Headlight failure or clouding on the 2007 GMC Envoy
When headlight failure or clouding gets reported
Owners of the 2007 GMC Envoy report headlight failure or clouding at a median of 130,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 100,000 miles and a quarter after 160,000 miles, from 17 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 88,000 miles. It is the 6th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 60,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 205,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 143,846 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.
0% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 62,354 miles | 98,000 miles | 131,500 miles | 160,000 miles | 206,200 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 $150–$1,800 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 65,000 miles, and latest on the 2002 at 160,000 miles.
By volume the 2006 carries the most reports, with 24; the 2007 has 19. 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.
Tl* the contact owns a 2007 gmc envoy. While driving at 55 MPH, the headlights failed to function. The vehicle was taken to a dealer, who diagnosed that headlight relay hdm module needed to be replaced. The vehicle was repaired. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The contact was aware of NHTSA campaign number: 14v755000 (exterior lighting); however, the VIN was not included. The failure mileage was 56,000. Updated 7/16/15*cn updated 08/06/15*jb
Low beam lights failing intermittently. Lights shut off twice @ 9:30 pm on 5/16/2015 driving on divided highway at 65 MPH. The lights started operating normally after pulling off on the shoulder both times. Researched the web and found this is a problem with probably the headlamp driver modules or relay. Drove the SUV to the gmc dealer today and they said they had no record of a recall for this unit and any work done on the problem would be billed to me. I left the dealer and called gmc and had them pull up this unit on their system and got the same run around. They finally told me that some 2007 gmc envoys are being recalled for this condition but not mine. This is a scary condition and due to an extreme safety concern I purchased the relay at an auto parts store today for $38.31 and installed it myself. This problem is probably more wide spread than gmc has reported.
Tl* the contact owns a 2007 gmc envoy. While driving at 15 MPH, the low beam head lamps and day time running lamps illuminated intermittently. The vehicle was taken to a dealer. However, the vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The failure recurred on numerous occasions. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The failure mileage was 63,924.
Also reported on the 2007 GMC Envoy
Fuel gauge or level sensor failure
Other electrical problem
Other lighting problem
Other fuel system problem
Other visibility problem
Fuel tank, filler or EVAP failure
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 19 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 headlight failure or clouding happen on the 2007 GMC Envoy?
Across 17 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 130,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 100,000 miles and a quarter after 160,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is headlight failure or clouding on the 2007 GMC Envoy?
19 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.8 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