Headlight failure or clouding on the 2008 Chevrolet Aveo
3 fires 3 of the 15 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 headlight failure or clouding gets reported
Owners of the 2008 Chevrolet Aveo report headlight failure or clouding at a median of 85,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 45,000 miles and a quarter after 120,000 miles, from 12 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 88,000 miles. It is the 5th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 15,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 120,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 104,500 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.
25% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15,500 miles | 42,500 miles | 84,500 miles | 120,000 miles | 120,000 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
Of these reports, 3 a fire 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 $150–$1,800 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 5 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2007, at a median of 100 miles, and latest on the 2008 at 85,000 miles.
By volume the 2008 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.
On july 21, 2014 at about 7:45 in the morning, my wife who was going to church went to the garage to use the aveo. When she opened the door, she was met with dark smoke and smell of burned plastic. Then she saw the middle of the dashboard burned creating a big hole. Then I had the aveo towed to the charles clark chevrolet where I bought the aveo for them to see. Then I went home and passing by the mailbox I got the mail and saw an envelope from general motors. When I opened the envelope, I saw the letter of the recall of the aveo due to the defective headlamp switch or daytime running lamp which generate heat which could melt headlamp switch and drl module causing fire. That was what happened to the aveo. So I called gm and told them what happened. Then after several days of calls and an inspection by their engineers, I was told that the damage was beyond repair and they will pay a little over $4,000 because they will not repair the aveo. I told them I do not agree because the aveo was in good condition at seven years old, less than 16,000 mileage, the tires were still the original tires when bought and had never been brought to a…
On july 21, 2014 at about 7:45 in the morning, my wife who was going to church went to the garage to use the aveo. When she opened the door, she was met with dark smoke and smell of burned plastic. Then she saw the middle of the dashboard burned creating a big hole. Then I had the aveo towed to the charles clark chevrolet where I bought the aveo for them to see. Then I went home and passing by the mailbox I got the mail and saw an envelope from general motors. When I opened the envelope, I saw the letter of the recall of the aveo due to the defective headlamp switch or daytime running lamp which generate heat which could melt headlamp switch and drl module causing fire. That was what happened to the aveo. So I called gm and told them what happened. Then after several days of calls and an inspection by their engineers, I was told that the damage was beyond repair and they will pay a little over $4,000 because they will not repair the aveo. I told them I do not agree because the aveo was in good condition at seven years old, less than 16,000 mileage, the tires were still the original tires when bought and had never been brought to a…
Tl* the contact owns a 2008 chevrolet aveo. While driving approximately 60 MPH, the headlights randomly shut off and would not illuminate again. An independent mechanic diagnosed that the wires, modules, and headlight connections were melted. The vehicle was not repaired and the manufacturer was notified. The approximate failure mileage was 79,000.
Also reported on the 2008 Chevrolet Aveo
Airbag warning light or occupant sensor fault
Other electrical problem
Other engine problem
Other lighting problem
Other powertrain problem
Other body or interior problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 15 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 headlight failure or clouding happen on the 2008 Chevrolet Aveo?
Across 12 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 85,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 45,000 miles and a quarter after 120,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is headlight failure or clouding on the 2008 Chevrolet Aveo?
15 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.7 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