2002 Chevrolet Yukon: what breaks, and at what mileage
What breaks on the 2002 Chevrolet Yukon
On the 2002 Chevrolet Yukon, the failure owners report most often is steering rack, gear or tie rod failure, with 5 reports on file. Across every failure mode on this year, half the dated reports were filed before 800 miles.
What owners report breaking
Owners have reported 5 named failure modes on the 2002 Chevrolet Yukon, and the three most-reported carry 75% of everything filed, so the trouble here is concentrated rather than scattered.
Steering rack, gear or tie rod failure leads with 5 reports.
Rust or structural corrosion follows with 2 reports, median 130,000 miles.
Other engine problem follows with 2 reports, median 30,000 miles.
By system, the reports fall mostly into steering (5), body (2) and engine (2).
At what mileage it happens
9 of the reports on the 2002 Chevrolet Yukon came with an odometer reading, and half of those were filed before 800 miles.
Cumulatively, 67% by 50,000 miles, 67% by 100,000 miles and 89% by 150,000 miles of the dated reports had been filed, with 1 filed above the top of the chart.
The busiest stretch is between 0 and 10,000 miles, which alone holds 56% of the dated reports.
67% of the dated reports were filed below 36,000 miles, which is early enough that a fair number of these cars were still under a factory warranty when the owner complained.
Tick median reported mileage Solid middle half of reports Faint 10th to 90th percentile Colour how bad the failure is when it happens
How reports accumulate
Every report with an odometer reading, cumulative, from 0 to 200,000 miles. A further 1 report came in above that, which is why the line stops short of the top. A curve that climbs early is a car with early problems, whatever its total.
- Line share of reports filed by that mileage
- Dashed the median reported mileage
How bad it is when it goes
Nothing in the reports on the 2002 Chevrolet Yukon mentions a crash, a fire or an injury. That is the ordinary case and it is worth stating: most defect complaints are about a car that stopped working, not one that hurt somebody.
The average severity weight across every report on this year is 3.50, where a stalled engine or a failed airbag weighs many times more than a rattling trim panel, and a figure this high means the reports are dominated by failures with safety consequences rather than annoyances. The weighting is set out in full on the methodology page.
What the top failures cost to put right, as editorial estimates for an independent US shop rather than figures from NHTSA: steering rack, gear or tie rod failure at $700–$2,600, rust or structural corrosion at $500–$6,000, other engine problem at $300–$4,000 and parking brake failure at $250–$1,300. Dealer labour, a seized bolt or a part that is no longer made can push any of these past the top of its range.
17% of the reports on this year sit in the engine, transmission, drivetrain or cooling systems — the four where a repair bill is usually four figures.
Every reported failure mode
| Failure mode | System | Reports | With reading | 25th | Median | 75th | Per 1,000 | Typical repair | Severity |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Steering rack, gear or tie rod failure | steering | 5 | 5 | — | 800 | — | — | $700–$2,600 | High |
| Rust or structural corrosion | body | 2 | 2 | — | 129k | — | — | $500–$6,000 | High |
| Other engine problem | engine | 2 | 1 | — | 30k | — | — | $300–$4,000 | High |
| Parking brake failure | brakes | 1 | 0 | — | — | — | — | $250–$1,300 | Moderate |
| Other electrical problem | electrical | 1 | 0 | — | — | — | — | $250–$2,000 | Moderate |
| Unclassified problem | other | 1 | 1 | — | 204k | — | — | — | Moderate |
No fleet-size estimate is available for this year, so only raw counts are shown. Repair costs are typical independent-shop ranges for the failure, not figures from these reports.
How often, against how many were built
There is no usable estimate of how many 2002 Chevrolet Yukon were built, so this page reports counts and not rates. 12 reports on a car that sold in millions and 12 on a car that sold in thousands are not the same finding, and without a denominator there is no honest way to say which this is.
No fleet-size estimate is available for this year, so only raw counts are shown.
What owners wrote
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint narratives, trimmed for length. The odometer reading is the one the owner gave.
Steering rack, gear or tie rod failure
The fuel injection system did not work correctly. The vehicle had been to the dealer on five occasions and the problem still existed. *nlm there was a noise coming from under the hood, the pin in the roof continued to fall out, the door did shut properly, the brakes made a noise, the vehicle had a bad steering shaft. Ph *jb
The fuel injection system did not work correctly. The vehicle had been to the dealer on five occasions and the problem still existed. *nlm there was a noise coming from under the hood, the pin in the roof continued to fall out, the door did shut properly, the brakes made a noise, the vehicle had a bad steering shaft. Ph *jb
Rust or structural corrosion
Tl* the contact owns a 2002 chevrolet yukon xl. The contact stated that when depressing the brakes they extended to the floor and all of the fluid leaked out. The vehicle was taken to a dealer who advised him that all of the brake lines were completely rusted through and needed to be replaced. The brake lines were repaired. The failure and current mileage was approximately 129,000. Updated 08/31/11 *bf the brake lines were replaced twice. Updated 09/09/11.*jb
Tl* the contact owns a 2002 chevrolet yukon xl. The contact stated that when depressing the brakes they extended to the floor and all of the fluid leaked out. The vehicle was taken to a dealer who advised him that all of the brake lines were completely rusted through and needed to be replaced. The brake lines were repaired. The failure and current mileage was approximately 129,000. Updated 08/31/11 *bf the brake lines were replaced twice. Updated 09/09/11.*jb
Every year of the Chevrolet Yukon
Scores compare each year against other cars of the same model year, so a low number on an older car is a real result and not an artefact of age.
Shorter is better. Years with too few reports to score are shown without a bar rather than as a zero, because no data is not good news.
Where these figures stop being useful
12 owner reports; no fleet size estimate, so rates are unavailable. Every count on this page is therefore a floor: it is the number of owners who went to the trouble of filing with a federal agency, which is a small and self-selected fraction of the owners who had the fault.
Of those 12 reports, 9 carried an odometer reading, so the mileages here describe 75% of the sample rather than all of it. Owners also round: readings pile up on multiples of ten thousand, which is why this site publishes "about 90,000 miles" and not "91,438".
Named failure modes come from matching phrases in the complaint text, so a badly worded complaint can land in the wrong bucket. The effect washes out across hundreds of reports and does not wash out across five.
And nothing here predicts what one car will do. These are other people's complaints, filed years apart, on cars maintained by strangers. Read the page as a map of where this model year has previously gone wrong, then have the specific car in front of you inspected.
Questions this page answers
What are the most common problems with the 2002 Chevrolet Yukon?
The most-reported failures are steering rack, gear or tie rod failure (5 reports, median 800 miles), rust or structural corrosion (2 reports, median 130,000 miles) and other engine problem (2 reports, median 30,000 miles). Counts come from owner complaints filed with NHTSA, which are voluntary, so they show what owners bothered to report rather than every fault that occurred.
Where this comes from. Every figure above is computed from NHTSA owner complaints and recall records for this exact make, model and year. Complaints are voluntary and self-selected, so treat counts as a floor. The methodology page writes out each formula, and the same numbers are available as JSON.
What breaks at my mileage Compare with another car
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