Other powertrain problem on the 2004 Buick Lesabre
Only 6 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 other powertrain problem gets reported
There are 8 reports of other powertrain problem on the 2004 Buick Lesabre, 6 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 92,000 miles. It is the 6th most-reported problem on this model year.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | — | 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
Putting it right typically runs $400–$4,500 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 1999, at a median of 35,000 miles, and latest on the 2004 at 100,000 miles.
By volume the 1997 carries the most reports, with 19; the 2004 has 8. 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.
Tl*the contact owns a 2004 buick lesabre. While driving 20 MPH the transmission locked. The front wheel of the vehicle and the transmission casing broke in half. The transmission had began to slip prior to the failure. The dealer had previously adjusted the computer on the vehicle; yet that did not correct the failure. The dealer stated this the failure was caused by the mileage on the vehicle. The contact stated that the design of the transmission had caused the failure to occur. The failure and current mileages were 118000.
2004 buick lesabre purchased with 1k miles. At about 60k mi the gas gauge malfunctioned. At 110k the engine temp gauge malfunctioned and the dash lights faded on and off. Also, air bag warning light goes on and off randomly. Now with 120k, the tach and odometer have quit. Only remaining functioning dash instrument is the speedometer. Car also at times exhibits unpredictable electrical behavior, such as not starting after a brief interval with car off and radio on. Mechanics advised early on that issue was a defective gas gauge, which now appears to be incorrect. Faulty digital instrument panel appears confirmed. There is also a very strange and irritating noise that originates directly in the center of the dash, like small animals under the dash. *tr
Very common know problem of the 4t65e transmission equipped in these cars is a pressure control solenoid and/or the shift solenoids fail prematurely due to a poorly constructed parts. A service bulletin has been issued by manufacturer warning of the problem and to use a much more superior part to replace the bad ones. This happens across a number of vehicles and gm refuses to recall said part even after knowing it is a failed part. The problem it causes is the transmission goes into high pressure mode and causes hard up shifts. There is a unofficial work around that involves installing after market parts to stop the hard shifts.gm has been made aware of the problem and has personally told me they will not issue a recall due to cost of recalling and repairing. Especially in cars that this has caused premature failure of the transmission. And they say they are under no obligation to do so. The sad thing is I just asked for the updated part so I could personally install it because I do better work than their garages and wouldn't trust them to change a tire let alone touch a transmission. I am capable of installing the parts I just…
Also reported on the 2004 Buick Lesabre
Other electrical problem
Other body or interior problem
Instrument cluster or gauge failure
Fuel gauge or level sensor failure
Other engine problem
Other wheel or tire problem
How far this goes
This page is kept out of search results because 8 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 8 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 powertrain problem happen on the 2004 Buick Lesabre?
Across 6 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 100,000 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 other powertrain problem on the 2004 Buick Lesabre?
8 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.2 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