NHTSA — Structure Problems

1.4

hardly worth mentioning
Crashes / Fires:
0 / 0
Injuries / Deaths:
0 / 0
Average Mileage:
123,500 miles

About These NHTSA Complaints:

This data is from the NHTSA — the US gov't agency tasked with vehicle safety. Complaints are spread across multiple & redundant categories, & are not organized by problem.

So how do you find out what problems are occurring? For this NHTSA complaint data, the only way is to read through the comments below. Any duplicates or errors? It's not us.

1997 Buick LeSabre body / paint problems

body / paint problem

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1997 Buick LeSabre Owner Comments

problem #2

Mar 142014

LeSabre 6-cyl

  • 157,000 miles

A D V E R T I S E M E N T S

While accelerating up to speed from a stop, all of a sudden there was a noticeable thump, the steering was erratic, the car vibrated and shook. The power steering was inoperable. We slowly drove the car home (2 miles) and upon examination, we discovered the engine cradle frame was hanging down, only a few inches from the ground. The engine cradle mounting washers (2 on each side) had rusted thru, allowing the rear of the cradle to drop. I also noticed the right side sway bar was broken off at the mount on the lower control arm. The entire front suspension and wheel assemblies are fastened to this cradle, so that's why the steering became erratic - there was no longer any solid attachment to the car. After carefully examining the attachment points, it is obvious that this is a serious safety and structural design flaw. These cars should be recalled for the safety of the public. We were lucky that we were on a straight road at a slow speed when this happened. I noticed there are many, many complaints on the NHTSA website of this exact same issue.

- Norwalk, WI, USA

problem #1

Apr 042003

LeSabre 6-cyl

  • Automatic transmission
  • 90,000 miles
Sever inner rust/rotted area in the rear passenger side trunk back seat, wheel housing. Not visible rust to the naked eye, or no surface rust. Caused water to leak in and cause extensive damage to seat, carpet, padding. Leaked to under front passenger seat, shorting out sensor and deployed air bag without impact. G.M. is unhelpful. They responded with "even if it was a factory defect I had exceeded my 6 year/100,000 mile warranty. I cannot see how this could fall to the consumers responsibility! I am hopeful that you may have an answer that could be of some help. I also am dumbfounded that an air bag will go off with out impact. Everything I have researched on them reports only on crashes, even on the G.M.web page for air bags there is nothing that says shorting out of a sensor due to water or anything else can deploy them. So I ask what if a child spilled a drink and it went under the seat" what if my wife or I purchased a gallon of milk or water, sat it on the back floor and it leaked? should there not be a sensor or something to tell the air bag not to deploy due to the fact the auto wasn't in an accident" thank you, brian and lisa heuring.

- Gowen, MI, USA

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