AtWhatMileage
Engine · 26 owner reports

Other engine problem on the 2002 Chevrolet Silverado 2500

1 fire 1 of the 26 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.

Reports of this failure 26
With an odometer reading 22
Reports per 1,000 built 8.0 per 1,000
Filed below 36,000 miles 14%
Mention a crash, fire or injury 1
Typical repair $300–$4,000
What it means when it happens High
Rank among this year's problems 5th

When other engine problem gets reported

Owners of the 2002 Chevrolet Silverado 2500 report other engine problem at a median of 75,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 50,000 miles and a quarter after 95,000 miles, from 22 reports that carried an odometer reading.

A part like this is normally expected to survive 95,000 miles. It is the 5th most-reported problem on this model year.

The mileage distribution

The reported range runs from 35,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 100,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 68,553 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.

14% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.

The whole distribution

Percentiles of the 22 odometer readings owners gave.
10th25thMedian 75th90th
32,500 miles 50,125 miles 76,417 miles 94,613 miles 101,053 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 fire 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 $300–$4,000 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 22 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2019, at a median of 5,000 miles, and latest on the 1997 at 135,000 miles.

By volume the 2001 carries the most reports, with 40; the 2002 has 26. 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.

Median
  1. 1997 Chevrolet Silverado 2500 other engine problem 134k
  2. 1998 Chevrolet Silverado 2500 other engine problem
    no odometer readings given
    —
  3. 1999 Chevrolet Silverado 2500 other engine problem 85k
  4. 2000 Chevrolet Silverado 2500 other engine problem 48k
  5. 2001 Chevrolet Silverado 2500 other engine problem 65k
  6. 2002 (this one) 76k
  7. 2003 Chevrolet Silverado 2500 other engine problem 107k
  8. 2004 Chevrolet Silverado 2500 other engine problem 60k
  9. 2005 Chevrolet Silverado 2500 other engine problem 126k
  10. 2006 Chevrolet Silverado 2500 other engine problem 40k
  11. 2007 Chevrolet Silverado 2500 other engine problem 16k
  12. 2008 Chevrolet Silverado 2500 other engine problem 52k
  13. 2009 Chevrolet Silverado 2500 other engine problem 27k
  14. 2010 Chevrolet Silverado 2500 other engine problem 74k
  15. 2011 Chevrolet Silverado 2500 other engine problem 123k
  16. 2012 Chevrolet Silverado 2500 other engine problem 46k
  17. 2013 Chevrolet Silverado 2500 other engine problem 133k
  18. 2014 Chevrolet Silverado 2500 other engine problem 2k
  19. 2015 Chevrolet Silverado 2500 other engine problem 79k
  20. 2016 Chevrolet Silverado 2500 other engine problem 80k
  21. 2017 Chevrolet Silverado 2500 other engine problem 23k
  22. 2018 Chevrolet Silverado 2500 other engine problem 23k
  23. 2019 Chevrolet Silverado 2500 other engine problem 5k
  24. 2020 Chevrolet Silverado 2500 other engine problem 27k
  25. 2021 Chevrolet Silverado 2500 other engine problem 88k
  26. 2022 Chevrolet Silverado 2500 other engine problem 34k
  27. 2023 Chevrolet Silverado 2500 other engine problem 29k
  28. 2024 Chevrolet Silverado 2500 other engine problem 6k
  29. 2025 Chevrolet Silverado 2500 other engine problem
    no odometer readings given
    —

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.

Chevy silverado 2500 hd w/ 6l engine-- problem with throttle sticking. Carbons up every two months around throttle valve and throttle sticks. Then takes excessive throttle pressure to try to move. ---is a serious safety issue when moving in tight quarters. Chevy has issued service modifications for 5.3l and 4.8l engines for same problem but has ignored the 6.0l. Cleaning the carbon works for only two months then problem recurs. Chevy should make a field fix like the other models before someone gets hurt. *jb

24,000 miles NHTSA complaint 505396 filed 2004-11-07

Just regarding gm recall no. 06083 all 2001 silverado @500/3500 hd models with the 8.1l gas engines: all the crankshaft sensors are to be recalled in that year only when the problem exist in all 8.1l engines up to 2006. I had a 900 dollar bill from a dealership to try and fix this problem and then the problem wasn't even solved. I bought the part myself and installed it myself. I feel that all years should be recalled. This is a serious problem because the engine would fail while driving down the road a highway speeds. Thanks *tr

78,000 miles NHTSA complaint 652487 filed 2008-01-07

Vehicle stalls suddnly while driving. No definite pattern to the stalling. Stalls at least once a day. Has been occuring for about the last year to year and a half. Will pull over, wait anywhere between 5-20min and the vehicle wil start again. *tr

90,000 miles NHTSA complaint 653306 filed 2008-01-13

Also reported on the 2002 Chevrolet Silverado 2500

Loss of braking

58 reports median 81k

Brake line, hose or caliper failure

44 reports median 85k

Other brake problem

43 reports median 88k

ABS module or sensor failure

36 reports median 71k

Engine sensor failure

16 reports median 83k

Other fuel system problem

16 reports median 92k

How far this goes

Complaints are voluntary, so 26 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 engine problem happen on the 2002 Chevrolet Silverado 2500?

Across 22 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 75,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 50,000 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 engine problem on the 2002 Chevrolet Silverado 2500?

26 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 8.0 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