Control arm, ball joint or bushing failure on the 1997 Buick Lesabre
Only 7 reports for this mode came with an odometer reading, which is too few for percentiles to mean anything. The page is here because someone linked to it; treat the figures as anecdotes, and see the full report for this year instead.
When control arm, ball joint or bushing failure gets reported
There are 9 reports of control arm, ball joint or bushing failure on the 1997 Buick Lesabre, 7 with a mileage attached. That is too few to place the failure on the odometer with any confidence.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 108,000 miles. It is the 17th most-reported problem on this model year.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | — | 130,000 miles | — | — |
Read the 10th percentile as “one report in ten arrived this early”. Exact figures are shown in this table because it is the table of record; everywhere else on the site they are rounded to the precision the sample can carry.
What a percentile can and cannot tell you here
These five numbers describe the readings owners gave, in order. The median is the middle one: half the reports arrived below it. The 10th and 90th are the edges of the bulk of the distribution, and the distance between them is the part worth reading. A tight spread — say 70,000 to 95,000 miles — points at something that wears out on a schedule, and the schedule is knowable. A wide one, 20,000 to 190,000, points at a fault that hits some cars and never troubles others, which means the mileage on the listing in front of you tells you very little about your odds.
What these figures are not is a survival curve. Every reading here comes from a car whose owner filed a complaint, so the sample contains only failures: it cannot say what share of the fleet made it past 150,000 miles untouched, because those owners had nothing to report. Nor is the mileage the moment of failure — it is the odometer reading as recalled at the time of filing, which may be weeks later and is sometimes rounded to the nearest ten thousand by the person typing it.
Percentiles are shown at all only once 8 readings exist for the vehicle and mode. Below that the middle of a handful of numbers is noise wearing a decimal point, so the figures are withheld rather than dressed up.
What happens, and what it costs
Putting it right typically runs $400–$2,200 at an independent US shop. That range is an editorial estimate held in this site's failure-mode catalogue, not a figure from NHTSA, and it is a repair cost rather than a diagnosis cost.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 3 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2001, at a median of 50,000 miles, and latest on the 1997 at 130,000 miles.
By volume the 1997 is the worst of them, which makes this a problem of this specific year rather than of the model as a whole.
If one year stands out to the left, that is the year to avoid; if the whole line sits at a similar mileage, this is wear rather than a defect in one production run.
Tick median reported mileage Solid middle half of reports Faint 10th to 90th percentile Colour how bad the failure is when it happens
What owners wrote
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint narratives, trimmed for length. The mileage is the one the owner gave.
September 15th driving my 1997 buick lesabre heard and felt a loud banging noise. Lost all steering. Car taken to garage where it was discovered that all four rear subframe cradle mount retainers had failed. Entire engine and cradle fell disengaging the steering completely. I have since learned that there are thousands of lesabre owners who have had this same thing occur. Gm did a recall on the regals for the same problem. Was there ever a recall on the lesabres and if not...why not. This is an obviously very serious design failure which is potentially fatal. Fortunately no one was injured in my case or the lawyers would be hard at work. My buick is well cared for...serviced and inspected regularly and this still occurred. Has only 87,700 miles on it. It cost me over $1000 to repair the problem and make the car safe to drive again. Is there any way I can get gm to step up and assume responsibility for this? Can NHTSA help? *tr
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. *tr
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. *tr
Also reported on the 1997 Buick Lesabre
Other engine problem
Other electrical problem
Other fuel system problem
Other body or interior problem
Seat belt or retractor failure
Other powertrain problem
How far this goes
This page is kept out of search results because 9 reports is not enough to publish percentiles from. It stays reachable because somebody looking at this exact car would rather see the reports than be told there are none.
Complaints are voluntary, so 9 is a floor and not a count of affected cars. Mileages are typed in by owners and cluster on round numbers. And the mode itself is assigned by software reading the complaint text, which is reliable in bulk and fallible one report at a time.
Questions this page answers
At what mileage does control arm, ball joint or bushing failure happen on the 1997 Buick Lesabre?
Across 7 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 130,000 miles. A quarter were filed before — and a quarter after —. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is control arm, ball joint or bushing failure on the 1997 Buick Lesabre?
9 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.3 per 1,000 vehicles. Complaints are voluntary, so this is a floor rather than a count of affected cars.
What this is and is not. These are the mileages at which owners chose to complain to a federal agency, which is not the same as the mileage at which the part fails on every car. It skews toward failures that happened outside warranty, cost real money, or frightened someone. It is still the only public dataset that carries failure mileage at all, and the shape of a few hundred readings is informative even when a single one is not. Methodology · JSON · this failure on other cars
Source Owner complaints and recall records published by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, model years 1996–2027 Figures rebuilt Published by AtWhatMileage How every figure is computed