Other wheel or tire problem on the 2003 Chevrolet Suburban
2 crashes 1 injury 3 of the 9 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.
Only 6 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.
When other wheel or tire problem gets reported
There are 9 reports of other wheel or tire problem on the 2003 Chevrolet Suburban, 6 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 60,000 miles. It is the 11th most-reported problem on this model year.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | — | 18,737 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, 2 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 $200–$1,500 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 12 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2016, at a median of 5,000 miles, and latest on the 2005 at 130,000 miles.
By volume the 1999 carries the most reports, with 68; the 2003 has 9. 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.
I recently purchased a 2003 chevy suburban equiped with factory installed wrangler at 265/70/17 tires.while towing a boat in a snow squall,I lost all traction on an overpass resulting in the loss of the boat,motor and trailer upside down in a ditch.fortunately the vehicle and we survived,but the $15,000 boat was a total loss.also while backing down a boat ramp that was slippery,we almost ended up in the river as we slid most of the way down the ramp.after I exited the vehicle,it slid another 5 feet only stopping when it hit the sand at the water's edge.after putting large stones behind the rear wheels,we were able to get the boat on the trailer,only to experience no traction at all even in four wheel drive while trying to get up the ramp.after much tire spinning we were finally able to inch our way up the ramp.we seemed to be only ones having this much traction problems as a few vehicles launched and retrieved boats after us with little difficulty.these tires make no sense on a vehicle that spends the majority of the time on the highway and not in a mud hole,the traction seems to disappear on wet or slippery surfaces.I had two…
Bought 4 bf goodrich long trail tires for 2003 1/2 ton chevy suburban 4 wheel, in the first few days of use, tires edge(s) "bite" at high speeds 60-70 MPH creating lack of control in moderate winds, not only was car pushed in moderate wind but actually went out of control dangerously. *ak
2003 chevrolet k2500 suburban with firestone steeltex lt245/75r16 tires. On friday june 10, 2005 the right front tire suddendly lost pressure while traveling on i95 at 65 MPH, at ambient temperature of 94 degrees: however, I noticed the loss of pressure before the tire went completely flat and was able to safely pull to the shoulder. Upon inspection I found no punctures. The inside side wall had a 1-1/2" crack where the tire began to separate. The tire had 68781 miles of tread wear with approximately another 10000 miles of tread life left. The tires have been rotated and tire pressure checked on a regular basis that is evidenced by the long life of the tire. The tire is still in my possession.
Also reported on the 2003 Chevrolet Suburban
Instrument cluster or gauge failure
Loss of braking
Other brake problem
Other electrical problem
Brake line, hose or caliper failure
Other body or interior problem
How far this goes
This page is kept out of search results because 9 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 9 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 wheel or tire problem happen on the 2003 Chevrolet Suburban?
Across 6 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 20,000 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 wheel or tire problem on the 2003 Chevrolet Suburban?
9 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.2 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