it might be related to this service bulletin. I'm just wondering if anyone has had this problem and if they are aware of this bulletin or have any further information on it. Any help would be appreciated. I did call the dealership and they said to bring the car in to have it diagnose instead of changing any parts blindly. To be honest I think dealers are more like stealers! Anyways, might have to go to an independent saab mechanic.

Hello,
 

May I have a question? I have mostly same car, and totally same problem. It just now appeared. Can I ask what happend with your car? Did you find the real problem? Do you have any new idea about this, becouse my service man hasn't any idea.
Thnx. GBR

years to late to read this....
 

p2138 as you know, is your "gas pedal"....drive by wire i call it....

basically the "computer" forgot what full throttle voltage and no throttle voltage..
so the car freaked out, went it to "limp home" mode...."dont forget your car is made with a bunch of "GM" parts....kinda think your "gas pedal" is the same one on a 2005 impala...to fix it "until it shows up again" ...remember it's in the saab bulliten, "sometimes it mess's up and we dont know why, and hard to reproduce."..

get a cheap code reader.."handy as hell"....plug the reader in to the car.....with keys in your hand, push the throttle all the way to the floor...turn on the car, "dont start it!"..
with foot on floor turn the car off...wait a few second's. take your foot off the throttle ..now turn the car on again...with "no throttle"...and then turn the car back off again...with code reader still plugged in "remember that code reader you need?"...so turn the car on, "dont start the car!"
and "clear the code"..know one more time turn off the car.....wait for it....a few seconds later!!...start the car back up and go race around in it!......you have just reset the throttle voltage for the drive by wire, from basic "nothing, to full out"....i hope this help's someone,