Engine sensor failure on the 2013 Chevrolet Equinox
When engine sensor failure gets reported
Owners of the 2013 Chevrolet Equinox report engine sensor failure at a median of 95,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 90,000 miles and a quarter after 100,000 miles, from 9 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 95,000 miles. It is the 18th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 65,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 145,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 81,046 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 65,754 miles | 91,000 miles | 97,000 miles | 100,000 miles | 146,800 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 $180–$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 7 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2007, at a median of 10,000 miles, and latest on the 2005 at 165,000 miles.
By volume the 2013 is the worst of them, which makes this a problem of this specific year rather than of the model as a whole.
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.
I was driving on I-71n around 3:30 on my way home during the speed limit of 65 when all of a sudden the display show an engine light and a message saying reducing power mode and the speed drop to 20 even though I hand my foot on the gas all the way to the floor. Luckily I had just move lane from in front of a 18 wheeler and was able to pull over still in danger because the lane I moved to still had traffic coming. I turn the car off since it would not go and sit for about 5 minutes. I started it up and was able to make it to the dealer service. They found that following code p2101, p2119. They perform diagnostic test all wiring to throttle position sensor test ok replace throttle body assembly and recheck faults, passed. What they told me is that the sensor did not know I was giving the engine gas so it reduce the engine speed. This is scary to know it could happen and I could have been injured or even kill. I was lucky. *tr
Tl* the contact owns a 2013 chevrolet equinox. When the vehicle was placed in reverse, it stalled. The contact was able to restart the vehicle. The failure was intermittent. The dealer diagnosed that the camshaft position sensor and actuator needed to be replaced. The vehicle was repaired, but the failure recurred. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 80,000.
I bought this vehicle I'm march 2018. A few weeks after buying it the check engine light came on with the code p0014 for the camshaft position sensor. I took it back to the dealer who replaced the part and changed the oil and it was all fine, no more check engine light. August 2018 I get an oil change on it again, check engine light comes back on for same reason. Why was this part not recalled like previous years? I will never again purchase a chevy.
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 10 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 engine sensor failure happen on the 2013 Chevrolet Equinox?
Across 9 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 95,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 90,000 miles and a quarter after 100,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is engine sensor failure on the 2013 Chevrolet Equinox?
10 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.1 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