AtWhatMileage
Brakes · 58 owner reports

Other brake problem on the 2004 Chevrolet Silverado

10 crashes 3 injuries 1 death 14 of the 58 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 58
With an odometer reading 48
Reports per 1,000 built 0.5 per 1,000
Filed below 36,000 miles 29%
Mention a crash, fire or injury 14
Typical repair $300–$1,800
What it means when it happens High
Rank among this year's problems 3rd

When other brake problem gets reported

Owners of the 2004 Chevrolet Silverado report other brake problem at a median of 70,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 25,000 miles and a quarter after 102,500 miles, from 48 reports that carried an odometer reading.

A part like this is normally expected to survive 88,000 miles. It is the 3rd most-reported problem on this model year.

The mileage distribution

The reported range runs from 7,500 miles at the tenth percentile to 152,500 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 143,357 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.

29% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.

The whole distribution

Percentiles of the 48 odometer readings owners gave.
10th25thMedian 75th90th
7,952 miles 24,669 miles 70,148 miles 102,238 miles 151,309 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, 10 a crash, 3 an injury and 1 a fatality 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 $300–$1,800 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 19 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2012, at a median of 10,000 miles, and latest on the 1998 at 105,000 miles.

By volume the 2000 carries the most reports, with 90; the 2004 has 58. 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.

What owners wrote

Verbatim from NHTSA complaint narratives, trimmed for length. The mileage is the one the owner gave.

When coming to a stop light I was applying my brakes to stop behind a vehicle, brakes went to the floor, causing an accident. Vehicle was taken to the dealer. All brake component were checked, no current technical service bulletins and contacted technical assistant. Dealer was unable to duplicate the problem. *ak

9,400 miles NHTSA complaint 480636 filed 2004-06-19

When attempting to apply the brake from a low speed the pedal intermittently proceeded to the floor. Please provide additional information. *jb problem could not be found by dealership. *tc

96 miles NHTSA complaint 500880 filed 2004-10-12

05v043000/hydraulic brake bosch. The consumer is experiencing a problem with the brakes and steering. The consumer stated that when driving and applying the brake, the vehicle lost power steering. The brake does not return to its normal position after the brake has been released causing the vehicle to lose power steering. Owner took the vehicle back to the dealer and was told that because they can not duplicate the problem they will not do anything. Also the owner contacted the manufacturer and was told that there are no recalls on this vehicle, what so ever. Provide further details. *jb

14,000 miles NHTSA complaint 523252 filed 2005-02-23

Also reported on the 2004 Chevrolet Silverado

Instrument cluster or gauge failure

112 reports median 50k

Loss of braking

58 reports median 80k

Other electrical problem

38 reports median 40k

Brake line, hose or caliper failure

35 reports median 78k

Other powertrain problem

32 reports median 13k

Other body or interior problem

29 reports median 11k

How far this goes

Complaints are voluntary, so 58 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 brake problem happen on the 2004 Chevrolet Silverado?

Across 48 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 70,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 25,000 miles and a quarter after 102,500 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.

How common is other brake problem on the 2004 Chevrolet Silverado?

58 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.5 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