Other brake problem on the 2011 Chevrolet Impala
4 crashes 3 injuries 7 of the 29 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 brake problem gets reported
Owners of the 2011 Chevrolet Impala report other brake problem at a median of 70,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 55,000 miles and a quarter after 95,000 miles, from 24 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 88,000 miles. It is the 7th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 40,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 125,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 85,808 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
When the reports scatter this far, the mileage is telling you about how these cars were driven more than about the part itself.
8% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 37,500 miles | 53,633 miles | 68,217 miles | 97,465 miles | 123,308 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, 4 a crash and 3 an injury 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 $300–$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 19 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2007, at a median of 15,000 miles, and latest on the 2000 at 120,000 miles.
By volume the 2014 carries the most reports, with 47; the 2011 has 29. 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.
Driving downhill a truck pulling a trailer brake suddenly in front of me causing me to have to brake hard. The brake pedal shuddered and felt like I needed to take my foot off the brake but I couldn't! Additionally the steering wheel shuddered horribly side to side. Braking on the remainder of the hill and for a while after had the same chattering, shaking, shuddering, and sort of brake grinding feeling making me feel like I could not rely on the brakes and maybe the steering was having problems too. Scared me and felt terribly unsafe!!!! This happened once before about a year ago with this car in a similar downhill sudden braking situation. I drive to avoid having to brake suddenly but sometimes it is unavoidable and I don't want to drive this car anymore because it feels too unsafe. *tr
Tl* the contact owns a 2011 chevrolet impala. The contact stated that the brake pedal was too narrow and when depressed, the contact's foot would slip off the brake pedal. The vehicle was not taken to the dealer and the manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The vehicle was not repaired. The failure mileage was 190 and the current mileage was 6, 8000.
We purchased the impala in april of 2013 with 35,408 miles on the clock, we drove it around town then we took it on a trip to california from las vegas a few months later, when we where on the way to california on a not so steep downgrade we hit the brakes at about 70mph to slow down the steering wheel shook violently side to side like the famous 'death wobble' but we only slowed to about 60mph. On the way back it did it again this time went from 70 to 67 MPH, we took it to the dealer and they said my rotors needed to be turned and gave me the dealer cold shoulder.. I replaced the front rotors and all 4 new tires as of today and it still doing it, went back to the dealer and same thing, this car is unsafe to drive over 50mph but the dealer does not care and is out of warranty... I will never buy a gm product ever as long as I live. I took video of the shaking from 70 to 67mph I will post it on youtube. This car is certified too not that it mean anything to anyone. *tr
Also reported on the 2011 Chevrolet Impala
Other engine problem
Other driver assistance problem
Other electrical problem
Other body or interior problem
Other speed control problem
Other powertrain problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 29 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 brake problem happen on the 2011 Chevrolet Impala?
Across 24 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 70,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 55,000 miles and a quarter after 95,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other brake problem on the 2011 Chevrolet Impala?
29 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.4 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