Other engine problem on the 2001 Buick Regal
30 fires 1 injury 31 of the 53 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 other engine problem gets reported
Owners of the 2001 Buick Regal report other engine problem at a median of 110,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 80,000 miles and a quarter after 152,500 miles, from 27 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 95,000 miles. It is the 1st most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 42,500 miles at the tenth percentile to 210,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 168,320 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.
7% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 41,680 miles | 80,000 miles | 111,000 miles | 152,500 miles | 210,000 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, 30 a fire and 1 an injury are 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–$4,000 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 15 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2018, at a median of 20,000 miles, and latest on the 1997 at 140,000 miles.
By volume the 1999 carries the most reports, with 61; the 2001 has 53. 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 own a 2001 buick regal les. The car was purchased from a dealer as a used car in january 2004. I notice the car was hard to start. I took it to a car repair place and they could not find the problem but called a buick dealership and was told there was a recall on the car for throttle body bolts. I took the car to the buick dealership to have the recall done on the car and they did the recall and replaced a fuel pressure regulator which had failed. I had to pay $197.00 to have that work completed. After picking up the car, I then noticed that my car was leaking antifreeze and the car was shifting hard between 1st to 2nd and 2nd to 3rd gears (automatic transmission). I got my husband to look at the car and he spotted where it was coming from but we took it back to the privately owned car mechanic shop and was told the the plastic intake manifold was cracked. I paid that mechanic over $400.00 to have that fixed. I also had them look at the shifting problem and they could not find what was wrong. I have twice taken the car to the transmission service center and they changed the fluid and replaced the gasket but cannot find anything…
I returned home from a short trip to the store on 9/3/05, turned off the car, and parked my 2001 buick regal gs in the driveway. About 5-10 minutes later, my husband said he smelled something burning. He looked out the front door, and smoke and flames were coming from under the hood of the car. I called 911, and my husband attempted to contain the flames until the fire department arrived. The engine tried to start, on its own, while it was burning. The car radio came on. The engine was engulfed in flames when the fire department arrived. The car appears to be a total loss. In addition, the heat from the flames melted the vinyl siding on my house, inasmuch as the car was parked in front of the garage next to the house. *nm
Vehicle has a 3.8 liter super charged engine. Parked car after driving approximately 70 miles with no noticeable problem. About fifteen minutes later, I saw smoke coming from under the hood. The engine compartment was engulfed. The vehicle is a total loss. The car was not running and their was no indication of smoke/fire when I turned it off. *cn
Also reported on the 2001 Buick Regal
Ignition switch, key fob or immobilizer failure
Other electrical problem
Cruise control failure
Oil leak
Other body or interior problem
Tail light, brake light or signal failure
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 53 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 engine problem happen on the 2001 Buick Regal?
Across 27 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 110,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 80,000 miles and a quarter after 152,500 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other engine problem on the 2001 Buick Regal?
53 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 1.4 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