ABS module or sensor failure on the 2005 Chevrolet Silverado
1 crash 1 injury 2 of the 15 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 abs module or sensor failure gets reported
Owners of the 2005 Chevrolet Silverado report ABS module or sensor failure at a median of 40,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 25,000 miles and a quarter after 55,000 miles, from 12 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 95,000 miles. It is the 6th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 15,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 55,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 40,074 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
Reports bunched into a band this tight usually mean the component has a life of its own: it goes at roughly the same mileage regardless of who owns it.
33% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13,400 miles | 24,125 miles | 40,000 miles | 53,474 miles | 53,474 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 and 1 an injury 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 $500–$2,400 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 14 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2008, at a median of 1,200 miles, and latest on the 1996 at 105,000 miles.
By volume the 1999 carries the most reports, with 695; the 2005 has 15. 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.
Dt: the contact owns a 2005 chevrolet silverado. While driving on a steep curve he had to panic brake to avoid going over an embankment. The brakes locked and would not allow the vehicle to slow down or stop. The vehicle hit the ground and proceeded to flip over. The vehicle is equipped with driver and passenger side air bags. Upon impact the front air bags did not deploy. The vehicle has not been inspected to determine why the brakes locked up or why the air bags did not deploy. He has not contacted the manufacturer or the service dealer. *ak
2005 chevrolet crew cab 1/2 ton two wheel drive has had a vibration while driving and while braking since the first test drive. The salesman promised it was just the tires with flat spots and would go away. John keating chevy. As changed the front rotors the back drums, two tires aligned the front end put in steering kit. The truck still has the vibration and now the front left and the rear brakes are locking up. If you brake hard the brakes skids on the left side. I have contacted customer service they will not return my calls. I was at the dealership on 2/21/06 I tried to talk the owner I left my name and I was there for 5 hours he never contacted me. I called him that night around 6:15 and spoke with him, he wants to ride in the truck, I called the next afternoon left my number and asked for appointment. I called again 2/23/06 around 2:00 again I left my number. *jb
Complete failure of anti-lock braking system. New chevrolet silverado pickup truck with only 39,000 miles with no damage. Have heard that a large number of chevy cars and trucks are having this problem. The cost to fix the ABS system is $800.00 this is a system that should not fail. It is a selling point on the vehicles and should be warranted for life of vehicle. *tr
Also reported on the 2005 Chevrolet Silverado
Instrument cluster or gauge failure
Other brake problem
Other electrical problem
Other powertrain problem
Loss of braking
Other wheel or tire problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 15 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 abs module or sensor failure happen on the 2005 Chevrolet Silverado?
Across 12 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 40,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 25,000 miles and a quarter after 55,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is abs module or sensor failure on the 2005 Chevrolet Silverado?
15 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.4 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