Brake line, hose or caliper failure on the 2002 Chevrolet Avalanche
2 crashes 2 of the 23 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 brake line, hose or caliper failure gets reported
Owners of the 2002 Chevrolet Avalanche report brake line, hose or caliper failure at a median of 120,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 95,000 miles and a quarter after 140,000 miles, from 22 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 115,000 miles. It is the 9th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 90,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 175,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 88,253 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.
0% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 87,750 miles | 92,897 miles | 117,500 miles | 140,225 miles | 176,003 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 is 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–$1,600 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.
This mode is classified as critical, which means a failure can leave the car unable to stop, steer, or stay out of the way of traffic. It is weighted accordingly in the risk score.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 3 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2003, at a median of 105,000 miles, and latest on the 2002 at 120,000 miles.
By volume the 2002 is the worst of them, which makes this a problem of this specific year rather than of the model as a whole.
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.
While travelling on interstate 95 I applied my brakes to slow the vehicle only to learn that the brake system had failed. This was caused by a leak in the ridge metal brake line which comes in contact with the cars frame. Upon investigating I have learned that this condition is a known problem for this vehicle. If I hadn't tried to apply the brakes on the open highway and had waited until exiting the highway this could have resulted in a very serious multi car accident.
First time brake line under drivers door rusted out, leaked brake fluid and had to steer to avoid another vehicle stopped for a red light. Had truck towed to a shop for repairs. Mechanic told me this was common problem with gm trucks. Second time luckily I was on my property moving 1000 lb trailer around and notice brakes not working properly. Got out and looked under truck and saw a stream of liquid from around area of front axle. Took truck to nearest mechanic. I stopped by the next day and the mechanic had truck up on lift and came over to me and said "you need a new truck" he said the lines are rusted (brake, fuel and transmission). I also have 2002 jeep wrangler with 180k miles and have not had to replace brake lines like I've had to do with my 2002 chevy avalanche. I am the original owner of both them. *kb
Tl* the contact owns a 2002 chevrolet avalanche. The contact stated that while stopped at a traffic light with the brakes applied, the vehicle continued to move forward. The contact inspected the vehicle and discovered that the brake fluid reservoir was completely empty. The contact added more brake fluid to the vehicle and noticed later that there was an abnormal increase in stopping distance and time after the adding the brake fluid. The contact later discovered that the brake lines were rusted. The contact took the vehicle to a local mechanic to have the brake line replaced. The failure mileage was 115,000.
Also reported on the 2002 Chevrolet Avalanche
ABS module or sensor failure
Liftgate, tailgate or trunk failure
Parking brake failure
Other brake problem
Other wheel or tire problem
Loss of braking
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 23 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 brake line, hose or caliper failure happen on the 2002 Chevrolet Avalanche?
Across 22 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 120,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 95,000 miles and a quarter after 140,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is brake line, hose or caliper failure on the 2002 Chevrolet Avalanche?
23 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.2 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