Cruise control failure on the 2004 Chevrolet Impala
4 crashes 4 fires 4 injuries 12 of the 16 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 cruise control failure gets reported
Owners of the 2004 Chevrolet Impala report cruise control failure at a median of 120,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 80,000 miles and a quarter after 255,000 miles, from 14 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 72,000 miles. It is the 19th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 35,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 295,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 263,736 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
When the reports scatter this far, the mileage is telling you about how these cars were driven more than about the part itself.
14% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 33,600 miles | 80,500 miles | 120,135 miles | 253,036 miles | 297,336 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, 4 a crash, 4 a fire and 4 an injury are 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 $200–$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 16 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2018, at a median of 200 miles, and latest on the 2008 at 160,000 miles.
By volume the 2011 carries the most reports, with 18; the 2004 has 16. 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.
Interstate driving using cruise control. Cruise control disabled when braking for an exit but left in the on position on the dimmer switch. Cruise control automatically resumes and the cruise light comes on without using the accel or resume button on the steering wheel. Applied the brake immediately and the cruise control disabled itself. I no longer leave the cruise control switch in the on position unless using. Will make appointment with dealer service to correct safety hazard. *jb
While driving to chicago the tachometer went all the way to the red. After pulling over to confirm the car was not running hot, I found that I could reset the gauge by slowly turning the key on and off to the accessory position; until the needle reached its original position. This continued to happen sporadically for a month or so, and then I noticed I was driving on the interstate with the flow of traffic, but the speedometer was only reading 30 miles per hour. I had previously used my cruise control at the set speed, and was able to use the 'resume' button to give me an approximation of how fast I was currently going. This allowed me to get home safely. Again, I was able to reset the speedometer by turning the key in the ignition to the on and off position. The next failure came shortly thereafter, with the gas gauge. Knowing that it was a full tank, it was reading empty; again being reset with the on/off of the key in the ignition. I took the car to the local dealership to get these safety issues taken care of, and was informed this was going to cost me $600 because it was out of warranty... It only has 40k miles on the…
Vehicle stalled out / stopped while traveling down the road. It has done it twice now. This car is fully equipped with cruise control and traction control. After the first time (three days ago) we took it to a dealer and they could not find any code (s) and or replicate it. It just happened again today. Both times the car started right up. This could be a disaster at high speeds on an interstate. Thank you. *tr the consumer stated the vehicle stalled for a third time. The dealer ran it for codes and immediately, it came back as a problem with the mass air sensor. It was replaced and so far, there have been no more problems. Updated ivoq 08/01/12
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 16 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 cruise control failure happen on the 2004 Chevrolet Impala?
Across 14 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 120,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 80,000 miles and a quarter after 255,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is cruise control failure on the 2004 Chevrolet Impala?
16 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.2 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