AtWhatMileage
Adas · 6 owner reports

Other driver assistance problem on the 2004 Chevrolet Impala

1 crash 1 of the 6 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.

Only 5 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.

Reports of this failure 6
With an odometer reading 5
Reports per 1,000 built 0.1 per 1,000
Filed below 36,000 miles 0%
Mention a crash, fire or injury 1
Typical repair $250–$1,800
What it means when it happens High
Rank among this year's problems 38th

When other driver assistance problem gets reported

There are 6 reports of other driver assistance problem on the 2004 Chevrolet Impala, 5 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 45,000 miles. It is the 38th most-reported problem on this model year.

The whole distribution

Percentiles of the 5 odometer readings owners gave.
10th25thMedian 75th90th
— — 67,876 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, 1 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 $250–$1,800 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 2016, at a median of 50,000 miles, and latest on the 2003 at 150,000 miles.

By volume the 2011 carries the most reports, with 102; the 2004 has 6. 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.

What owners wrote

Verbatim from NHTSA complaint narratives, trimmed for length. The mileage is the one the owner gave.

While driving my 2004 chevy impala the speedometer and tach meter needles went hay wire. They have not gone back to their original state. I have no idea what caused this problem, but would like to know what can be done about it. *tr

66,253 miles NHTSA complaint 729475 filed 2009-07-30

I have had my 2004 impala into the shop three times now with regards to the traction light going on when I turned along with trac off and ABS warning lights going on. Initially the service lights would go on when turning right or left. The ABS would make a noise like it was cycling. Just last week on the highway the traction service light went on while driving at 60 MPH. I have had to stop and the brakes would pulsate with no braking capabilities then it would catch and I would be able to stop with pumping the brake. I almost had an accident. The first time a repair was made two weeks ago and replaced wheel hub assemblies on both front tires and front brakes were replaced. This is time frame went the brakes went out. I was told the back brakes were ok. The second time - the mechanic replaced the right bearing after the lights went on again after 5 days of driving. Now it is in the shop to replace the wire harness for the traction and ABS when the service lights went on again. The wire is rock hard. *tr

168,000 miles NHTSA complaint 986006 filed 2013-06-13

I bought 2004 impala and have ignition problem with witnesses with a dent in front bumper, after ten years or over 100k miles the gasket goes on gm/gmc products, both inner tie rods rotten out. I have talk to gm executive office that fix the impala problem in 2011 but unwilling to deal with it now. I think I need out side counsel and engineering firm to test and testify on my behave and3,700 other owners with the same problem. I want new vehicles and setting up a date with congressional oversight committee, and NHTSA review my case. I have met with congressional panel investigating gm that want to help me resolve this problem. I been a gm person but seriously looking in the foreign market if I have no serious resolution. *tr

67,876 miles NHTSA complaint 1127405 filed 2014-11-05

Also reported on the 2004 Chevrolet Impala

Instrument cluster or gauge failure

271 reports median 60k

Other electrical problem

228 reports median 72k

Other engine problem

55 reports median 98k

Other lighting problem

54 reports median 95k

How far this goes

This page is kept out of search results because 6 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 6 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 other driver assistance problem happen on the 2004 Chevrolet Impala?

Across 5 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 70,000 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 other driver assistance problem on the 2004 Chevrolet Impala?

6 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