Radiator or coolant leak on the 2011 Chevrolet Equinox
Only 5 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 radiator or coolant leak gets reported
There are 5 reports of radiator or coolant leak on the 2011 Chevrolet Equinox, 5 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 98,000 miles. It is the 34th most-reported problem on this model year.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | — | 85,000 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
Putting it right typically runs $350–$1,900 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 5 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2005, at a median of 15,000 miles, and latest on the 2006 at 145,000 miles.
By volume the 2005 carries the most reports, with 24; the 2011 has 5. 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.
At 4000 miles the radiator failed and the car overheated. Replaced radiator. At the same time there was and still is a clunking at low speeds and when up-shifting. The clunk has been so dramatic that I thought on several occasions that I was hit from the rear. It actually makes me sick to my stomach driving the car and makes people in the back sicker. Additionally some where above 30 miles an hour the car has several times hesitated as if running out of gas. The gas peddle does not respond properly, hesitating before catching on. Now at 11,000 and three return visits to the dealer they say that this is how all equinox cars have this drive performance and it is "normal" . This was not an issue when we first got the car and had I been told that some equinox drive like this, I would not have bought the car knowing this. I know from searching the internet that this was a problem in 2009 and still is and was sold a car that they knew could be faulty without a current software fix. I will not drive this car again, especially knowing now that they can stall at 30 miles and hour. *tr
At 4000 miles the radiator failed and the car overheated. Replaced radiator. At the same time there was and still is a clunking at low speeds and when up-shifting. The clunk has been so dramatic that I thought on several occasions that I was hit from the rear. It actually makes me sick to my stomach driving the car and makes people in the back sicker. Additionally some where above 30 miles an hour the car has several times hesitated as if running out of gas. The gas peddle does not respond properly, hesitating before catching on. Now at 11,000 and three return visits to the dealer they say that this is how all equinox cars have this drive performance and it is "normal" . This was not an issue when we first got the car and had I been told that some equinox drive like this, I would not have bought the car knowing this. I know from searching the internet that this was a problem in 2009 and still is and was sold a car that they knew could be faulty without a current software fix. I will not drive this car again, especially knowing now that they can stall at 30 miles and hour. *tr
I have had this vehicle since 2016 and have had issues with it since the 7th day of owning it. On day 7, I had the catalytic converter replaced (after they tried to tell me I didn't tighten the gas cap). Then after only owning the vehicle for 4 months, I had to have a whole new engine built (so they say it was) this was after my vehicle turned completely off in the middle of an intersection while driving with my 2 year old daughter. Up until that point everything had been fine. There was no check engine light, warning or anything. The dealership had my vehicle for almost 2 months before I finally got it back. The day I got it back, my vehicle started overheating and making a horrible noise. This time the dealership told me it was my radiator and that they replaced it. Everything was ok after that for a good 3 weeks and then after that the engine light has been on and my vehicle will randomly turn off. I have taken it to a different location where they have fixed the sensor a couple of times, but they said it was my engine and that the dealership never fixed it properly. I can believe that too because none of my service info is on…
Also reported on the 2011 Chevrolet Equinox
Other engine problem
Excessive oil consumption
Timing chain, belt or tensioner failure
Other powertrain problem
Other electrical problem
Other visibility problem
How far this goes
This page is kept out of search results because 5 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 5 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 radiator or coolant leak happen on the 2011 Chevrolet Equinox?
Across 5 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 85,000 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 radiator or coolant leak on the 2011 Chevrolet Equinox?
5 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.2 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