Oil leak on the 2013 Chevrolet Equinox
When oil leak gets reported
Owners of the 2013 Chevrolet Equinox report oil leak at a median of 90,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 72,500 miles and a quarter after 110,000 miles, from 32 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 95,000 miles. It is the 8th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 52,500 miles at the tenth percentile to 160,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 107,665 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.
3% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 52,535 miles | 72,900 miles | 91,164 miles | 110,000 miles | 160,200 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 $250–$2,200 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 2011, at a median of 55,000 miles, and latest on the 2020 at 120,000 miles.
By volume the 2017 carries the most reports, with 75; the 2013 has 35. 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.
2.4l eco tech engines have a design flaw which is described in service bulletin no.: 14882 and apparently this bulletin was only sent to some owners but not all owners and the issue is the pcv orfice gets plugged with ice in the winter causing pressure to build in the engine which in turn causes the rear main seal to fail on the engine. Even though my equinox had this 2.4l ecotech engine and I did all the required maintenance as required gm failed to send me this notice (which they told me that did not send it to me since I did not have an eco tech which I did) but they also extended the warranty to fix it until 10 years or 120,000 miles and mine failed at 4 years and 125,000 so of course they have refused to fix or reimburse me for my out of pocket costs for something that could have been prevented if I would have been told about it. Also my truck just lost power as I was driving and this could have cause a huge safety issue if I had been on a busy freeway at the time. I was driving on a county road at the time just before entering a freeway when this failure happened. If I would have been sent the service bulletin I could have…
Pcv system rear main seal froze and burst resulting loosing oil in the vehicle.....was told the intake manifold had to be pulled also to check if anything was blocking. Vehicle was parked in work parking lot all day and drove home only to find that oil was leaking from car. I was told it had to be taken to a dealership learned that there is a bulletin from gm stating that when the seal burts, the intake manifold has to be pulled and checked for blockage...which the consumber has to pay for.....gm does not.....why??
On a cold winter day approximately 20 degrees, I exited off of the highway. Upon coming to a stop at the toll plaza, the car began making a horrible clanking noise, the 'engine reduced power' notification appeared as well as the traction activation. The car died but started back up to get it off the road to safety. Had it towed to the nearest chevrolet dealership and discovered the pcv system froze up and blew the rear main seal. The car had 103k miles on it at the time and was purchased new. Never had a single problem with it and always we'll maintained. Ended up having to replace the motor to the tune of $5,575. Less than 24 hours after picking it up from the dealership, it would not start. The stabilitrack and power steering lights came on and had to be towed back to the dealership.
Also reported on the 2013 Chevrolet Equinox
Excessive oil consumption
Other engine problem
Other visibility problem
Timing chain, belt or tensioner failure
Other electrical problem
Wiper or washer failure
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 35 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 oil leak happen on the 2013 Chevrolet Equinox?
Across 32 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 90,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 72,500 miles and a quarter after 110,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is oil leak on the 2013 Chevrolet Equinox?
35 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