AtWhatMileage
Brakes · 76 owner reports

ABS module or sensor failure on the 2001 Chevrolet Suburban

5 crashes 5 of the 76 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 76
With an odometer reading 60
Reports per 1,000 built 1.4 per 1,000
Filed below 36,000 miles 8%
Mention a crash, fire or injury 5
Typical repair $500–$2,400
What it means when it happens High
Rank among this year's problems 1st

When abs module or sensor failure gets reported

Owners of the 2001 Chevrolet Suburban report ABS module or sensor failure at a median of 62,500 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 50,000 miles and a quarter after 82,500 miles, from 60 reports that carried an odometer reading.

A part like this is normally expected to survive 95,000 miles. It is the 1st most-reported problem on this model year.

The mileage distribution

The reported range runs from 37,500 miles at the tenth percentile to 117,500 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 80,730 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

Percentiles of the 60 odometer readings owners gave.
10th25thMedian 75th90th
36,970 miles 49,876 miles 62,900 miles 82,000 miles 117,700 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, 5 a crash 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 $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 2003, at a median of 50,000 miles, and latest on the 2004 at 150,000 miles.

By volume the 1999 carries the most reports, with 146; the 2001 has 76. 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.

Abs module failed at 40,200 miles with no apparent reason. Dealer said it was an internal failure. Gm did refund 50% of the repair cost as the part should not have failed so soon. *jb

40,200 miles NHTSA complaint 401353 filed 2003-04-05

Abs module failed at 56k miles - I believe this is a safety issue with a failure of a braking system at such low mileage. Abs light came on and wouldn't go off. Abs system kept running after car was turned off. Gm dealership told me the entire module needs to be replaced and charged approx. $1000 to fix it.*ak

56,500 miles NHTSA complaint 419862 filed 2003-07-23

@2001 chevy suburan ABS module went out at 33,000 miles. Fixed under extended warranty. Went out again after 35,000 additional miles dealer says notice it happens on this model car but not recalled yet. Cost about 1200 to fix. Abs light comes on and stays. Can hear motor running even when car turned off. Drains battery and car willnot start.module had to be replaced both times. Should not be happening.

33,000 miles NHTSA complaint 454657 filed 2004-02-12

Also reported on the 2001 Chevrolet Suburban

Parking brake failure

53 reports median 33k

Fuel pump failure

37 reports median 61k

Seat belt or retractor failure

25 reports median 4k

Other brake problem

23 reports median 120k

Other engine problem

22 reports median 93k

Other wheel or tire problem

22 reports median 31k

How far this goes

Complaints are voluntary, so 76 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 2001 Chevrolet Suburban?

Across 60 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 62,500 miles. A quarter were filed before 50,000 miles and a quarter after 82,500 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 2001 Chevrolet Suburban?

76 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 1.4 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