Complete transmission failure on the 2002 Chevrolet Tahoe
1 fire 1 of the 16 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 complete transmission failure gets reported
Owners of the 2002 Chevrolet Tahoe report complete transmission failure at a median of 40,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 25,000 miles and a quarter after 95,000 miles, from 9 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 98,000 miles. It is the 10th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 25,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 135,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 110,631 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.
44% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 26,000 miles | 26,000 miles | 40,343 miles | 94,182 miles | 136,631 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 fire 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 $2,800–$8,000 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.
This mode is classified as critical, which means a failure can leave the car unable to stop, steer, or stay out of the way of traffic. It is weighted accordingly in the risk score.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 14 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2007, at a median of 25,000 miles, and latest on the 2008 at 145,000 miles.
By volume the 2017 carries the most reports, with 19; the 2002 has 16. 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.
Transmission went out oct-02 @ 21,000 miles, would only replace 1 part, transmission went out again may 13,2003 @ 31,000 miles, this time I was told all parts in transmission were destroyed and dealer wanted to fix broken parts and put back in. It got very frustrating at this point....called toll free number at chevrolet and got no where, they think I'm stupid, I pay more than $40,000 for a brand new vehicle and have this happen twice in 5 months....I am very concerned about the safety issue here for my family and myself. I should have known I was doomed when I purchased my vehicle, it took almost 6 weeks to get and they kept giving me the run around about where it was, they kept telling it had left the factory and was on its way, but always found an excuse, then they said it got pulled off the line for inspection...what's wrong here? They told me at least 5 different times it had left the factory and then all of a sudden it's on the line...it never left the factory....I should have known then....*jb
Transmission shifting hard,only 26,000 miles. Ttook to dealership and was told second and third gear was gone. They rebuilt those gears. Pick tahoe up and within a hr it was doing the same thing. Return to dealership next day, was told it was pump sticking. Replace that. Pick back up and within a hr did the same thing. Return vehicle and they decided to replace for new transmission. A week later it has now starting to have a problem with the power sterring. There appears to be a leak in the lines. This 2002 tahoe has had problems starting within months of purchase. Sterring colum making clunking nose, required lube twice. Headlights filling with water. Nose in the front drivers side around shock area. They had different repairs such as replacing shocks, greasing. After over a year the dealership added bushings to the shocks, so far ok. Have replace firestone tires at 25,000 miles for wearing on inside of tire.*ak
Transmission shifting hard,only 26,000 miles. Ttook to dealership and was told second and third gear was gone. They rebuilt those gears. Pick tahoe up and within a hr it was doing the same thing. Return to dealership next day, was told it was pump sticking. Replace that. Pick back up and within a hr did the same thing. Return vehicle and they decided to replace for new transmission. A week later it has now starting to have a problem with the power sterring. There appears to be a leak in the lines. This 2002 tahoe has had problems starting within months of purchase. Sterring colum making clunking nose, required lube twice. Headlights filling with water. Nose in the front drivers side around shock area. They had different repairs such as replacing shocks, greasing. After over a year the dealership added bushings to the shocks, so far ok. Have replace firestone tires at 25,000 miles for wearing on inside of tire.*ak
Also reported on the 2002 Chevrolet Tahoe
ABS module or sensor failure
Other brake problem
Loss of braking
Other wheel or tire problem
Parking brake failure
Brake line, hose or caliper failure
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 16 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 complete transmission failure happen on the 2002 Chevrolet Tahoe?
Across 9 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 95,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is complete transmission failure on the 2002 Chevrolet Tahoe?
16 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