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Electrical · 4 owner reports

Control module (ECM/PCM/BCM) failure on the 2002 Chevrolet Corvette

Only 4 reports for this mode came with an odometer reading, which is too few for percentiles to mean anything. The page is here because someone linked to it; treat the figures as anecdotes, and see the full report for this year instead.

Reports of this failure 4
With an odometer reading 4
Reports per 1,000 built 0.5 per 1,000
Filed below 36,000 miles 75%
Mention a crash, fire or injury 0
Typical repair $700–$3,000
What it means when it happens High
Rank among this year's problems 12th

When control module (ecm/pcm/bcm) failure gets reported

There are 4 reports of control module (ECM/PCM/BCM) failure on the 2002 Chevrolet Corvette, 4 with a mileage attached. That is too few to place the failure on the odometer with any confidence.

A part like this is normally expected to survive 92,000 miles. It is the 12th most-reported problem on this model year.

The whole distribution

Percentiles of the 4 odometer readings owners gave.
10th25thMedian 75th90th
— — 26,900 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 $700–$3,000 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 2008, at a median of 10,000 miles, and latest on the 2005 at 80,000 miles.

By volume the 2000 carries the most reports, with 17; the 2002 has 4. 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.

What owners wrote

Verbatim from NHTSA complaint narratives, trimmed for length. The mileage is the one the owner gave.

Abs module failed with 33k miles in 02 corvette there are many other who have had same problem but with brakes that lock up without touching the pedal. 18 pages of people on corvetteforum.com with ebcm (electronic brake control module) that also shuts off traction control. Parts failing on a range of model year corvettes. *tr

33,800 miles NHTSA complaint 622673 filed 2007-05-02

Electronic brake control module (ebcm) controls the anti-lock braking system, traction control system, & stability control system. My ebcm module has failed, as with the vast majority of most all corvettes made from 1997 through 2004. The module requires electronic re-soldering of the printed circuit board. Module failure has no correlation with care of car, age of car, use of car, mileage of car, or any other know factors, just a bad electronic component. General motors charges approximately $ 2000.00 for the repair. There are now many "after market companies" that will do the repair, though general motors denies there is a problem with this electronic module. This company: http://www.absfixer.com can do the repair. Contact this company for much more information such as the problem nature & how many car ebcm modules have been repaired by them so far ... Thank you *tr

18,000 miles NHTSA complaint 899473 filed 2012-01-10

Backing up from a private parking place I almost crashed due to the steering column locked on me. I tried to free it but it wouldn't release. The car computer indicated I should remove key for 10 seconds and reinsert to free the locked steering wheel, no success. Had car towed to the chevy dealer for a fix. Dealer said their was a recall on this defect back in 2004. Dealer records indicate that I took the vehicle in for a recall but I don't remember what the recall was for. Nonetheless, I have no records explaining what was specifically done at that time on the recall. The dealer also has no specific records on that recall. I am the original owner. The dealer here in pahrump nv fixed the problem and said that the problem was a computer defect causing the anti theft plate to lock the steering plate. They remove the steering plate and install a harness kit and lock plate eliminator and charged me $199.60 . I understand that recall don't expired, whether they haven't been performed or improperly repaired. I object to being charged for a defect that gmc interduce. This defect is dangerious. Clearly gmc did not think out the…

20,000 miles NHTSA complaint 1488689 filed 2018-08-05

Also reported on the 2002 Chevrolet Corvette

Steering column or shaft failure

37 reports median 33k

Other wheel or tire problem

34 reports median 35k

Other steering problem

26 reports median 30k

Other electrical problem

8 reports median 19k

ABS module or sensor failure

7 reports median 9k

Fuel leak or fuel odor

6 reports median 51k

How far this goes

This page is kept out of search results because 4 reports is not enough to publish percentiles from. It stays reachable because somebody looking at this exact car would rather see the reports than be told there are none.

Complaints are voluntary, so 4 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 control module (ecm/pcm/bcm) failure happen on the 2002 Chevrolet Corvette?

Across 4 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 25,000 miles. A quarter were filed before — and a quarter after —. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.

How common is control module (ecm/pcm/bcm) failure on the 2002 Chevrolet Corvette?

4 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.5 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