Other electrical problem on the 1996 Chevrolet Blazer
1 crash 13 fires 1 injury 15 of the 42 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 electrical problem gets reported
Owners of the 1996 Chevrolet Blazer report other electrical problem at a median of 95,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 65,000 miles and a quarter after 115,000 miles, from 8 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 85,000 miles. It is the 10th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 30,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 150,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 121,868 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
A spread this wide points at use rather than design. Towing, climate, service history and city mileage all move a failure like this, so the median is a weak guide to any individual car.
25% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 29,862 miles | 67,344 miles | 94,000 miles | 113,546 miles | 151,730 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, 13 a fire and 1 an injury are 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.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 13 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2021, at a median of 20,000 miles, and latest on the 2000 at 130,000 miles.
By volume the 1996 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.
Twice, 2 different batteries have leaked acid from the positive terminal melting the battery cable. Both batteries were AC delco/part no. 19001628. 2nd battery was installed 01/12/00. Ph
I was driving down the highway when my 1996 chevy blazer began to smoke under the hood. The temperature gauge showed the car was not over heating. I pulled off the highway to allow the smoke to clear and pulled the hood release. After 5 minutes the car continued to smoke. I got out of the car to check under the hood. I noticed a black spot on the hood and had the sense to realize the car was on fire without trying to lift the hood. I yelled to my mother to get out of the car. I called 911 to reach the police. When they came they could not put out the fire. The policeman called the fire department to put out the fire. I thank god my 3 year old was not with me strapped in his car seat as he usually travels with me. The car was a total loss in a matter of minutes. *jb
Recently investigated a fire on a 1996 chevrolet blazer. Fire origin is at the driver side front door panel at the power mirror switch. If any one else has experienced a fire in this location please contact me at 610-392-xxxx and nhsta. *nm
Also reported on the 1996 Chevrolet Blazer
ABS module or sensor failure
Wiper or washer failure
Loss of braking
Control arm, ball joint or bushing failure
Other engine problem
Radiator or coolant leak
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 42 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 1996 Chevrolet Blazer?
Across 8 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 95,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 65,000 miles and a quarter after 115,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other electrical problem on the 1996 Chevrolet Blazer?
42 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.2 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