Other engine problem on the 2011 Chevrolet Equinox
1 fire 2 injuries 1 death 4 of the 163 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 engine problem gets reported
Owners of the 2011 Chevrolet Equinox report other engine problem at a median of 70,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 37,000 miles and a quarter after 106,000 miles, from 131 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 95,000 miles. It is the 1st most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 5,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 125,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 119,800 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5,200 miles | 36,650 miles | 70,000 miles | 106,000 miles | 125,000 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
Of these reports, 1 a fire, 2 an injury and 1 a fatality 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 $300–$4,000 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 21 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2019, at a median of 2,500 miles, and latest on the 2021 at 100,000 miles.
By volume the 2013 carries the most reports, with 167; the 2011 has 163. 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.
2011 chevy equinox, vehicle engine shutsdown without warning while driving. This occurred one time while backing up and five times in one day before we took it back to the dealer . Vehicle only had 50 days of purchase and only 1077 miles. The engine stopped working, the car is moving forward on its own , can not change lanes because of the heavy traffic, car comes to a dead stop, vehicles are passing by at 70 to 75 miles while I am in the middle lane, cars behind me are honking their horns,thank god nothing happened. The car re-started we took off looking for the nearest exit to the turnpike but before we could get off the engine shut down again. As you can see this is safety issue, a car is not suppose to have engine failure, specially when it's brand new. Something wrong with this vehicle and it's gonna cause some vehicle accidents and/or fatalities, please look into this matter. Thanks *tr
Tl* the contact own a 2011 chevrolet equinox. The contact stated that while driving 15 MPH the vehicle stalled as the engine began to rev. The vehicle was towed to an authorized dealer where a diagnostic test was not performed. The contact was unaware of the cause of the failure. The failure mileage was 9,212.
Tl* the contact owns a 2011 chevrolet equinox. The contact stated that while driving at any speed, the vehicle would stall at any time. The dealer diagnosed that the vehicle had two collapsed valves inside of the engine. The manufacturer was not notified. The vehicle was not repaired. The failure mileage was 5 and the current mileage was 5,000.
Also reported on the 2011 Chevrolet Equinox
Excessive oil consumption
Timing chain, belt or tensioner failure
Other powertrain problem
Other electrical problem
Other visibility problem
Other steering problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 163 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 engine problem happen on the 2011 Chevrolet Equinox?
Across 131 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 70,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 37,000 miles and a quarter after 106,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other engine problem on the 2011 Chevrolet Equinox?
163 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 6.7 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