No-start or intermittent start failure on the 2009 Chevrolet Impala
1 injury 1 of the 22 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 no-start or intermittent start failure gets reported
Owners of the 2009 Chevrolet Impala report no-start or intermittent start failure at a median of 75,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 75,000 miles and a quarter after 130,000 miles, from 17 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 88,000 miles. It is the 12th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 65,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 150,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 84,800 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.
6% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 63,200 miles | 74,586 miles | 75,000 miles | 130,000 miles | 148,000 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
Of these reports, 1 an injury 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 $200–$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 15 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2014, at a median of 65,000 miles, and latest on the 2011 at 130,000 miles.
By volume the 2002 carries the most reports, with 122; the 2009 has 22. 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 2009 chevrolet impala. The contact stated that the electrical components in her vehicle went haywire. The lights would flash on and off, the air conditioner failed intermittently, the heating unit was inoperable, and the doors would lock and unlock by themselves. In addition, the vehicle lost all power and would not start. The dealer attempted to make several repairs to correct the failures, but was unsuccessful. It was later discovered that the aftermarket alarm system was wired incorrectly and caused the electrical failures. The dealer refused to make repairs and advised the contact to call general motors to see if they would repair the vehicle. General motors allowed the dealer to make the repairs, but the necessary parts were unavailable. The vehicle is currently at the dealer. There were 82 miles on the vehicle at the time of purchase. The failure and current mileages were less than 472.
Driving on freeway, check engine light come pn...few miles on freeway car jerk...message on dash engine power loss then throttle body disabled the engine shuts off while im driving 60 MPH...18 wheeler blind me so I swerve off freeway due to steering wheel hard to turn...I sit on side of freeway f 10 minutes...turn key and no sound. Car will not start...call friend for help. After 30 minutes car starts I could have been killed with car shutting down on freeway...gm fix issues. Or pay big later..death trap. *tr
I am having problems with my 2009 chevy impala, it started at 43k, the acceleration pedal was changed when the reduced engine power/service traction control came on. Then again at 100k same problem, this time the dealership told me it was a bad throttle position sensor, the throttle body needed to be changed. I changed it, but it came back again less then 3k miles. I replaced the throttle body again. 3k later same thing. The problem is when it is raining the throttle sensors go nuts. I took the car to advance auto and read the codes, same as before, p0121, p2176, throttle position sensor. Once in a while you can remove the batter lines and unplug the throttle body and mass air flow sensor to get it to restart. Other times you have to go to advance or autozone to clear the codes in order to get it to run long enough for a sunny day. I had one occurrence were the car would not start and it said service throttle position. The throttle sensor needs to be recalled before someone get killed. I have renamed my car to the ford impala. Found on the road dead impala. *tr
Also reported on the 2009 Chevrolet Impala
Other engine problem
Other electrical problem
Airbag warning light or occupant sensor fault
Other speed control problem
Other driver assistance problem
Ignition switch, key fob or immobilizer failure
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 22 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 no-start or intermittent start failure happen on the 2009 Chevrolet Impala?
Across 17 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 75,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 75,000 miles and a quarter after 130,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is no-start or intermittent start failure on the 2009 Chevrolet Impala?
22 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.3 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