Other powertrain problem on the 1999 Chevrolet Blazer
2 crashes 2 of the 26 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 powertrain problem gets reported
Owners of the 1999 Chevrolet Blazer report other powertrain problem at a median of 65,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 60,000 miles and a quarter after 70,000 miles, from 8 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 92,000 miles. It is the 7th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 35,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 90,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 52,552 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
Reports bunched into a band this tight usually mean the component has a life of its own: it goes at roughly the same mileage regardless of who owns it.
13% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 36,570 miles | 58,029 miles | 64,605 miles | 71,125 miles | 89,122 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, 2 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 $400–$4,500 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 14 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2023, at a median of 5,000 miles, and latest on the 2022 at 175,000 miles.
By volume the 1997 carries the most reports, with 65; the 1999 has 26. 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.
Transmission problems with only 52,237 miles on vehicle. Chevy basically says it's not their problem until a recall is issued. Three local garages in our area all report the same thing to us... The transmissions are junk!
I am the owner of a 1999 chevrolet blazer (59000 miles) and one day I was driving down the interstate and my check engine light came on. After comming to a stop, my vehicle started having problems switching into 2nd gear. When I got home the truck was fine. Then a few days later it happened again and with no warning I could no longer go into reverse. I took my vehicle to a couple of shops and have been told by each one the the transmissions in these vehicles are known to have this problem. I no longer have a warrenty and it is going to cost me over $2,000 to have it fixed. After reviewing similar reports on this site, I am bothered that there is nothing being done about this issue.*ak
I am in the process of having my transmission rebuilt. My blazer has <75,000 miles, with no leaks or any indication there was a problem. I was backing out of my driveway and heard a very loud thump. I got out to see if I ran over something (like my cat), nothing was there so I got back in and tried to continue backing up but the blazer would not move. *jb
Also reported on the 1999 Chevrolet Blazer
Other body or interior problem
Control arm, ball joint or bushing failure
ABS module or sensor failure
Other engine problem
Wheel bearing or hub failure
Other electrical problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 26 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 powertrain problem happen on the 1999 Chevrolet Blazer?
Across 8 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 65,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 60,000 miles and a quarter after 70,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other powertrain problem on the 1999 Chevrolet Blazer?
26 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 215 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