Other electrical problem on the 2003 Chevrolet Cavalier
3 crashes 2 fires 2 injuries 7 of the 37 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 electrical problem gets reported
Owners of the 2003 Chevrolet Cavalier report other electrical problem at a median of 50,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 35,000 miles and a quarter after 75,000 miles, from 22 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 85,000 miles. It is the 4th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 10,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 105,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 97,120 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.
36% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9,680 miles | 34,250 miles | 50,126 miles | 75,000 miles | 106,800 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 crash, 2 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 $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 2003 has 37. 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.
My car has been dying at red lights and while I am driving it! It takes several tries before the car will restart. It is only 9 months old. My car dealership told me I can bring it in but the will probably not be able to detect the problem. Therefore, they will probably not be able to repair anything. *ak
I bought my car from apple valley chevrolet in august 2003. The car had 64 miles on it when I drove it off the dealers lot. After the car exceeded 1000 miles it started having an electrical problem with not keeping rpms and shutting off. When the car shuts off I no longer have power steering after this hrepeatedly happened, I informed the dealership of the problem that I was having and took it to them three times and they told me that if it did not come up on their computer that they could not fix it and that there was no problem. *akthe problem has yet to be resoved , no satisfation.due to this being my primary mode of transportation, my car has around 18,000 miles on it now and I have a roaring sound coming from the drivers side wheel. I notified the dealership of the problem and they told me that it would be fixed on may 11,2004. The dealership did not want me loan me a rental and told me and my mother that if I needed a vehicle that I could pick up my car and drive it in that condition. My parents refused to allow me to drive the car in that unsafe condition, my mother got on telephone with the supervisor of maintenance and…
First problem with my car was a short in the brake lights. Chevrolet repaired that. Then the horn would work randomly. Chevrolet replaced that. The A/C failed to work on the driver side. Chevrolet repaired that. Then the keyless entry randomly stopped working, chevrolet told me they cannot find anything wrong the keyless entry still doesn't work properly. Then the car started turning off while I was driving. Chevrolet again told me they could not repair the problem due to nothing registering on the computer. My car turned off mid turn and I hit a brick wall. Chevrolet investigated the accident and told me my car didn't turn off. I got my car back last tuesday and my car turned off again. I made an appointment to bring my car back to chevrolet and its turned off again. I guess chevrolet will never be able to repair my problem. *nm
Also reported on the 2003 Chevrolet Cavalier
Fuel pump failure
No-start or intermittent start failure
Tail light, brake light or signal failure
Instrument cluster or gauge failure
Other engine problem
Other visibility problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 37 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 2003 Chevrolet Cavalier?
Across 22 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 50,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 35,000 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 2003 Chevrolet Cavalier?
37 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.4 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