AtWhatMileage
Electrical · 8 owner reports

Other electrical problem on the 2009 Chevrolet Silverado

Only 7 reports for this mode came with an odometer reading, which is too few for percentiles to mean anything. The page is here because someone linked to it; treat the figures as anecdotes, and see the full report for this year instead.

Reports of this failure 8
With an odometer reading 7
Reports per 1,000 built 2.7 per 1,000
Filed below 36,000 miles 29%
Mention a crash, fire or injury 0
Typical repair $250–$2,000
What it means when it happens Moderate
Rank among this year's problems 2nd

When other electrical problem gets reported

There are 8 reports of other electrical problem on the 2009 Chevrolet Silverado, 7 with a mileage attached. That is too few to place the failure on the odometer with any confidence.

A part like this is normally expected to survive 85,000 miles. It is the 2nd most-reported problem on this model year.

The whole distribution

Percentiles of the 7 odometer readings owners gave.
10th25thMedian 75th90th
— — 63,000 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

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 21 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2014, at a median of 5,000 miles, and latest on the 1997 at 190,000 miles.

By volume the 2003 carries the most reports, with 46; the 2009 has 8. 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.

While driving along highway I noticed the speedometer needle was on zero. Upon farther investigation I found all instrument panel lights were off and directional and hazard flashers would not operate. I stopped, recycled master switch off than on, lights worked properly. Event occurred again six days later. *tr ## VIN failed ##

78,565 miles NHTSA complaint 967680 filed 2013-03-11

Driving on i10 heading to houston, the entire truck completely shut down, and then turned back on, this again happened 02/2014....the whole truck shut down , thank god the wheels did not lock up or we would have been killed both times. It is at the dealers ...freedom chevy san antonio tx....something is bad on the truck...like playing with a light switch...the dash, every instrument shut off both times, now I am worried that it will happen again, and I can not afford another truck. I thought that the 1st time was just a fluke, but when it did it again, I know now something is not right and is very dangerous for me and my little girl...please reply if a human really reads this. *tr

27,860 miles NHTSA complaint 1045163 filed 2014-03-12

Used the truck and parked the truck with no problems. Then the truck sat for 1day and had heavy rain storms come through the area. Then went to use the truck and when I went to start it up the truck would not turn over dead and had a strong smell plastic burning with the cargo light staying on .check the circuit board under the hood and found that some of the fuses had melted .no other problem with the truck until now. *tr

63,000 miles NHTSA complaint 1061521 filed 2014-05-02

Also reported on the 2009 Chevrolet Silverado

Other body or interior problem

12 reports median 50k

Wiring harness or short circuit

5 reports median 74k

Excessive oil consumption

4 reports median 57k

Radiator or coolant leak

4 reports median 39k

How far this goes

This page is kept out of search results because 8 reports is not enough to publish percentiles from. It stays reachable because somebody looking at this exact car would rather see the reports than be told there are none.

Complaints are voluntary, so 8 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 2009 Chevrolet Silverado?

Across 7 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 65,000 miles. A quarter were filed before — and a quarter after —. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.

How common is other electrical problem on the 2009 Chevrolet Silverado?

8 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 2.7 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