2002 SAAB 9-5 — Complaint #648596
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about FUEL SYSTEM, OTHER:DELIVERY:HOSES, LINES/PIPING, AND FITTINGS filed December 5, 2007
NHTSA complaint #648596 (ODI reference 10210874) concerns a 2002 SAAB 9-5 and was filed on December 5, 2007. The owner reports the failure occurred on December 1, 2007. The vehicle had 66,500 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to Massachusetts based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as fuel system, other:delivery:hoses, lines/piping, and fittings, 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: yes, injuries: 0, fatalities: 0. A complaint that flags a crash, fire, or fatality is escalated on NHTSA's internal review queue and factors more heavily into any Preliminary Evaluation decision on this make and model. 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 9-5 cohort independently describe similar fuel system, other:delivery:hoses, lines/piping, and fittings 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 2002 SAAB 9-5 shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
TL*THE CONTACT OWNS A 2002 SAAB 9-5 ARC. WHILE DRIVING 20 MPH, THE ENGINE MISFIRED AND THE CONTACT NOTICED A BURNING SMELL. APPROXIMATELY TEN MINUTES AFTER SHE PARKED THE VEHICLE, THERE WERE FLAMES COMING FROM THE REAR OF THE VEHICLE NEAR THE FUEL TANK. THE FLAMES ENGULFED THE VEHICLE AND CAUSED DAMAGED TO THE TREES AND DRIVEWAY. THE FIRE DESTROYED THE VEHICLE. AS OF DECEMBER 5, 2007, THE INSURANCE COMPANY OR MANUFACTURER HAD NOT INSPECTED THE VEHICLE. THE CONTACT STATED THAT RECALL #07V087000 (FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE: DELIVERY: HOSES, LINES/PIPING, AND FITTINGS) WAS PERFORMED TWO WEEKS PRIOR TO THE FAILURE. THE CONTACT FELT THAT THE RECALLED PART CAUSED THE FAILURE. THE CURRENT AND FAILURE MILEAGES WERE 66,500.
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 648596 |
| ODI Number | 10210874 |
| Date Filed | December 5, 2007 |
| Failure Date | December 1, 2007 |
| VIN | YS3ED59ZX23 |
Similar FUEL SYSTEM, OTHER:DELIVERY:HOSES, LINES/PIPING, AND FITTINGS Complaints for 2002 SAAB 9-5
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.