Other electrical problem on the 2005 Cadillac Sts
2 crashes 2 fires 4 of the 10 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.
When other electrical problem gets reported
Owners of the 2005 Cadillac Sts report other electrical problem at a median of 35,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 1,400 miles and a quarter after 70,000 miles, from 8 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 85,000 miles. It is the 3rd most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 41 miles at the tenth percentile to 100,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 100,466 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.
50% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 41 miles | 1,361 miles | 37,000 miles | 70,750 miles | 100,507 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, 2 a crash and 2 a fire 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.
Putting it right typically runs $250–$2,000 at an independent US shop. That range is an editorial estimate held in this site's failure-mode catalogue, not a figure from NHTSA, and it is a repair cost rather than a diagnosis cost.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 7 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2007, at a median of 15,000 miles, and latest on the 1999 at 100,000 miles.
By volume the 2006 carries the most reports, with 12; the 2005 has 10. 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.
Dt: the contact's wife drove the vehicle to the grocery store. She parked the vehicle and went in the store. When she came out she noticed people were looking over an embankment. She realized then that the car had rolled backward over the embankment. A tow truck came and pulled the vehicle up, and then the car was driven home. The engineer at the dealership checked the vehicle and said there was nothing wrong with the vehicle. However the contact felt that the electrical system was faulty. *ak the consumer stated the vehicle has a new keyless ignition system which allows the vehicle to be left in neutral rather than park when the driver exits the vehicle. Updated 01/04/06. *jb
Dt*: the contact stated while driving at 45 MPH smoke was detected inside the vehicle. Fifteen minutes later the vehicle was engulfed with smoke. The occupants got out of the vehicle. After a few minutes they got back in the vehicle and drove it home. The vehicle was taken to a dealership the following morning, diagnostics test were performed on the vehicle. The problem was the wiring and the module under the seat had melted. The repairs have been made. The manufacturer has been notified. The consumer was told the wiring was routed incorrectly updated 03/17/06. *jb
Dt*: the contact stated after the vehicle was left parked for five days or longer the battery needed recharged. The first time the vehicle was towed to a dealership. After the vehicle was inspected, the dealer was unable to identify what caused the battery to loose power. The problem continued to occur. The battery had not been replaced only recharged.
Also reported on the 2005 Cadillac Sts
Other engine problem
Differential or transfer case failure
Other body or interior problem
Other powertrain problem
Control module (ECM/PCM/BCM) failure
Headlight failure or clouding
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 10 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 other electrical problem happen on the 2005 Cadillac Sts?
Across 8 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 35,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 1,400 miles and a quarter after 70,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other electrical problem on the 2005 Cadillac Sts?
10 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.4 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