Instrument cluster or gauge failure on the 2003 Chevrolet Impala
Only 4 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 instrument cluster or gauge failure gets reported
There are 5 reports of instrument cluster or gauge failure on the 2003 Chevrolet Impala, 4 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 90,000 miles. It is the 37th most-reported problem on this model year.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | — | 63,000 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–$1,400 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 2007, at a median of 5,000 miles, and latest on the 2000 at 175,000 miles.
By volume the 2004 carries the most reports, with 271; the 2003 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.
Tl*the contact owns a 2003 chevrolet impala. The contact stated that on two separate occasions while driving at various speeds, the headlights and instrument panel lights shut off. The first failure, the lights illuminated again and the second time, the contact could only use the high beams. The vehicle has not been diagnosed by the dealer. The current mileage was 73,500 and failure mileage was 53,500.
We bought my son a 2003 chevy impala, the speedometer has quit functioning all of the sudden. Sometimes it works and sometimes it does not. He drives over two hours back and forth to college and I feel it is quite a safety issue and chevy will do nothing about it. I have read many complaints from people with the same issue and feel this should be a recall! I don't have $500.00 for the repair which many other people have had to pay! *tr
I currently own a 2003 chevy impala with about 77,000 miles on it. A few months ago, the security light would periodically come on and cause the car not to start. After attempting to restart numerous times and playing with the gear shift, after about 10 minutes the car would start and be fine for a couple weeks. During the last inspection, I took it to the dealer and asked him to check it. Since the light had not come on for 3 or 4 weeks at that time, he said that it more than likely would not show anything on the diagnostics. He said it could also be an intermittent problem with the starter. They charged me $80 to check the connections to the starter and I still had the problem. They said that more than likely it would be a problem with the computer in the car and would cost a few hundred dollars to fix. After doing more research online, I discovered that this is not a random problem with my vehicle, but a known issue that should have been covered under a recall. I have owned both domestic and foreign cars in the past, and I have never had as many problems with the foreign ones as I do with the domestic. I don't plan on buying…
Also reported on the 2003 Chevrolet Impala
Other electrical problem
No-start or intermittent start failure
Other engine problem
Ignition switch, key fob or immobilizer failure
Other lighting problem
Headlight failure or clouding
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 instrument cluster or gauge failure happen on the 2003 Chevrolet Impala?
Across 4 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 65,000 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 instrument cluster or gauge failure on the 2003 Chevrolet Impala?
5 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