2003 SATURN VUE — Complaint #592669
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about FUEL SYSTEM, OTHER:STORAGE filed August 16, 2006
NHTSA complaint #592669 (ODI reference 10165605) concerns a 2003 SATURN VUE and was filed on August 16, 2006. The owner reports the failure occurred on August 15, 2006. The vehicle had 35,000 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to Indiana based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as fuel system, other:storage, 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 SATURN VUE cohort independently describe similar fuel system, other:storage 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 SATURN VUE shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
WHEN STOPPING THE VEHICLE AND SITTING STILL FOR A FEW SECONDS, THERE IS A LOUD THUMPING SOUND (OCCURRING THREE OR FOUR TIMES) FROM THE REAR OF THE VEHICLE (SOUNDS SIMILAR TO A LOOSE FUEL TANK BAFFLE). THE DEALER STATED THEY WEREN'T AWARE OF ANY FIX FOR THIS PROBLEM, THOUGH THEY TRIED A COUPLE OF IDEAS. WHILE I'VE FOUND THIS ON SEVERAL WEBSITES ONLINE, NOBODY SEEMS TO KNOW THE CAUSE. EVERYONE SEEMS TO LIVE WITH THE PROBLEM. IT'S DIFFICULT TO DIAGNOSE AS IT SEEMS INTERMITTANT, BUT HAPPENS ON AVERAGE ONCE PER DAY. BEING THAT THIS SEEMS TO BE EMINATING FROM THE FUEL SYSTEM, I THINK THAT SATURN SHOULD TAKE THIS ISSUE MORE SERIOUSLY, AND MORE THAN LIKELY THIS IS SOMETHING THEY CAN CORRECT BY REPLACING THE FUEL TANK, I FEEL THAT THEY JUST DON'T WANT THAT EXPENSE. ALSO, I WOULD LIKE TO TAKE THE OPPORTUNITY TO COMPLAIN ABOUT THE HORN SWITCH, AS IT IS EXTREMELY DIFFICULT TO OPERATE IN A PANIC SITUATION, WHICH IS WHAT IT IS DESIGNED TO BE USED IN. LASTLY, I BELEIVE THAT NHTSA SHOULD INVESTIGA
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 592669 |
| ODI Number | 10165605 |
| Date Filed | August 16, 2006 |
| Failure Date | August 15, 2006 |
| VIN | 5GZCZ63B93S |
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.