Instrument cluster or gauge failure on the 2007 Chevrolet Avalanche
3 crashes 3 of the 19 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 instrument cluster or gauge failure gets reported
Owners of the 2007 Chevrolet Avalanche report instrument cluster or gauge failure at a median of 70,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 70,000 miles and a quarter after 105,000 miles, from 13 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 90,000 miles. It is the 3rd most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 65,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 125,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 59,145 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
A window that narrow is the signature of a part that fails on its own schedule rather than on how the car is driven — which is usually a design or supplier problem rather than wear and tear.
0% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 65,755 miles | 72,000 miles | 72,000 miles | 104,500 miles | 124,900 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, 3 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 $350–$1,400 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 2004, at a median of 50,000 miles, and latest on the 2008 at 110,000 miles.
By volume the 2004 carries the most reports, with 35; the 2007 has 19. 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.
Around the may 2012 timeframe I had to take my 2007 chevrolet avalanche in to a local dealership for service to the cracked dashboard near the passenger side air bag. The dealership agreed that this was a defective issue through out a number of other gm models. The dealership agreed to replace the dashboard at no charge. This week on 9 december 2013 I noticed another crack in the new dashboard. Just slightly over a year this has happened again but this time in a new location. This crack is on the drivers side near the front of the windshield near the VIN number plate to the base of the instrument cluster. This crack in the past two days is opening more and more everyday. On 10 december the crack has now formed a "v" shape and has split to towards the drivers door. I took the vehicle in today and the dealership, the same dealership that replaced the dashboard the first time, said no and that they could no longer help me and recommended to me that I just get a "cover" to not see it and bother me. I paid nearly $40,000 for the truck and keep very good care of it. I feel that these cracks are a safety concern that should be addressed…
Around the may 2012 timeframe I had to take my 2007 chevrolet avalanche in to a local dealership for service to the cracked dashboard near the passenger side air bag. The dealership agreed that this was a defective issue through out a number of other gm models. The dealership agreed to replace the dashboard at no charge. This week on 9 december 2013 I noticed another crack in the new dashboard. Just slightly over a year this has happened again but this time in a new location. This crack is on the drivers side near the front of the windshield near the VIN number plate to the base of the instrument cluster. This crack in the past two days is opening more and more everyday. On 10 december the crack has now formed a "v" shape and has split to towards the drivers door. I took the vehicle in today and the dealership, the same dealership that replaced the dashboard the first time, said no and that they could no longer help me and recommended to me that I just get a "cover" to not see it and bother me. I paid nearly $40,000 for the truck and keep very good care of it. I feel that these cracks are a safety concern that should be addressed…
While cleaning the windshield I noticed what appeared to be a crack over the instrument cluster. I opened the door and looked at the dash closer and confirmed it was cracked. Later that week I noticed the dash had cracked at the passenger airbag. The crack over the instrument cluster starts at the front edge of the dash and runs about half way back. The crack at the passenger airbag starts at the front seam and runs into the airbag opening. I started research to see if there was a recall and found numerous complaints about this problem. I also found that at this time gm refuses to do anything about it. With the amount of complaints in various areas around the u.s. It doesn't appear to be weather related. There is even a facebook page dedicated to this issue. Https://www.facebook.com/groups/gmdashcrack/
Also reported on the 2007 Chevrolet Avalanche
Airbag inflator rupture
Other body or interior problem
Airbag warning light or occupant sensor fault
Other electrical problem
Steering column or shaft failure
Other engine problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 19 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 instrument cluster or gauge failure happen on the 2007 Chevrolet Avalanche?
Across 13 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 70,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 70,000 miles and a quarter after 105,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is instrument cluster or gauge failure on the 2007 Chevrolet Avalanche?
19 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.6 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