Headlight failure or clouding on the 2007 Chevrolet Impala
When headlight failure or clouding gets reported
Owners of the 2007 Chevrolet Impala report headlight failure or clouding at a median of 90,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 85,000 miles and a quarter after 125,000 miles, from 11 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 88,000 miles. It is the 18th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 70,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 140,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 67,979 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.
0% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 72,021 miles | 85,000 miles | 90,000 miles | 124,000 miles | 140,000 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
Putting it right typically runs $150–$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 2017, at a median of 100 miles, and latest on the 2008 at 150,000 miles.
By volume the 2002 carries the most reports, with 53; the 2007 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.
While driving, there is an electrical issue where the dash lights and headlight will flicker. On a few occasions, the instrument display would actually go out for a second, and at the same time the headlights would dim to the point where it is not safe to drive at night. This is an intermittent problem noted at all speeds, and is a distraction to the driver, oncoming traffic, and traffic being followed! A chevy dealer acknowledge the problem and identified it in technical service bulletin #07-08-42-008; however this is more of a safety concern (especially for night driving) than an inconvenience! *tr
While driving, there is an electrical issue where the dash lights and headlight will flicker. On a few occasions, the instrument display would actually go out for a second, and at the same time the headlights would dim to the point where it is not safe to drive at night. This is an intermittent problem noted at all speeds, and is a distraction to the driver, oncoming traffic, and traffic being followed! A chevy dealer acknowledge the problem and identified it in technical service bulletin #07-08-42-008; however this is more of a safety concern (especially for night driving) than an inconvenience! *tr
When a headlight fails on my 2007 chevrolet impala the manual makes it look like it is very easy for the owner to change the headlight. However, after purchasing the headlamp at an autoparts store I tried every driver I had on the so called screw that holds the headlight assembly in place. The fale normal looking screw they use is a safety trap. It's head is too shallow to reach into any normal drive. I had to drive around with my headlight out until I find a capable mechanic with the special tool. If their shop manual warned I needed a special tool I could have traded the car in on a new one or gone to a mechanic to begin with. It made me so angry that I took it out on my wife when she complained that it was taking too long to do what I thought was a "just wait a minute honey until I get done" job. Any more angry I could have turned into a severe safety hazard storm! Its almost as bad as when gm made me purchase a lease looking loan from gmac when I purchased the car. After I paid it off they still owned the car. For some reason they insisted that it was a loan and not a lease. And now the guy in the office next to me got a good…
Also reported on the 2007 Chevrolet Impala
Other electrical problem
Other engine problem
Other suspension problem
Other wheel or tire problem
Other powertrain problem
Other steering 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 headlight failure or clouding happen on the 2007 Chevrolet Impala?
Across 11 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 90,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 85,000 miles and a quarter after 125,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is headlight failure or clouding on the 2007 Chevrolet Impala?
13 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