Brake line, hose or caliper failure on the 2002 Chevrolet Silverado 2500
1 crash 1 of the 44 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 2002 Chevrolet Silverado 2500 report brake line, hose or caliper failure at a median of 85,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 62,500 miles and a quarter after 110,000 miles, from 43 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 115,000 miles. It is the 2nd most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 50,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 165,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 115,360 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.
2% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 48,800 miles | 62,943 miles | 85,000 miles | 110,280 miles | 164,160 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 a crash 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 $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 2002 has 44. 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 stated that while driving at 10 MPH the 2002 chevrolet silverado the hard brake line ruptured. T there were no warning indicators. . The contact had just picked up the vehicle from the dealer after having routine maintenance performed on the vehicle. The dealer diagnosed the failure as the brake line having corroded. *ak
Brake line failure on my 2002 chevrolet silverado 2500hd. I was very fortunate that the line broke at home while I was parking my trailer. Apparently there is a major problem with the steel lines rusting out prematurely. If you go on the web and look up brake line failure for this year vehicle, you will find many. *tr
While towing an 8000lb horse trailer at slow speeds, I attempted to brake and the brake line at the driver side front wheel broke and leaked, leaving me on the expressway with no stopping power. All brake lines were completely rusted out with less than 50,000 miles on a 2002 well maintained,recently checked over 2500hd. Totally unacceptable situation, and one that sounds commonplace. *tr
Also reported on the 2002 Chevrolet Silverado 2500
Loss of braking
Other brake problem
ABS module or sensor failure
Other engine problem
Engine sensor failure
Other fuel system problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 44 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 2002 Chevrolet Silverado 2500?
Across 43 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 85,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 62,500 miles and a quarter after 110,000 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 2002 Chevrolet Silverado 2500?
44 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 14 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