ABS module or sensor failure on the 2004 Chevrolet Impala
3 crashes 3 of the 28 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 abs module or sensor failure gets reported
Owners of the 2004 Chevrolet Impala report ABS module or sensor failure at a median of 80,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 40,000 miles and a quarter after 130,000 miles, from 24 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 95,000 miles. It is the 10th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 30,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 135,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 104,469 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.
21% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 30,531 miles | 41,555 miles | 80,000 miles | 127,750 miles | 135,000 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, 3 a crash 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 $500–$2,400 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 15 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2000, at a median of 25,000 miles, and latest on the 2007 at 120,000 miles.
By volume the 2013 carries the most reports, with 33; the 2004 has 28. 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.
My 2004 impala's ABS trouble light came on as did the "service traction system" light. The dealers diagnosis based upon ABS scanner codes was that the left rear wheel speed sensor had failed/shorted. Gm's sealed wheel hub design on this vehicle meant that in order to replace the wheel speed sensor the entire hub had to be replaced. Since the vehicle has just over 40k miles and is out of warranty, my total cost was over $690 including parts, labor, and taxes. This is absurd and ridiculous. It is unacceptable for the consumer to have to experience this kind of outrageous cost simply to get a sensor replaced. If it were not for the necessity of replacing the entire hub, there is no way that this repair should even cost $100. As a mechanical engineer, I recognize poor design and poor logic when I see it, and this situation certainly falls under those categories. I am extremely dissatisfied that I had no choice but to pay this in order to restore operation of the ABS and traction systems. If this is standard gm design practice, I will definitely consider that a negative when purchasing my next vehicle. *jb
My 2004 impala's ABS trouble light came on as did the "service traction system" light. The dealers diagnosis based upon ABS scanner codes was that the left rear wheel speed sensor had failed/shorted. Gm's sealed wheel hub design on this vehicle meant that in order to replace the wheel speed sensor the entire hub had to be replaced. Since the vehicle has just over 40k miles and is out of warranty, my total cost was over $690 including parts, labor, and taxes. This is absurd and ridiculous. It is unacceptable for the consumer to have to experience this kind of outrageous cost simply to get a sensor replaced. If it were not for the necessity of replacing the entire hub, there is no way that this repair should even cost $100. As a mechanical engineer, I recognize poor design and poor logic when I see it, and this situation certainly falls under those categories. I am extremely dissatisfied that I had no choice but to pay this in order to restore operation of the ABS and traction systems. If this is standard gm design practice, I will definitely consider that a negative when purchasing my next vehicle. *jb
Tl*the contact owns a 2004 chevrolet impala. While driving approximately 8 MPH, the contact heard a loud knocking noise coming from the steering column. She also noticed that the ABS and traction warning lights were illuminated on the instrument panel. She took the vehicle to the dealer and they replaced the ABS and steering column. Two weeks later, while driving 60 MPH, the contact felt excessive vibration coming from the steering column. She filed a complaint with the manufacturer. The failure mileage was 29,901 and current mileage was 32,000.
Also reported on the 2004 Chevrolet Impala
Instrument cluster or gauge failure
Other electrical problem
No-start or intermittent start failure
Ignition switch, key fob or immobilizer failure
Other engine problem
Other lighting problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 28 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 abs module or sensor failure happen on the 2004 Chevrolet Impala?
Across 24 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 80,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 40,000 miles and a quarter after 130,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is abs module or sensor failure on the 2004 Chevrolet Impala?
28 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