Excessive oil consumption on the 2007 Chevrolet Tahoe
When excessive oil consumption gets reported
Owners of the 2007 Chevrolet Tahoe report excessive oil consumption at a median of 90,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 60,000 miles and a quarter after 122,500 miles, from 25 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 85,000 miles. It is the 7th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 50,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 212,500 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 163,332 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
A spread this wide points at use rather than design. Towing, climate, service history and city mileage all move a failure like this, so the median is a weak guide to any individual car.
8% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 49,600 miles | 60,000 miles | 90,000 miles | 122,000 miles | 212,932 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 $900–$6,500 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 5 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2001, at a median of 15,000 miles, and latest on the 2007 at 90,000 miles.
By volume the 2007 is the worst of them, which makes this a problem of this specific year rather than of the model as a whole.
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.
Tl* the contact owns a 2007 chevrolet tahoe. The contact stated that the check engine warning light illuminated and the vehicle was started to mis-fire. The contact took the vehicle to the dealer and was told that the piston rings were fracturing and needed to be replaced. The dealer advised the contact that replacing the piston rings would not correct the failure and that the engine would require replacement. The dealer stated they would not rebuild the engine even though just replacing the rings will not correct the problem. In addition, the contact stated that the vehicle was consuming excessive oil for a period of three years. The vehicle was scheduled for repairs. The VIN was not available. The failure mileage was 35,000 and the current mileage was 80,000.
Excessive oil consumption, dealer acknowledged the problem with that model year engine, after taking the vehicle in 3 times about this problem the installed oil deflector per tsb, still has not fixed the problem. Vehicle still uses 1.5 quarts of oil every 1000 miles, all maintenance has been done by the book by the dealership I purchased the vehicle from. *tr
My vehicle is experiencing excessive oil consumption due to the active fuel management(displacement on demand) feature. The vehicle consumes approximately 1quart every 1000 miles...the oil is burned through the pistons causing blue-ish colored smoke to come out of the tail pipe. The vehicle comes not a drop of oil if the active fuel management is turned off. Every single vehicle from gm that I have tested has had excessive oil consumption due to the active fuel management feature. After that feature is turned off, no oil is consumed. 1 quart of oil is burned is as little as 300 miles. This can cause the vehicle's engine to shut off at any rate of speed due to the oil pressure caused by not having enough oil in the engine. General motors has tried fixing my vehicle and others by replacing the lifters, camshaft, pistons, piston rings, etc..this fix has not worked and many vehicles continue to have excessive oil consumption. Vehicles affected range from year 2007 and up (present). My vehicle also has various transmission issues which causes the vehicle to shut down in the middle of my driving and greatly increasing the risk of an…
Also reported on the 2007 Chevrolet Tahoe
Other body or interior problem
Airbag inflator rupture
Other electrical problem
Instrument cluster or gauge failure
Other engine problem
Other driver assistance problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 31 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 excessive oil consumption happen on the 2007 Chevrolet Tahoe?
Across 25 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 90,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 60,000 miles and a quarter after 122,500 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is excessive oil consumption on the 2007 Chevrolet Tahoe?
31 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 1.0 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