Other powertrain problem on the 2002 GMC Envoy
2 crashes 1 fire 3 injuries 6 of the 29 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 other powertrain problem gets reported
Owners of the 2002 GMC Envoy report other powertrain problem at a median of 60,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 45,000 miles and a quarter after 85,000 miles, from 21 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 92,000 miles. It is the 4th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 15,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 95,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 77,337 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.
19% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 17,000 miles | 44,233 miles | 60,100 miles | 85,000 miles | 94,337 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, 1 a fire and 3 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 $400–$4,500 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 7 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2004, at a median of 15,000 miles, and latest on the 2003 at 75,000 miles.
By volume the 2002 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.
Complaint is for 2002 gmc envoy. On three occasions, this truck stalled out while in motion, the last time at 55 MPH on an interstate highway. On three occasions, the transmission in this vehicle switched, of its own accord, from 2 wd to 4 wd (low) nearly casusing accidents on two occasions. I listed the most recent occurrences of these problems below.
My 2002 envoy exhibits the same symptoms as my previous gmc jimmy. It has a hesitation on acceleration that fails to shift from 1-2 properly. This only occurs when the car is cold and only for a mile or two. However , it causes severe loss of power and acceleration capability. Obviously other people have this problem but it does not appear that there is a solution. It always works by the time it gets to the dealer, of course. *nlm
On dec. 3, 2003, I took my 2002 envoy into the dealership because I was experiencing serious shifting issues. Repeatedly my car would shift while I was driving between 2wd and 4 wd hi. The car would also would make chugging noises. Furthermore, the vehicle shifted between gears on its own while I would be making sharp turns such as into a parking space. While in park, if I did not have my foot on the brake petal, the car would jump forward. The car almost jumped through a store front window. The dealer could find nothing wrong with my car. I told them to keep it another day, that there was something seriously wrong with the car. The dealer kept the car another day, and still found nothing. On december 31, 2003, I continued to experience the aforementioned problems. Knowing that it was new year's eve and that the odds of there being any competent staff at the dealer was slim, I held onto my car and planned to take it to the dealer after the holiday. On january 3, 2003, I was driving and my car died for no reason. I was not accelerating nor braking. Thank goodness the road I was on was not very busy as I would have created an…
Also reported on the 2002 GMC Envoy
Other engine problem
Other electrical problem
Other visibility problem
Other body or interior problem
Differential or transfer case failure
Control arm, ball joint or bushing failure
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 29 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 powertrain problem happen on the 2002 GMC Envoy?
Across 21 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 60,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 45,000 miles and a quarter after 85,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other powertrain problem on the 2002 GMC Envoy?
29 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