Unclassified problem on the 2009 Chevrolet Equinox
2 crashes 2 injuries 4 of the 20 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.
Only 18 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.
When unclassified problem gets reported
Owners of the 2009 Chevrolet Equinox report unclassified problem at a median of 65,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 55,000 miles and a quarter after 95,000 miles, from 18 reports that carried an odometer reading.
It is the 39th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 35,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 120,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 85,500 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.
11% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 36,000 miles | 55,000 miles | 64,745 miles | 96,238 miles | 121,500 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, 2 a crash 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.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 19 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2019, at a median of 5,000 miles, and latest on the 2007 at 97,500 miles.
By volume the 2007 carries the most reports, with 100; the 2009 has 20. 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.
Two months after repair of vehicle, granddaughter reported that car veered to right and she could not control the car. She hit a pole and the car suffered severe damage and none of the air bags deployed. She suffered a concussion and bruises. Pictures of interior and exterior are available. *tr
Periodically with an adult in the passenger seat the right airbag "off" light will illuminate. The passenger can move and bounce around on the seat without turning the light to "on". This problem has been reported to the dealership on several occasions and each time they have found no problem. The last time was may 25, 2012 after I had taken the auto by the dealership while the "off" light was on and there was an adult in the passenger seat. The "off" light was confirmed by the service manager, but the technicians found no problem with the system. The only suggestion received was a *.pdf document from gm describing what to do when this occurs as follows: 1. Turn vehicle off 2. Remove any additional material from the seat..... 3. Place the seatback in the fully upright position 4. Have the person sit upright in the seat, centered on the seat cushion, with legs comfortably extended 5. Restart the vehicle and have the person remain in this position for two or three minutes after the on indicator is lit. Not only are the preceding instruction enormous and difficult to perform when in a normal driving scenario, it would seem that the…
I had passed out while driving to work due to low blood sugar. The front of my vehicle crashed into a structure at approximately 55/60 MPH. None of my airbags ever deployed. I was transported to the hospital. *tr
Also reported on the 2009 Chevrolet Equinox
Other engine problem
Other electrical problem
Other driver assistance problem
Other speed control problem
Airbag warning light or occupant sensor fault
Other wheel or tire problem
How far this goes
This page is kept out of search results because 20 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 20 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 unclassified problem happen on the 2009 Chevrolet Equinox?
Across 18 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 65,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 55,000 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 unclassified problem on the 2009 Chevrolet Equinox?
20 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.9 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