Liftgate, tailgate or trunk failure on the 2002 Chevrolet Avalanche
5 injuries 5 of the 46 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 liftgate, tailgate or trunk failure gets reported
Owners of the 2002 Chevrolet Avalanche report liftgate, tailgate or trunk failure at a median of 40,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 30,000 miles and a quarter after 55,000 miles, from 24 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 82,000 miles. It is the 2nd most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 25,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 60,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 38,641 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
Reports bunched into a band this tight usually mean the component has a life of its own: it goes at roughly the same mileage regardless of who owns it.
29% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 22,759 miles | 27,875 miles | 41,937 miles | 54,163 miles | 61,400 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, 5 an injury 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–$1,500 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, every year of the Chevrolet Avalanche
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.
Tailgate cable snapped on a 2002 chevrolet avalanche while loading atv. Cables snapped in the middle of the cable and not at ends. I was assured by sales representative that the tailgate can handle the weight of an atv. The the truck bed has an atv tread embedded into the mat to add traction while loading and unloading. I believe the cables need to be recalled and corrected before someone else is injured. I was quoted an estimate of $123.00 to fix. I want the manufacturer to pay for the damage since it resulted in a manufacturing defect.*ak
The tailgate cables on my 2002 chevy avalanche unexpededly broke while a friend and I were unloading a home gym. Both cables snapped in the middle at the same time. This resulted in the tailgate dropping and my friend and I almost falling with the home gym on top of us. I slightly strained my back but we had no significant injury. Luckily we have good balance.
Both of my tailgate cables snapped while unloading an atv. Luckily I was not injured when the atv, ramps, and the tailgate all fell when both cables snapped at the same time. 2002 chevy avalanche 2500 4x4
Also reported on the 2002 Chevrolet Avalanche
ABS module or sensor failure
Parking brake failure
Other brake problem
Other wheel or tire problem
Loss of braking
Other body or interior problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 46 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 liftgate, tailgate or trunk failure happen on the 2002 Chevrolet Avalanche?
Across 24 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 40,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 30,000 miles and a quarter after 55,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is liftgate, tailgate or trunk failure on the 2002 Chevrolet Avalanche?
46 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