Other electrical problem on the 2003 Chevrolet Silverado 2500
2 fires 2 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 electrical problem gets reported
Owners of the 2003 Chevrolet Silverado 2500 report other electrical problem at a median of 90,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 60,000 miles and a quarter after 135,000 miles, from 24 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 85,000 miles. It is the 5th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 40,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 165,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 126,139 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 40,900 miles | 60,000 miles | 92,000 miles | 136,500 miles | 167,039 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, 2 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 $250–$2,000 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 23 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2021, at a median of 300 miles, and latest on the 2014 at 100,000 miles.
By volume the 2015 carries the most reports, with 43; the 2003 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.
Intermittently dash board lights and gauges will go blank. When the dash board lights go blank consumer cannot determine how fast the vehicle is going. The dealer examined the vehicle five times.*ak
Dt: 2003 chevrolet 2500 hd truck experienced an engine power reduction. The vehicle operated at a reduced speed. It goes at a crawl. This occurred at speeds of 40-50 MPH in the middle of traffic. Has to coast over to the side of the road, on average about 10-15 seconds after cutting off then the engine restarted. This usually happened after vehicle has not run for an extended period of time such as being parked overnight. Took to a dealer, who replaced the accelerator pedal that ran by wire not cable. This was electric and computerized and some sort of signal went through the accelerator pedal and caused this failure. The vehicle will idle, but lost power. This has been a problem for the last 3 months. The problem recurred even after the replacement of 2 accelerator pedals. *ak
Engine will fail to start. Second time with problem 10/21/06. Replaced fuse to crank relay fuse blows immediately. Made the truck useless for several days making travel to work hectic. Same fuse controls turn signals as well. *nm
Also reported on the 2003 Chevrolet Silverado 2500
Loss of braking
Other brake problem
Brake line, hose or caliper failure
Instrument cluster or gauge failure
Differential or transfer case failure
ABS module or sensor failure
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 electrical problem happen on the 2003 Chevrolet Silverado 2500?
Across 24 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 90,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 60,000 miles and a quarter after 135,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other electrical problem on the 2003 Chevrolet Silverado 2500?
29 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 99 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