AtWhatMileage
Fuel · 28 owner reports

Other fuel system problem on the 2000 Buick Lesabre

2 fires 2 of the 28 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.

Reports of this failure 28
With an odometer reading 21
Reports per 1,000 built 0.5 per 1,000
Filed below 36,000 miles 19%
Mention a crash, fire or injury 2
Typical repair $300–$2,200
What it means when it happens High
Rank among this year's problems 8th

When other fuel system problem gets reported

Owners of the 2000 Buick Lesabre report other fuel system problem at a median of 60,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 40,000 miles and a quarter after 80,000 miles, from 21 reports that carried an odometer reading.

A part like this is normally expected to survive 90,000 miles. It is the 8th most-reported problem on this model year.

The mileage distribution

The reported range runs from 10,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 100,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 87,644 miles across the middle 80% of reports.

A spread this wide points at use rather than design. Towing, climate, service history and city mileage all move a failure like this, so the median is a weak guide to any individual car.

19% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.

The whole distribution

Percentiles of the 21 odometer readings owners gave.
10th25thMedian 75th90th
12,356 miles 38,360 miles 60,069 miles 80,000 miles 100,000 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

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 $300–$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 9 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2003, at a median of 25,000 miles, and latest on the 2001 at 135,000 miles.

By volume the 1998 carries the most reports, with 42; the 2000 has 28. 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.

What owners wrote

Verbatim from NHTSA complaint narratives, trimmed for length. The mileage is the one the owner gave.

While driving approximately 25-30 MPH vehicle stalled 15 times within a 5 mile radius. The consumer had to put the vehicle into neutral to restart it. When the vehicle shut down the driver had difficulty maneuvering due to lose of power steering and brakes. *ak *nm

45,000 miles NHTSA complaint 438172 filed 2003-10-30

The consumer noticed that it was difficult to start the vehicle. The vehicle was taken to the dealer who determined that the fuel pressure regulator failed. The dealer supplied the parts and the consumer paid $80.00. *nm

37,000 miles NHTSA complaint 455565 filed 2004-02-19

Recall 04v090000, the fuel pressure regulator was replaced twice in four years. The dealer stated that the gas was bad and it was causing the regulator to be defective. *ak the consumer was told the recall did not apply to her vehicle. *jb

38,360 miles NHTSA complaint 491859 filed 2004-08-20

Also reported on the 2000 Buick Lesabre

Other visibility problem

185 reports median 60k

Other electrical problem

60 reports median 83k

Other engine problem

54 reports median 65k

Other body or interior problem

32 reports median 92k

Other wheel or tire problem

29 reports median 37k

How far this goes

Complaints are voluntary, so 28 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 other fuel system problem happen on the 2000 Buick Lesabre?

Across 21 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 60,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 40,000 miles and a quarter after 80,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.

How common is other fuel system problem on the 2000 Buick Lesabre?

28 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