Unclassified problem on the 2005 Cadillac Cts
7 crashes 4 injuries 11 of the 44 reports for this failure mention a crash, a fire, an injury or a death. Those are the owner's words on the complaint form, not a verified finding, and one report can mention more than one.
Only 34 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 unclassified problem gets reported
Owners of the 2005 Cadillac Cts report unclassified problem at a median of 87,500 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 62,500 miles and a quarter after 120,000 miles, from 34 reports that carried an odometer reading.
It is the 49th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 45,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 150,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 104,420 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
A spread this wide points at use rather than design. Towing, climate, service history and city mileage all move a failure like this, so the median is a weak guide to any individual car.
6% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 45,477 miles | 62,250 miles | 87,000 miles | 119,750 miles | 149,897 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
Of these reports, 7 a crash and 4 an injury are mentioned. Owners write their own complaints and the agency does not verify them, so read this as what the reports say happened rather than as a confirmed count.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 13 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2013, at a median of 35,000 miles, and latest on the 2005 at 87,500 miles.
By volume the 2006 carries the most reports, with 60; the 2005 has 44. 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.
Excessive wheel hop occurs frequently under mild to heavy acceleration. In wet conditions, it happens much more frequently and can cause serious traction and handling problems. This also puts heavy stress on the drivetrain and has caused many failures in half-shafts and differentials amongst other owners vehicles, which could lead to further catastophic loss of control. This is a major issue that is being ignored by the manufacturer at this point in time.*ak
2005 cadillac cts- while traveling @35 MPH was struck on drivers side door by chevrolet 2500 series truck. Cts was pushed sideways toward curb where it turned on its side, no airbags had deployed, resulting in head injuries, lacerations and trauma. *tr
I have a 2005 cadillac cts with 67,000 miles. Since about 65,000 miles car has been making a rattling sound under the hood during acceleration. I have given the car a tune up, oil change and the car has other fluids are at level. Once my car has accelerated and the gears have changed (I.e, second gear) the rattling sounds stops..the noise is continuous and only happens at acceleration, not while idling. In addition every now and again when a front seat passenger gets in the car the airbag sensor/light comes on the dashboard. This problem doesn't happen often but it happens every once in a while. Upon doing my research for both these issues I find that I am not the only one having this problem...hopefully something will be done so that gm can address these serious issues without having the consumer/owners having to pay an arm and a leg. *tr
Also reported on the 2005 Cadillac Cts
Differential or transfer case failure
Other brake problem
Other powertrain problem
Control module (ECM/PCM/BCM) failure
Other electrical problem
Other engine problem
How far this goes
This page is kept out of search results because 44 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 44 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 unclassified problem happen on the 2005 Cadillac Cts?
Across 34 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 87,500 miles. A quarter were filed before 62,500 miles and a quarter after 120,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is unclassified problem on the 2005 Cadillac Cts?
44 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 1.2 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