Rod through the block on our 9-5 Aero after a tune. Learn from our mistake
About a year ago I made a post here asking about tuning my dad’s 2010 Saab 9-5 Aero. The car was already tuned when we bought it from the previous owner. A lot of people warned me that ~360hp was already pushing the limits for a mostly stock setup, especially the transmission.
Sadly, they were probably right.
About a month ago, the engine catastrophically failed.
The car suddenly lost power while driving, so we carefully pulled over to the side of the road. A huge amount of oil had leaked out, and shortly after that the engine completely died.
At that point we didn’t even try restarting it because there was oil everywhere and we didn’t want to risk even more damage.
Turns out, one of the connecting rod went straight through the block. We pulled the engine apart and found the rod completely broken.
My dad and our mechanic both believe there’s a very high chance the tune was the cause. Either too aggressive, poorly made, or simply done by someone who didn’t really know what they were doing.
Of course, there’s always a possibility of a random mechanical defect, but considering the circumstances, the tune is the main suspect.
So this is mostly a warning post for anyone thinking about tuning these cars:
Don’t trust just anyone with your software. A bad tune can destroy an engine way faster than you think.
We ended up replacing the whole engine.
I’ll attach some photos of the block and the broken rod because the damage was honestly heartbreaking 💔