2003 SAAB 9-3 — Complaint #540366
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about SERVICE BRAKES, AIR:DISC filed June 20, 2005
NHTSA complaint #540366 (ODI reference 10125939) concerns a 2003 SAAB 9-3 and was filed on June 20, 2005. The owner reports the failure occurred on June 17, 2005. The vehicle had 32,000 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to California based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as service brakes, air:disc, one of NHTSA's standardized taxonomy codes used to group defect patterns across make, model, and year.
The filer flagged the following severity indicators: crash: no, fire: no, injuries: 0, fatalities: 0. No crash, fire, or fatality was associated with this report, which places it in the early-warning stream rather than the priority-review stream. Because a VIN was supplied, this complaint is tied to a specific vehicle and not just a model-year cohort.
Individual complaints are consumer-submitted and unverified by NHTSA engineers — the agency's role at this stage is to collect, index, and make them searchable. What matters for federal action is the pattern: when many owners of the same SAAB 9-3 cohort independently describe similar service brakes, air:disc failures, defect investigators have grounds to open a PE and request manufacturer data. Related filings for the same vehicle and component appear below, and the detail page for the full 2003 SAAB 9-3 shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
MY SAAB HAS HAD A LITANY OF PROBLEMS SINCE I HAVE OWNED THE CAR. IT ALL STARTED WITH LITTLE ITEMS. IGNITION WOULDN'T START THE CAR. HEAD LIGHTS BURNT OUT. DASH PEELING, DOOR HANDLES DISCOLORING, EMERGENCY BRAKE GETTING STUCK AND BEING ABLE TO OPERATE MY CAR. ENGINE WARNING LIGHT BECAUSE MY GAS CAP WASN'T ON CORRECT. STEERING WHEEL LOCKING WHILE I WAS DRIVING. WHEEL LOCK LIGHT REMAINING ON WHILE I WAS DRIVING. BRAKES REPLACED DUE TO FACTORY RETRO FIT. SEAT BELTS BEING RECALLED. COMPUTER CONSTANTLY NEEDING TO BE REPLACED SO THE CAR WOULD FUNCTION. ELECTRONIC KEY FAILING SO I COULDN'T START MY CAR. MY CAR IS A 5 SPEED AND THE SHIFTER HANDLE HAS AN CONTINUES TO COME OFF IN MY HAND. A MINIMUM OF 3 FUSES NEEDING TO BE REPLACED. THE DASH BOARD GOES BLANK AT TIMES SHOWING NO FUNCTIONS OF THE CAR. WINDOW WOULDN'T GO UP OR DOWN AND REQUIRED THE REGULATOR TO BE REPLACED. ERRACTIC IDLE. SERVICE ENGINE LIGHT COMES ON BUT, DEALER DOESN'T KNOW WHY. BRAKES NEEDED TO BE REPLACED AT 30
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 540366 |
| ODI Number | 10125939 |
| Date Filed | June 20, 2005 |
| Failure Date | June 17, 2005 |
| VIN | YS3FB45S631 |
Source: NHTSA Vehicle Complaints Database. Component taxonomy and severity codes are standardized by NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation.
Read our methodology — how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.