Loss of braking on the 2003 Chevrolet Cavalier
1 crash 1 of the 9 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 loss of braking gets reported
Owners of the 2003 Chevrolet Cavalier report loss of braking at a median of 1,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 1,000 miles and a quarter after 1,000 miles, from 9 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 78,000 miles. It is the 20th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 1,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 40,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 37,200 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.
89% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1,000 miles | 1,000 miles | 1,000 miles | 1,000 miles | 38,200 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 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–$3,000 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.
This mode is classified as critical, which means a failure can leave the car unable to stop, steer, or stay out of the way of traffic. It is weighted accordingly in the risk score.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 3 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2003, at a median of 1,000 miles, and latest on the 1996 at 190,000 miles.
By volume the 1996 carries the most reports, with 15; the 2003 has 9. 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.
Tl*the contact owns a 2003 chevrolet cavalier. While driving 65 MPH, the contact stated that the vehicle shut off and the brakes failed. She then noticed that the steering became stiff. She was able to safely maneuver the vehicle to the shoulder and had it towed to her destination. The contact did not notice any warnings prior to the failure. She is in the process of taking the vehicle to the dealer for inspection. The manufacturer advised her to take the vehicle to the dealer for inspection. She would not be compensated for the repairs because there was no recall available. The failure mileage was 79,000.
1) brake failure, warped rotors and hubs, lro. 2) crash, rear end collision. Property damage. 3) gm refused to fix 2003 cavalier on 01-17-04 under warranty and as a result a crash happened on 02-28-04, a rear end collision due to brake failure.cause was defective factory equipment, warped rotors and hubs resulting in violent judder, shutter, and chatter, due to a lateral brake run out problems.this condition shows up thru the steering wheel which shakes violently when applying the brakes, especially on the freeway at 70 MPH. It's a total out of control condition.there is indeed 2 tsb's out on the lro problem from gm, tsb 01-05-23-001a, brake lateral runout,tsb 00-05-05-22-002b, brakes rotor service guide on 02-28-04 my daughter audra m griffin crashed into a 2001 ford pickup due to front brake failure. My daughters statement was "daddy the brakes didn't work", this after an extreme nasty gram (fax) was sent to jessica white gm customer service about the dangerous condition regarding my from brake system. Gm absolutely refused to fix this unsafe condition under my warranty contract. They did nothing thus endangering me and my…
Also reported on the 2003 Chevrolet Cavalier
Fuel pump failure
No-start or intermittent start failure
Tail light, brake light or signal failure
Other electrical problem
Instrument cluster or gauge failure
Other engine problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 9 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 loss of braking happen on the 2003 Chevrolet Cavalier?
Across 9 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 1,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 1,000 miles and a quarter after 1,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is loss of braking on the 2003 Chevrolet Cavalier?
9 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.1 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