Other brake problem on the 2003 Chevrolet Cavalier
When other brake problem gets reported
Owners of the 2003 Chevrolet Cavalier report other brake problem at a median of 30,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 10,000 miles and a quarter after 50,000 miles, from 8 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 88,000 miles. It is the 15th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 5,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 85,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 78,140 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.
63% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6,850 miles | 9,400 miles | 30,000 miles | 51,300 miles | 84,990 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
Putting it right typically runs $300–$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 10 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 1997, at a median of 15,000 miles, and latest on the 1999 at 175,000 miles.
By volume the 1997 carries the most reports, with 16; the 2003 has 12. 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.
Grinding noise in the braking system when brakes are applied. Have had the car back to the dealer for service twice. The second time service manager stated that gm was well aware of the problem, that all cavaliers have it and there is nothing they can do about it. Service manager stated that it was caused by "travel" in the calipers.*ak
When applying the brakes at night, the headlights and dash lights dim to a softer shade of light. I have also changed the rear single lights in my car three times in the past 6 months. This car has a bad brake problem. The front of the car shakes very bad when you apply the brakes while exiting a highway. City driving is not as bad, but when the brakes get warmed up they pulsate when I come to a stop. At the end of the day, I pull my car into my driveway and the first thing I smell when I get out is a burning smell from the back brakes. I called the fucillo chevy service department in december 2003. I talked to a serviceman about my brake problem. He told me that my pulsating brakes is the ABS system working in the snow. Now the roads are dry and my brakes are still pulsating. I could not find anything in my original paperwork on my car showing that it has the ABS system. Now my brakes are shot. The car had only 6500 hundred miles on it when I first called in december of 2003. In june of 2003, I bought this car and test drove it. The car seemed to be a good car, except for the noise that I heard coming from the front left tire…
1. Both brake lights went out w/in month of each other. In the months of july and august. 2. Brakes noisy, september 3. Trunk would not open, october 4. Brakes noisy, again, november 5. Car turns off in the middle of an intersection after making a complete stop and trying to speed up. Freaking out, I pressed the gas and moved the key in the ignition, then put car in park and got it to start, november. It just seems to me that I have a disfunctional car that when I dont have something wrong with one thing I have to go in to the dealer for another. Its a new car and its costing me more problmes and inconviniences than the old '96 I had till I bought this one.
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 12 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 brake problem happen on the 2003 Chevrolet Cavalier?
Across 8 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 30,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 10,000 miles and a quarter after 50,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other brake problem on the 2003 Chevrolet Cavalier?
12 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