Exhaust leak or fumes in the cabin on the 1997 Buick Lesabre
2 fires 2 of the 16 reports for this failure mention a crash, a fire, an injury or a death. Those are the owner's words on the complaint form, not a verified finding, and one report can mention more than one.
When exhaust leak or fumes in the cabin gets reported
Owners of the 1997 Buick Lesabre report exhaust leak or fumes in the cabin at a median of 80,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 30,000 miles and a quarter after 100,000 miles, from 9 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 100,000 miles. It is the 7th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 20,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 120,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 96,553 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
When the reports scatter this far, the mileage is telling you about how these cars were driven more than about the part itself.
33% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21,740 miles | 32,066 miles | 80,000 miles | 100,570 miles | 118,293 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
Of these reports, 2 a fire is mentioned. Owners write their own complaints and the agency does not verify them, so read this as what the reports say happened rather than as a confirmed count.
Putting it right typically runs $250–$2,000 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 7 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2002, at a median of 45,000 miles, and latest on the 2001 at 240,000 miles.
By volume the 1998 carries the most reports, with 37; the 1997 has 16. A mode that appears across most years of a model is usually a design choice rather than a bad batch.
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.
I would like to complain about the fact that the NHTSA has so little concern for safety that you charge $38.73 per hour and other fees to obtain recall or service bulletins about ones vehicle. I am sure that this charge does exactly as desired by consumers just giving up. Your work load must be near zero which I am sure was the desire. If safety was the desire the information would be available for one to search for free. Is that not what the government web sites are for. I hope homeland security does not take after your site. It would appear that the vehicle cooling leaked into the engine due to a plastic intake manifold failure. Hard to believe a company would make it from plastic. I also believe if I had access to the infomation I would find that many other vehicles had the same failure and the manufacturer should bear responsibility.*ak
While driving vehicle commenced to run roughly. Vehicle was pulled over, and found coolant missing because of design defect in part caused fluid to be drawn into engine. This caused the 3engine to seize and an overhaul to be needed. Possible recall scrapped because problem was not a saftey issue. Vehicle was towed to the dealer, who informed consumer that the upper manifold needed to be replaced.*ak *tc
There was an intake back fire when starting the engine. When taken to get serviced it was determined that the fire was caused by intake manifold.*ak recall campaign 96v116000:intake backfire during starting. Turned the ignition to start the car and heard a load noise. Then turned the ignition off and did not try again. Mechanic said luckily the car did not burn because there was gas on the engine. Mechanic called buick, but they denied there was a problem and said the car was not covered. *bf
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
Complaints are voluntary, so 16 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 exhaust leak or fumes in the cabin happen on the 1997 Buick Lesabre?
Across 9 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 80,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 30,000 miles and a quarter after 100,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is exhaust leak or fumes in the cabin on the 1997 Buick Lesabre?
16 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.5 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