Other engine problem on the 1999 Saab 9-5
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 other engine problem gets reported
There are 10 reports of other engine problem on the 1999 Saab 9-5, 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 95,000 miles. It is the 2nd most-reported problem on this model year.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | — | 62,000 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 $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 5 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2002, at a median of 25,000 miles, and latest on the 2000 at 85,000 miles.
By volume the 2001 carries the most reports, with 13; the 1999 has 10. 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.
Catastrophic failure of upper idler pulley on '99 2.3liter low pressure turbo enginee on saab 95se. The pulley disintegrated on startup of the vehicle. Caused piecees of plastic outher ring material to be scattered around the engine compartmetn and outside of the vehicle. Sepentine belt slipped down onto the hub and caused failure of accessories such as: power steerign pump, leternator etc.*ak had this occured durign drivign on the highwya, the imediate loss of power and accessories woudl have generated major problem and might have caused an accident. The car is 1999 model year, with ~ 50,200 miles duing incident. Please don't hesitate to call me if you have any further questions at 512-301-7425. I hav efollowe dup on web based owner and enthusiast networks. It apperas that this failur eis becomign an common courence on 99 & 2000 saabs95 operated in southern usa. Please check or search at www.saabnet.com : http://www.saabnet.com/tsn/bb/9-5/search.html?query=idler+pulley this search indicates 256 messages related ot the problem most of them over the last six months. I had the pulley replaced at the local delership under extended…
Dt: the engine just shut down without warning and the vehicle was unable to be restarted. There was only a clicking noise. The engine would not turn over. This has happened twice in the middle of traffic. The first incident, the ignition cassette was replaced, and this subsequently happened again. More repair work was done and this happened for a third time. The vehicle is currently in shop. *ak the throttle body had tripped and went into limp mode on the third incident. The dealer could not detect the root cause. *sc *jb
Dt*: the contact stated while driving 25 MPH the check engine light illuminated, the vehicle lost power and the speed dropped to 10 MPH. The contact managed to get the vehicle home and once the engine was turned off, it would not restart. The vehicle was towed the dealer, where the ignition cassettes and spark plugs were replaced. The dealer determined the spark plugs were damaged as a result of the ignition cassette failure. There is a NHTSA recall, #05v399000, regarding the ignition module. The vehicle has the same problems as indicated in the recall; however it is not included in the recall due to the VIN. This happened on the road where the speed limit was 30 MPH. If this would have happened at one of the highways where people are driving at 65 MPH there would have been a fatality. This vehicle would not do over 15 MPH. The contact was able to drive home. The small of the car was very bad so the contact waited 20 minutes before leaving. There was no fire. Both ignition cassettes were replaced, as well as spark plugs. *ak
Also reported on the 1999 Saab 9-5
Other electrical problem
Loss of braking
Misfire or rough idle
No-start or intermittent start failure
Water pump failure
Fuel tank, filler or EVAP failure
How far this goes
This page is kept out of search results because 10 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 10 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 1999 Saab 9-5?
Across 7 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 60,000 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 engine problem on the 1999 Saab 9-5?
10 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.7 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