Overheating on the 2005 Chevrolet Impala
1 fire 1 of the 13 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 overheating gets reported
Owners of the 2005 Chevrolet Impala report overheating at a median of 60,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 50,000 miles and a quarter after 85,000 miles, from 12 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 102,000 miles. It is the 18th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 45,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 90,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 45,117 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
A window that narrow is the signature of a part that fails on its own schedule rather than on how the car is driven — which is usually a design or supplier problem rather than wear and tear.
8% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 45,283 miles | 49,104 miles | 59,500 miles | 83,500 miles | 90,400 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 fire 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 $400–$3,500 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 12 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2006, at a median of 5,000 miles, and latest on the 2000 at 150,000 miles.
By volume the 2004 carries the most reports, with 22; the 2005 has 13. 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 2005 chevrolet impala. The vehicle overheated and shut off. The contact stated that the vehicle had been parked for one hour when he heard a loud boom. The vehicle then caught fire. The fire inspector stated that the fire was caused by the engine. The vehicle was towed to the dealer. Two other vehicles parked next to the contact's vehicle also caught fire. The vehicle was destroyed. A police report was filed. The current and failure mileages were 64,035.
Tl*the contact owns a 2005 chevrolet impala. While driving between 5-25 MPH, the speedometer and the temperature gauges moved up and down. The contact took the vehicle to a personal mechanic and was informed that the failure caused the vehicle to need coolant. He feels that the vehicle is unsafe because the thermostat rises due to the vehicle overheating and the speedometer failing. The current mileage was 68,000 and failure mileage was 64,000.
My 2005 impala that has 47,000 miles on is nolonger has working speedometer,gas gauge or temp gauge. This is a safety issue due to I nolonger have correct information on the speed that I'm driving with my children in the car. I can only use my educated guess on how much gas I have and will not know that my car is overheating. This could cause a fire and we wouldn't know until it was too late. I have spoken with gm reguarding the insturment cluster problem they told me that it has only been recalled on trucks . This issue thur a mechcanic will cost me $500.00 + to have fixed however reading complaints online its very obvious that this issue needs to be recalled, just about all gm's seem to have this issue ( faulty stepper motor's ) find it hard to belive that gm will not recall this issue when the parts will only be $15.00 to repair for the safety of there customers nor will they sell you the stepper motors to fix the issue yourself. I feel unsafe in my car that has low mileage that has been well taken care of. Please recommend a recall for the cluster so that gm will have to be responsible for its products and customers safety. I…
Also reported on the 2005 Chevrolet Impala
Other electrical problem
Instrument cluster or gauge failure
Other powertrain problem
No-start or intermittent start failure
Other engine problem
Other fuel system problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 13 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 overheating happen on the 2005 Chevrolet Impala?
Across 12 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 60,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 50,000 miles and a quarter after 85,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is overheating on the 2005 Chevrolet Impala?
13 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