2004 Buick Century problems, complaints & recalls
Most-reported problem areas: Exterior Lighting (5) · Air Bags (5) · Vehicle Speed Control (3)
🧭 Reliability snapshot
Compared against other Buick Century model years — complaint volume vs the model's median year, recalls and severity. How we score →
🛣️ Complaints by mileage
34 NHTSA complaints that reported an odometer reading.
Safety recalls (0)
No recalls on record for this model year (campaigns announced since 2010).
Service bulletins (405)
Technical service bulletins are repair instructions manufacturers send dealers for known issues. Unlike recalls, the fix is not automatically free — but naming the bulletin at the service desk can save diagnosis time and support goodwill repairs.
Unknown Or Other 2025-07-18 · PIP5601C · Service Bulletin/Repair Instructions
this pi communicates the requirement to provide a pico file to receive diagnostic assistance from tac.
Unknown Or Other 2025-02-20 · PIP5358D · Service Bulletin/Repair Instructions
this preliminary information communication provides information to the technician about vehicles that have an unusual noise and is difficult to identify, isolate or pinpoint. technician should get record a sound clip or take a video of the noise for assessment by engineering. technician will need to
Electrical System 2024-10-25 · PIP4723J · Service Bulletin/Repair Instructions
this preliminary information communicates to the dealer the process for downloading or updating operating software for the tire pressure monitor, active fuel injector tester, multi media tester, pico scope, gr8 starting/charging tester and vehicle data recorder tools, giving website address and ste
Unknown Or Other 2024-09-12 · PIT5099H · Service Bulletin/Repair Instructions
this preliminary information communication provides information to the technician about vehicles that the heater-vent-air conditioning blows warm air. before calling general motors technical assistance center technician will need to have high and low pressures, outside temperature, humidity, and ven
Unknown Or Other 2024-09-12 · PIT5099H · Service Bulletin/Repair Instructions
this preliminary information communication provides information to the technician about vehicles that the heater-vent-air conditioning blows warm air. before calling general motors technical assistance center technician will need to have high and low pressures, outside temperature, humidity, and ven
Unknown Or Other 2024-09-06 · PIT3271P · Service Bulletin/Repair Instructions
this preliminary information communication provides information to the technician about changing the tire and wheel size on vehicles. general motors will only support a tire calibration for tires that have been sized, tested and designed for the vehicle in question and its applications. technician s
Showing the 6 most recent of 405 bulletins. Search all of them free at nhtsa.gov.
What owners report
2020-11-20 · Seats · 120,000 mi“power seat wiring harness sorted to seat frame/spring…”
2020-05-26 · Air Bags · 156,000 mi“tl* the contact owns a 2004 buick century. the contact stated that while her son was driving at approximately 35 mph, the air bags deployed independently without warning. the air bag hit the contact's arm and face leaving minor marks and bruises. the driver did not seek medical attention for his injuries. the contact's son was able to pull the vehi…”
2020-01-10 · Air Bags · 152,000 mi“tl* the contact owns a 2004 buick century. the contact stated that the air bag warning light illuminated, while driving approximately 10 mph. the contact stated that the air bag warning light remained illuminated. the vehicle was not diagnosed nor repaired. neither the dealer nor the manufacturer were notified of the failure. the failure mileage wa…”
2019-09-07 · Service Brakes · 40,000 mi“front and rear brake lines failed leaving me with no brakes. i was driving at low speed. the rear brake line was the first to go. the front burst and about 4 weeks later the cause was rust and corrosion. both times the pedal went to the floor.…”
2018-12-09 · Service Brakes · 37,000 mi“brake line failed on rear brakes. lost all fluid in motion on highway rust on brake lines…”
2018-09-10 · Vehicle Speed Control · 136,000 mi“when driving my car over 5 miles it will choke and not let me accelerate and the speedometer goes to 0. can you tell me what the problem could be?…”
2018-06-13 · Vehicle Speed Control · 170,000 mi“the multi function switch does not work properly. when going around curves and corners you can't dim the headlights. because the steering wheel doesn't allow the lever to go far enough to catch. now my headlights will not turn on when the they are suppose to. my cruise control doesn't work. my a/c stops cooling when the speed reaches 60 mph but if …”
2017-12-21 · Exterior Lighting · 62,000 mi“headlights went off while driving on interstate at night. ( i may have flashed my high beams to signal a truck that it was safe to change lanes before this happened. interior lights still working when this happened. nothing i did would bring headlights back on. very dangerous problem!! car mileage approximately 62,000. 12/21/2017 date.…”
2016-04-03 · Exterior Lighting · 76,000 mi“while in motion the high beam will go out and low beam with it - no lights at all. you must push or pull the turn signal lever to turn the lights on again.…”
2015-06-30 · Unknown Or Other · 144,522 mi“car stopped for no apparent reason while driving down the highway but started up immediately and continued driving home. next week stopped again while driving as i pulled into the gas station but started up again and continued home. next time driving no problems then stopped again while turning into the grocery store and again on way home while s…”
Excerpts of consumer complaints filed with NHTSA, lightly truncated. They are owner statements, not verified findings.