Other engine problem on the 2004 Chevrolet Cavalier
1 crash 1 fire 1 injury 3 of the 12 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 engine problem gets reported
Owners of the 2004 Chevrolet Cavalier report other engine problem at a median of 30,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 10,000 miles and a quarter after 110,000 miles, from 9 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 95,000 miles. It is the 8th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 5,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 110,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 105,580 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.
56% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6,420 miles | 9,700 miles | 30,300 miles | 109,000 miles | 112,000 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, 1 a fire and 1 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 $300–$4,000 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 9 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2004, at a median of 30,000 miles, and latest on the 2001 at 85,000 miles.
By volume the 1997 carries the most reports, with 63; the 2004 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.
With less than 100 miles on the car it began to rev up on its own. It has been to the dealer on 9 different occasions. They even installed an on board computer and were able to see the problem that occurs. The mechanic says he believes it is a glitch in the computer and is unable to fix it. It has now begun to accelerate on its own while driving, and the only thing you can do is push in the clutch and hope the engine blows up. This is now a real safety issue. Gm refuses to do anything to correct this problem. We filed a lemon law case with them and they said they are unable to do anything. *jb
Dt: while driving the contact's vehicle was involved in an accident due to a possible medical condition. The vehicle caught on fire immediately upon impact. The vehicle was deemed a total loss from the insurance company. A representative from the manufacturer inspected the vehicle and was unable to determine the cause of the fire due to the extensive damage. The solid fuel lines were intact as well as the gasoline tank. *ak updated 02/26/06. *jb
The car has a major wiring or electrical problem, but its not detected by mechanics. I have a temp gauge that is all over the place, sometimes it even touches the far bottom right side of the control panel. The speedometer is no longer working, driving or parked I am going -3 miles an hour. The rpms work when they feel like it which is rarely. The only gauge working is the gas. In addition to this, the car cuts off while driving. All of this has been for the last year and a half and continues to date. I have been in mid-left turn on major intersections of los angeles and it just died. I commute on the 110 fwy and it has just died, always while I am accelerating never parked. Then in a few seconds you crank the key and your off and running again. It is so scary because it is so unpredictable. I have received speeding tickets not knowing my speed and mechanic cant find the problem. What do I do??? *tr
Also reported on the 2004 Chevrolet Cavalier
Other electrical problem
Instrument cluster or gauge failure
Fuel gauge or level sensor failure
Other speed control problem
Other body or interior problem
Other visibility 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 engine problem happen on the 2004 Chevrolet Cavalier?
Across 9 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 110,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other engine problem on the 2004 Chevrolet Cavalier?
12 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 203 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