Other speed control problem on the 2003 Chevrolet Avalanche
1 crash 1 of the 9 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 speed control problem gets reported
Owners of the 2003 Chevrolet Avalanche report other speed control problem at a median of 60,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 45,000 miles and a quarter after 65,000 miles, from 9 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 78,000 miles. It is the 6th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 35,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 95,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 62,133 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
When the reports scatter this far, the mileage is telling you about how these cars were driven more than about the part itself.
11% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 33,267 miles | 44,000 miles | 60,000 miles | 65,101 miles | 95,400 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, 1 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–$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.
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 2004, at a median of 45,000 miles, and latest on the 2003 at 60,000 miles.
By volume the 2003 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.
Consumer complained about vehicle dropping speed and losing power while being driven. If vehicle is going uphill 25 MPH is the maximum speed. On the level roads 40 MPH is the maximum speed. This vehicle was serviced 3 times for the same defect, but problem was not resolved. *ak
Speedometer needle sticks and only lowers the needle 5 MPH for each time the engine is turned off and then on again. Dealer has seen several in the past 2 months. Needle moves with a jumping motion and does not move smoothly as it did before. Dealer quoted a cost of $500-$600 to replace electronic speedometer. This is not a usual item that is expected to be replaced in vehicles. As several have been identified by one dealer (reliable chevrolet) in the past 2 months, not only with the avalanche, but other silverado model trucks, requesting research on manufacturer defect for recall. *nm
Speedometer needle sticks and only lowers the needle 5 MPH for each time the engine is turned off and then on again. I have contacted the dealership and have not taken this in yet. I will be taking this in next week. The dealer said when I called that they have seen this before and they would need to look at to verify that it is the same problem they are having with the avalanche and the silverado pickups. *jb
Also reported on the 2003 Chevrolet Avalanche
Loss of braking
Instrument cluster or gauge failure
Other brake problem
Brake line, hose or caliper failure
Other electrical problem
Other body or interior problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 9 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 speed control problem happen on the 2003 Chevrolet Avalanche?
Across 9 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 60,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 45,000 miles and a quarter after 65,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other speed control problem on the 2003 Chevrolet Avalanche?
9 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.1 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