Other electrical problem on the 2005 Chevrolet Colorado
4 fires 4 of the 36 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 2005 Chevrolet Colorado report other electrical problem at a median of 75,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 37,500 miles and a quarter after 95,000 miles, from 28 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 85,000 miles. It is the 2nd most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 17,500 miles at the tenth percentile to 127,500 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 110,660 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.
25% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16,440 miles | 38,000 miles | 76,000 miles | 95,000 miles | 127,100 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, 4 a fire 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 $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 20 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2024, at a median of 5,000 miles, and latest on the 2022 at 125,000 miles.
By volume the 2016 carries the most reports, with 69; the 2005 has 36. 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.
Left power window, power door locks, clock radio, dome light quit working randomly. Dealer cannot duplicate problem. Onstar doesn't work sometimes. Battery seems to go dead if it sits more than 5 days, remote for door locks range is horrible but they say it's normal to have to stand right next to the truck to unlock / lock it. *jb
While driving, the radio will lose power, then the A/C will stop working, then the entire dash will lose power (no speed, tac or gas gauges). Then all warning/ failure lights come on. Will reset after you turn car off. Been to dealer 7 times for same problem. *nm
The NHTSA item number for this problem is 10013546 my 05 chevrolet colorado truck has a fan speed setting of 0-4 with 0 being off and 4 being high. About a week ago speeds 1-3 stopped working leaving only off or high. This told me it was the fan resistor. Once I found the resistor I noticed the pigtail connector and the resistor terminals were melted. I assume this is from excessive heat. After a quick search online I noticed there were others having the same issue. The only replacement parts for the problem are the same parts and have not been re-engineered. Which will eventually lead to the same problem down the road.. This is defiantly a fire hazard and malting is only 1 step away from the flash point of plastics. To this moment gm has not issued a voluntary recall on the vehicle. Chevy refused to pay for the repairs but did offer to send me a service certificate worth $200. That great but it doesn't fix the fire hazard, nor the recurring problems. *tr
Also reported on the 2005 Chevrolet Colorado
Other brake problem
Cruise control failure
Other body or interior problem
Other engine problem
Other suspension problem
ABS module or sensor failure
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 36 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 2005 Chevrolet Colorado?
Across 28 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 75,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 37,500 miles and a quarter after 95,000 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 2005 Chevrolet Colorado?
36 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 1.0 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