Other lighting problem on the 2004 Chevrolet Impala
1 crash 1 fire 2 of the 54 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 other lighting problem gets reported
Owners of the 2004 Chevrolet Impala report other lighting problem at a median of 95,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 60,000 miles and a quarter after 132,500 miles, from 46 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 86,000 miles. It is the 6th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 37,500 miles at the tenth percentile to 207,500 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 171,000 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.
11% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 36,500 miles | 61,231 miles | 95,000 miles | 133,308 miles | 207,500 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 and 1 a fire 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 $120–$1,200 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 14 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2017, at a median of 100 miles, and latest on the 2004 at 95,000 miles.
By volume the 2002 carries the most reports, with 59; the 2004 has 54. 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.
The new model year 04 chevrolet impala sedans have poorly designed and or mis-adjusted daytime running lights, causing blinding glare to on coming drivers, drivers in front of these vehicles and pedestrians walking at night. These excessively glaring lights distract and cause eye pain to other drivers and temporary blindness. This is a serious safety problem that needs to be addressed especially for pedestrians walking against traffic at night.*ak
Dt*: the contact stated the head lights fail intermittently without warning. The problem began four months ago and the vehicle was taken to service dealer who replaced an unknown module. The problem has now returned and the head lights go out without warning and re illuminate without warning. Manipulating the switch does not automatically make the lights re illuminate. The contact is planning to make an appointment with the dealer later today for inspection. The vehicle is a police cruiser.
I was driving home one night at about 9:30 in the country and it was pitch-black when all of a sudden my headlights go out. I had to be going about 55 MPH when this occurred. They wouldn't come back on until I pulled the dimmer switch in and out repeatedly. Luckily I was familiar with the area to come to a stop without incident. Within the next couple of days I will be taking my car in to a dealer and get an inspection. *nm
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 brake problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 54 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 lighting problem happen on the 2004 Chevrolet Impala?
Across 46 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 95,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 60,000 miles and a quarter after 132,500 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other lighting problem on the 2004 Chevrolet Impala?
54 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.6 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