ABS module or sensor failure on the 2002 Chevrolet Suburban
5 crashes 2 injuries 7 of the 51 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 2002 Chevrolet Suburban report ABS module or sensor failure at a median of 67,500 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 47,500 miles and a quarter after 92,500 miles, from 40 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 35,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 117,500 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 82,400 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.
18% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 34,100 miles | 46,625 miles | 67,812 miles | 93,500 miles | 116,500 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 and 2 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 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 2002 has 51. 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.
While driving 10-15 MPH in stop and go traffic consumer attempted to apply the brakes. When the brake pedal was depressed it went straight to the floor, the brake system failed, and consumer's vehicle rear ended the vehicle in front. No one sustained injuries. Police did arrive at the scene, and consumer received a citation. *ak
When I apply my brakes, the antilock is heard & the brakes are not firm. This has been going on for about 2 months. It scares me because when I slowly come up to a corner, I don't know if I'm going to stop or not! If I take it to a mechanic, they will put new brakes on, which I don't need, but it isn't going to solve the problem.
At low speeds when pressing the brakes the ABS brakes on my 2002 chevy suburban pump and allow the veichle to move forward. Have had two occassions were this almost caused an accident. Dealer parkway motors calumet michigan determined it was corrosion on the ABS sensors. They told me they first reported the problem to gm engineering 3 years ago and currently the see almost one of these problems a day.
Also reported on the 2002 Chevrolet Suburban
Loss of braking
Other wheel or tire problem
Fuel pump failure
Parking brake failure
Other brake problem
Brake line, hose or caliper failure
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 51 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 2002 Chevrolet Suburban?
Across 40 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 67,500 miles. A quarter were filed before 47,500 miles and a quarter after 92,500 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 2002 Chevrolet Suburban?
51 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 1.2 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