AtWhatMileage
Electrical · 46 owner reports

Other electrical problem on the 2002 GMC Envoy

1 crash 5 fires 6 of the 46 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.

Reports of this failure 46
With an odometer reading 27
Reports per 1,000 built 0.6 per 1,000
Filed below 36,000 miles 22%
Mention a crash, fire or injury 6
Typical repair $250–$2,000
What it means when it happens Moderate
Rank among this year's problems 2nd

When other electrical problem gets reported

Owners of the 2002 GMC Envoy report other electrical problem at a median of 90,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 47,500 miles and a quarter after 132,500 miles, from 27 reports that carried an odometer reading.

A part like this is normally expected to survive 85,000 miles. It is the 2nd most-reported problem on this model year.

The mileage distribution

The reported range runs from 15,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 190,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 175,258 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.

22% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.

The whole distribution

Percentiles of the 27 odometer readings owners gave.
10th25thMedian 75th90th
14,342 miles 46,500 miles 91,000 miles 133,500 miles 189,600 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 crash and 5 a fire 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 $250–$2,000 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.

The same failure on other years

The same failure is reported on 7 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2008, at a median of 55,000 miles, and latest on the 2006 at 97,500 miles.

By volume the 2005 carries the most reports, with 67; the 2002 has 46. 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.

Median
  1. 1996 GMC Envoy other electrical problem
    no odometer readings given
    —
  2. 1998 GMC Envoy other electrical problem
    no odometer readings given
    —
  3. 1999 GMC Envoy other electrical problem
    no odometer readings given
    —
  4. 2000 GMC Envoy other electrical problem
    no odometer readings given
    —
  5. 2001 GMC Envoy other electrical problem 46k
  6. 2002 (this one) 91k
  7. 2003 GMC Envoy other electrical problem 78k
  8. 2004 GMC Envoy other electrical problem 68k
  9. 2005 GMC Envoy other electrical problem 80k
  10. 2006 GMC Envoy other electrical problem 98k
  11. 2007 GMC Envoy other electrical problem 97k
  12. 2008 GMC Envoy other electrical problem 57k
  13. 2009 GMC Envoy other electrical problem 60k

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.

The gmc envoy's electronics fail. No dash instruments or radio controls. Happens intermittently. Occurs when driving. The engine races unexpectedly. This has happened 10 to 12 times. The slv-truck is currently at the dealer who is once again attempting to repair it.*jb

800 miles NHTSA complaint 400679 filed 2003-04-01

My 2002 gmc envoy lost all power three times at high rates of speed. The first time we had it serviced and I was told a module needed replaced. The second time, the car shut down at highway speeds but restarted approximately 15 minutes later but then the same thing happened again the next day while my wife was driving home from work traveling at 65 MPH down a highway. We had it serviced again and this time I was told it was due to a loose wiring harnass. Car has had numerous problems since and it is an unsafe vehicle for my family to be transported in.

10,971 miles NHTSA complaint 432207 filed 2003-09-26

The electrical system shut down while driving 45 MPH on the highway. There was no warning. Consumer called for a tow truck so that the vehicle could be inspected. The entire electrical system had to be replaced and updated. *ak

28,000 miles NHTSA complaint 484207 filed 2004-07-12

Also reported on the 2002 GMC Envoy

Other engine problem

58 reports median 57k

Other visibility problem

35 reports median 18k

Other powertrain problem

29 reports median 60k

Other body or interior problem

29 reports median 78k

How far this goes

Complaints are voluntary, so 46 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 electrical problem happen on the 2002 GMC Envoy?

Across 27 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 90,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 47,500 miles and a quarter after 132,500 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.

How common is other electrical problem on the 2002 GMC Envoy?

46 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.6 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