Wiring harness or short circuit on the 2005 Chevrolet Colorado
1 fire 1 injury 2 of the 11 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 wiring harness or short circuit gets reported
Owners of the 2005 Chevrolet Colorado report wiring harness or short circuit at a median of 75,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 20,000 miles and a quarter after 80,000 miles, from 11 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 20,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 85,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 63,430 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 22,000 miles | 22,000 miles | 73,100 miles | 82,365 miles | 85,430 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 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 $400–$3,500 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 2018, at a median of 900 miles, and latest on the 2008 at 175,000 miles.
By volume the 2004 carries the most reports, with 18; the 2005 has 11. 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.
Chevrolet colorado computer shorted out due to faulty windshield seal.*mr the front windshield was not sealed properly which caused leaks during hard rainstorms. When the short occurred it caused the brake light, headlights, interior lights and windshield wipers to fail. *nm
Heater fan quit working on 1 2 and 3. But sometimes would come back on, when on 1 2 or 3. And when it was on you could smell plastic burning. And when checked the into it found the plug on the wiring harness that plugged into the resister on the fan was loose and causing the wires to melt. This loose plug was loose from the factory, no way could have got too small over the years. New plug and new resister placed concern if fire results could cause death injuries, garage fire or house fire if vehicle placed in garage at night. *tr
The cooling/heating blower fan speed resistor and wiring harness on the 2004-2009 chevy colorado has a shorting problem which causes the truck to have a smoke smell and may lead to a fire if not checked on. I found mine after smelling smoke for a few months and started checking where it was coming from. I found the fan speed resistor connector and associated wiring harness burnt and slightly melted. I would have taken to the dealer but it was out of warranty and did not want to pay there high labor costs. This is the second time changing this out in the last year and I found that there is a common grounding point on the passenger side fender wall which over time becomes corroded and makes a bad ground most likely causing the shorting problem. If this is not worthy of a recall then I would like to at least have a warning notice sent to owners so they would know what to look for if this happens to them. *tr
Also reported on the 2005 Chevrolet Colorado
Other brake problem
Other electrical problem
Cruise control failure
Other body or interior problem
Other engine problem
Other suspension problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 11 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 wiring harness or short circuit happen on the 2005 Chevrolet Colorado?
Across 11 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 75,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 20,000 miles and a quarter after 80,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is wiring harness or short circuit on the 2005 Chevrolet Colorado?
11 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.3 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