No-start or intermittent start failure on the 2003 Chevrolet Cavalier
1 crash 1 of the 60 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 no-start or intermittent start failure gets reported
Owners of the 2003 Chevrolet Cavalier report no-start or intermittent start failure at a median of 70,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 55,000 miles and a quarter after 90,000 miles, from 58 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 88,000 miles. It is the 2nd most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 40,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 105,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 66,520 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.
9% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 39,280 miles | 55,000 miles | 70,000 miles | 88,987 miles | 105,800 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, 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 $200–$1,800 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 6 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2004, at a median of 25,000 miles, and latest on the 1997 at 110,000 miles.
By volume the 2003 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.
Consumer filled tank up, while still having over a half a tank, car would not start after that. Car towed to goodyear. Fuel pump had to be replaced at owners expense of 678.00. Mechanic told consumer a lot of chevrolet cars fairly new and low mileage have been coming in to have fuel pump replaced. *jb
On april 14 2007 my husband went outside to start the 2003 chevrolet cavalier we purchased in october of 2006, the car has 53000 miles on it. The car would not start. Upon taking the car to a private mechanic we were told that the fuel pump had failed and that we were lucky we were not driving the car at the time as the car itself would have simply died in the middle of the road. The mechanic fixed the car and repairs ran almost 600.00. I then called chevrolet to complain and they would not assist me in this matter. Upon researching this issue further I found a website of complaints from 90 consumer's regarding this same issue with the same year make and model. The web address is http://www.topix.net/forum/autos/chevrolet-cavalier/tvinic5tfu5sfsi5h/p3 . Please check into this. *jb
Tl*the contact owns a 2003 chevrolet cavalier. While driving approximately 35-40 MPH, the vehicle hesitated and all of the instrument panel lights illuminated. Shortly after, the vehicle began operating normally. One minute later, the failure recurred and all of the instrument panel gauges illuminated and began to go in reverse. The contact pressed the accelerator pedal, but nothing happened. She pulled over and attempted to restart the vehicle twice. It started for a second and then shut off. The vehicle failed to start after the third attempt. The vehicle was towed to her residence where her husband/mechanic stated that the failure may be caused by the fuel pump. The current and failure mileages were 56,000.
Also reported on the 2003 Chevrolet Cavalier
Fuel pump failure
Tail light, brake light or signal failure
Other electrical problem
Instrument cluster or gauge failure
Other engine problem
Other visibility problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 60 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 no-start or intermittent start failure happen on the 2003 Chevrolet Cavalier?
Across 58 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 70,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 55,000 miles and a quarter after 90,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is no-start or intermittent start failure on the 2003 Chevrolet Cavalier?
60 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.7 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