Other engine problem on the 1999 Chevrolet Cavalier
1 fire 2 injuries 3 of the 32 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 engine problem gets reported
Owners of the 1999 Chevrolet Cavalier report other engine problem at a median of 60,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 45,000 miles and a quarter after 80,000 miles, from 8 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 95,000 miles. It is the 2nd most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 25,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 150,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 126,780 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23,620 miles | 45,930 miles | 58,000 miles | 80,500 miles | 150,400 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 fire and 2 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 $300–$4,000 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 9 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2004, at a median of 30,000 miles, and latest on the 2001 at 85,000 miles.
By volume the 1997 carries the most reports, with 63; the 1999 has 32. 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.
While driving and with no warning, the vehicle stalled. *ak water dripped from the vehicle which caused the consumer to add antifreeze. This cooled the engine. The consumer was able to make it to the repair shop and there he found out the motor mount was bad and the engine rocked back and forth. This caused the bolt on the compressor to penetrate a hole in the hose. The motor mount and hose had to be replaced. *ph *jb
Car cuts off at any given time. Can be running at 60 MPH or sitting at a stop light, just completely cuts off. Will not restart, have to park it and let it sit, could only take 10 minutes or could take a few hours before it will run again. *jb
Tl*the contact owns a 1999 chevrolet cavalier. The contact noticed that the vehicle was smoking while he was driving. He pulled off the road and exited the vehicle. The vehicle exploded. The driver sustained burns and is currently in the hospital. A police report was filed. The contact stated that the failure is similar to NHTSA campaign id # 07e021000 (fuel system, other:storage:tank assembly:pressure relief devices). The powertrain was unknown. The current and failure mileages were 64,000.
Also reported on the 1999 Chevrolet Cavalier
ABS module or sensor failure
Other electrical problem
Other powertrain problem
Radiator or coolant leak
Wiring harness or short circuit
Other brake problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 32 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 engine problem happen on the 1999 Chevrolet Cavalier?
Across 8 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 80,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other engine problem on the 1999 Chevrolet Cavalier?
32 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.3 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