AtWhatMileage
Electrical · 6 owner reports

Other electrical problem on the 2002 Chevrolet Avalanche

Only 4 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.

Reports of this failure 6
With an odometer reading 4
Reports per 1,000 built 0.0 per 1,000
Filed below 36,000 miles 25%
Mention a crash, fire or injury 0
Typical repair $250–$2,000
What it means when it happens Moderate
Rank among this year's problems 25th

When other electrical problem gets reported

There are 6 reports of other electrical problem on the 2002 Chevrolet Avalanche, 4 with a mileage attached. That is too few to place the failure on the odometer with any confidence.

A part like this is normally expected to survive 85,000 miles. It is the 25th most-reported problem on this model year.

The whole distribution

Percentiles of the 4 odometer readings owners gave.
10th25thMedian 75th90th
— — 50,000 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

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 8 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2010, at a median of 45,000 miles, and latest on the 2007 at 170,000 miles.

By volume the 2004 carries the most reports, with 16; the 2002 has 6. 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.

What owners wrote

Verbatim from NHTSA complaint narratives, trimmed for length. The mileage is the one the owner gave.

While driving 55 MPH vehicle stalled. Dealer was not able to duplicate the problem. *ak the consumer stated that the vehicle restarted until it got to the stop sign failed but would not die. The vehicle was road tested and the engine died. The consumer was unable to shift into neutral and crank engine. The consumer was able to restart the engine and the engine had an extended crank time. The consumer stated that the radio would not work all the time. *tc phone interview update (february 15, 2006): the first dealer couldn't find what caused the engine to stall. They later went out of business. The vehicle kept stalling without warning at all speed. The stalled engine would not restart immediately. The second dealer find the problem to be the crank position sensor right the way. The sensor was broken in several pieces. The vehicle was traded in. The complainant will try to find the repair inovice and fax it to odi.

28,000 miles NHTSA complaint 490370 filed 2004-08-13

Dt: caller hit a speed bump or a spot on the road that raised the speed. Up 60 or 70 MPH and vehicle went completely dead. Pulled over on the highway and turned it off. Then, it started again. He\\caller stated it did not happen in the city, only on the highway. He took vehicle to two different dealers. One dealer said they could not duplicate the problem. Another dealer said the problem was a negative cable. Manufacturer has not been contacted yet. Caller said that the problem started after he had the intake valve cover replaced. Caller stated this happened 7 times. Caller believed the problem was in the electrical system.*ak

72,000 miles NHTSA complaint 546449 filed 2005-07-28

On several occasions, the 8.1l engine died at both low and high speeds (65 MPH) resulting in lost of power brakes and steering. Could not shift transmission into neutral. Diagnosed by dealership shop found that the crank position sensor was failing. Multiple electrical diagnoses over course of failures did not show the sensor to be failing. Oem replacement of senor involved complete removal and dismantling of engine. *jb

40,000 miles NHTSA complaint 568152 filed 2006-01-04

Also reported on the 2002 Chevrolet Avalanche

ABS module or sensor failure

64 reports median 58k

Liftgate, tailgate or trunk failure

46 reports median 42k

Parking brake failure

39 reports median 32k

Other brake problem

37 reports median 86k

Other wheel or tire problem

31 reports median 37k

Loss of braking

30 reports median 69k

How far this goes

This page is kept out of search results because 6 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 6 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 2002 Chevrolet Avalanche?

Across 4 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 50,000 miles. A quarter were filed before — and a quarter after —. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.

How common is other electrical problem on the 2002 Chevrolet Avalanche?

6 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.0 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