Brake line, hose or caliper failure on the 1999 Chevrolet Silverado 2500
Only 5 reports for this mode came with an odometer reading, which is too few for percentiles to mean anything. The page is here because someone linked to it; treat the figures as anecdotes, and see the full report for this year instead.
When brake line, hose or caliper failure gets reported
There are 5 reports of brake line, hose or caliper failure on the 1999 Chevrolet Silverado 2500, 5 with a mileage attached. That is too few to place the failure on the odometer with any confidence.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 115,000 miles. It is the 4th most-reported problem on this model year.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | — | 108,000 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 $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 8 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2005, at a median of 70,000 miles, and latest on the 1999 at 110,000 miles.
By volume the 2003 carries the most reports, with 52; the 1999 has 5. 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 down the road, I stepped on the brake to stop to turn into my destination when my foot went all the way to the floor. I turned into the parking lot, put the truck into neutral and pulled the emergency brake to stop completely. The truck towed to a local garage when the mechanic stated that the brake line had blown due to rust. *tr
On friday sept. 15, I was driving my 1999 chevrolet silverado when I experienced brake line rupture from two different locations. I was merely attempting to slow down for a curve and I did 'dynamite' the brakes. I applied normal pressure and suddenly, the pedal began to travel towards the floor and I could feel the vehicle becoming harder to slow. Luckily, I was able to stop the vehicle before suffering an accident. After I pulled off the side of the road and saw leaking brake fluid, I inspected the area and found several locations on the brake line where corrosion had severely damaged the lines, as well as two small holes in two different lines. When I got home, I performed a search of the problem on my computer and found literally hundreds of complaints regarding the same issue!! This is an extremely dangerous condition that gm should address, or be forced to address immediately!! If not, they are responsible for injury/loss of life due to sub-standard materials used in their braking system. *tr
Just driving home from work and the brakes were not working as well as normal when applying them. Light came on in the dashboard indicating brake problem. When I arrived at home checked fluid and was out of brake fluid. Started looking for the problem and found a broken brake line badly corroded. Looking at the rest of the lines they are all in a bad way. I'm a plumber and have worked with stainless steel tubing my exhaust is original never had a problem or leak. It seems strange to install such a great exhaust system and not the same on a little more important system. *tr
Also reported on the 1999 Chevrolet Silverado 2500
ABS module or sensor failure
Other brake problem
Loss of braking
Exhaust leak or fumes in the cabin
Other wheel or tire problem
Fuel tank, filler or EVAP failure
How far this goes
This page is kept out of search results because 5 reports is not enough to publish percentiles from. It stays reachable because somebody looking at this exact car would rather see the reports than be told there are none.
Complaints are voluntary, so 5 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 1999 Chevrolet Silverado 2500?
Across 5 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 110,000 miles. A quarter were filed before — and a quarter after —. 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 1999 Chevrolet Silverado 2500?
5 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 5.6 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