AtWhatMileage
Electrical · 29 owner reports

Other electrical problem on the 2000 Chevrolet Cavalier

3 fires 3 of the 29 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.

Reports of this failure 29
With an odometer reading 15
Reports per 1,000 built 0.3 per 1,000
Filed below 36,000 miles 33%
Mention a crash, fire or injury 3
Typical repair $250–$2,000
What it means when it happens Moderate
Rank among this year's problems 2nd

When other electrical problem gets reported

Owners of the 2000 Chevrolet Cavalier report other electrical problem at a median of 55,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 25,000 miles and a quarter after 75,000 miles, from 15 reports that carried an odometer reading.

A part like this is normally expected to survive 85,000 miles. It is the 2nd most-reported problem on this model year.

The mileage distribution

The reported range runs from 5,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 125,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 121,436 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.

33% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.

The whole distribution

Percentiles of the 15 odometer readings owners gave.
10th25thMedian 75th90th
4,364 miles 23,500 miles 57,000 miles 77,367 miles 125,800 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 $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 10 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2001, at a median of 45,000 miles, and latest on the 1998 at 130,000 miles.

By volume the 2005 carries the most reports, with 88; the 2000 has 29. 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.

What owners wrote

Verbatim from NHTSA complaint narratives, trimmed for length. The mileage is the one the owner gave.

Cracks in dash board plastic. Gas guage stop working, trac light goes on and off and makes the car pull side to side in the snow and rain. Dealership will not return any of my phone calls (marine chevrolet in jacksonville nc), lights on dash board go on and off on thier own. Guages on dash work sometimes then stop working.

200 miles NHTSA complaint 390786 filed 2003-01-24

My car begun cutting off when I was driving on or about this date. I took it to the chevy dealer on 11/27/02 and they changed the fuel line. On 12/02/02 it was still cutting of so I took it back. This time they changed the wires, plugs, and 02 sensers. To make a long story short it is now 01/25/03 and my car is still cutting off. I have been to this dealership (sir walter chevrolet - raleigh nc) seventeen times. They have changed several major parts.( crank shaft sensor, 2 catylic converters, modules, and other parts. I do not understand why it is necessary to go to the a gmc mechanic 17 times for the same problem. I am at my wits end, the next place I am going is to the newspaper and a lawyer.

53,000 miles NHTSA complaint 390828 filed 2003-01-25

Simultaneously while driving, check engine light will flash on. Headlights flashed on/off 4 times or ther was a clicking noise in the front end. Dealership indicated the this might be caused by electrical system failure. *ak

79,734 miles NHTSA complaint 426272 filed 2003-08-22

Also reported on the 2000 Chevrolet Cavalier

Other body or interior problem

31 reports median 71k

Other engine problem

27 reports median 80k

Fuel pump failure

20 reports median 39k

ABS module or sensor failure

16 reports median 50k

Premature brake pad or rotor wear

15 reports median 36k

How far this goes

Complaints are voluntary, so 29 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 2000 Chevrolet Cavalier?

Across 15 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 55,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 25,000 miles and a quarter after 75,000 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 2000 Chevrolet Cavalier?

29 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