Brake line, hose or caliper failure on the 2004 Chevrolet Silverado 1500
4 crashes 1 fire 2 injuries 7 of the 71 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 brake line, hose or caliper failure gets reported
Owners of the 2004 Chevrolet Silverado 1500 report brake line, hose or caliper failure at a median of 90,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 75,000 miles and a quarter after 115,000 miles, from 70 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 115,000 miles. It is the 5th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 52,500 miles at the tenth percentile to 160,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 108,249 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.
4% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 52,551 miles | 75,572 miles | 89,069 miles | 116,001 miles | 160,800 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, 1 a fire and 2 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 $250–$1,600 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.
This mode is classified as critical, which means a failure can leave the car unable to stop, steer, or stay out of the way of traffic. It is weighted accordingly in the risk score.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 13 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2020, at a median of 35,000 miles, and latest on the 1998 at 180,000 miles.
By volume the 2003 carries the most reports, with 95; the 2004 has 71. 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.
Vehicle was being operated in a normal manner. After stopping for a brake and preparing to leave the parking area, the brake pedal was depressed in order to shift into reverse. The pedal immediately went to the floor and the service brake system warning light and chime alarm activated. Upon exiting vehicle, brake fluid was seen pouring to the ground from an area under the driver's seat. After being towed to a repair facility and put on the lift it was discovered that a brake line mounted onto the chassis had rusted completely through. A subsequent investigation of all the brake lines showed severe rust and corrosion damage and all were replaced. Vehicle was returned to normal usage afterward with no problems noted. Old parts are not available. *tr
Tl*the contact owns a 2004 chevrolet silverado 1500. While driving approximately 30 MPH the contact applied pressure to the brake pedal approaching a red light and fell to the floor. The contact pulled the emergency brake in order to stop the vehicle. The vehicle was towed to the dealer. The tow truck driver informed the contact that the brake line was broken. Brake fluid was leaking and the under carriage was severely covered with rust. The vehicle was in the dealers possession for diagnostic testing and repairs. The approximate failure mileage was 52,000 . The dealer replaced all the steel brake lines and bled the brake system. Updated 05/19/11
Tl*the contact owns a 2004 chevrolet silverado 1500. While driving approximately 30 MPH the contact applied pressure to the brake pedal approaching a red light and fell to the floor. The contact pulled the emergency brake in order to stop the vehicle. The vehicle was towed to the dealer. The tow truck driver informed the contact that the brake line was broken. Brake fluid was leaking and the under carriage was severely covered with rust. The vehicle was in the dealers possession for diagnostic testing and repairs. The approximate failure mileage was 52,000 . The dealer replaced all the steel brake lines and bled the brake system. Updated 05/19/11
Also reported on the 2004 Chevrolet Silverado 1500
Instrument cluster or gauge failure
Loss of braking
Other brake problem
Other electrical problem
Steering column or shaft failure
Steering rack, gear or tie rod failure
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 71 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 brake line, hose or caliper failure happen on the 2004 Chevrolet Silverado 1500?
Across 70 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 90,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 75,000 miles and a quarter after 115,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is brake line, hose or caliper failure on the 2004 Chevrolet Silverado 1500?
71 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 2.4 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