Engine bay fire on the 2001 Chevrolet Impala
11 fires 11 of the 11 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 engine bay fire gets reported
Owners of the 2001 Chevrolet Impala report engine bay fire at a median of 165,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 140,000 miles and a quarter after 165,000 miles, from 9 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 95,000 miles. It is the 21st most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 95,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 180,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 83,400 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.
0% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 97,200 miles | 139,000 miles | 165,000 miles | 165,000 miles | 180,600 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, 11 a fire is 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 $4,000–$20,000 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.
This mode is classified as critical, which means a failure can leave the car unable to stop, steer, or stay out of the way of traffic. It is weighted accordingly in the risk score.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 3 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2003, at a median of 115,000 miles, and latest on the 2001 at 165,000 miles.
By volume the 2001 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.
First occurrence 01-08 is exactly depicted in NHTSA #04v090000. Repair cost $1,600. Second occurrence 01-09 is repeat of prior, this time explosion caused engine fire. Car at dealership, repairs approx. $2,000. Gm says VIN is not in recall series. Have found other people with same complaint on internet. *tr
Tl*the contact owned a 2001 chevrolet impala. The contact noticed smoke underneath the hood of her vehicle. She lifted the hood and noticed a small fire between the alternator and several wires. The driver was able to extinguish the fire after a few minutes with a fire extinguisher. The fire department arrived after the fire was extinguished. The local gm dealer could not determine the cause of the fire; however, they confirmed that the manifold gasket was leaking and may have started the fire. One week later, the contact received a recall notice that stated "if the manifold is hot enough and the oil runs below the heat shield, it may ignite into a small flame and may spread to the plastic spark plug wire channel and beyond, increasing the risk of an engine compartment fire". Nhtsa campaign id number 09v116000 was referenced. No repairs have been made to the vehicle. The current and failure mileages were less than 100,000. Updated 8/10/09 *cn updated 08/13/09.*jb
Tl*the contact owns a 2001 chevrolet impala. While driving at an unknown speed, a tire flattened on the vehicle. The contact then noticed smoke underneath the hood of the vehicle. She opened the hood and found flames coming from the engine. She was able to extinguish the fire herself. She arrived home and called her independent mechanic to come to her residence and investigate. The mechanic stated that it was safe to drive the vehicle. The contact received a recall notice from general motors, which stated "that some of these vehicles have a condition in which drops of engine oil may be deposited on the exhaust manifold through hard braking. If the manifold is hot enough and the oil runs below the heat shield, it may ignite into a small flame and may spread to the plastic spark plug wire channel and beyond, increasing the risk of an engine compartment fire." the failure mileage was 211,000. Updated 06/27/09 *bf updated 06/23/09.*jb
Also reported on the 2001 Chevrolet Impala
Other electrical problem
Other engine problem
No-start or intermittent start failure
Tail light, brake light or signal failure
Control module (ECM/PCM/BCM) failure
Steering rack, gear or tie rod failure
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 11 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 bay fire happen on the 2001 Chevrolet Impala?
Across 9 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 165,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 140,000 miles and a quarter after 165,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is engine bay fire on the 2001 Chevrolet Impala?
11 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