AtWhatMileage
Brakes · 3 owner reports

ABS module or sensor failure on the 2003 GMC Safari (gmc)

Only 3 reports for this mode came with an odometer reading, which is too few for percentiles to mean anything. The page is here because someone linked to it; treat the figures as anecdotes, and see the full report for this year instead.

Reports of this failure 3
With an odometer reading 3
Reports per 1,000 built —
Filed below 36,000 miles 67%
Mention a crash, fire or injury 0
Typical repair $500–$2,400
What it means when it happens High
Rank among this year's problems 1st

When abs module or sensor failure gets reported

There are 3 reports of ABS module or sensor failure on the 2003 GMC Safari (gmc), 3 with a mileage attached. That is too few to place the failure on the odometer with any confidence.

A part like this is normally expected to survive 95,000 miles. It is the 1st most-reported problem on this model year.

The whole distribution

Percentiles of the 3 odometer readings owners gave.
10th25thMedian 75th90th
— — 32,589 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 $500–$2,400 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, every year of the GMC Safari (gmc)

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. 2000 GMC Safari (gmc) abs module or sensor failure 81k
  2. 2001 GMC Safari (gmc) abs module or sensor failure 88k
  3. 2002 GMC Safari (gmc) abs module or sensor failure 58k
  4. 2003 (this one) 33k

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.

My 2003 gmc safari van has now twice had its ABS activate in a parking lot situation at a slow speed causing the van to take an extremely long time to stop. Luckily there was no person in front of me or they would have been injured. There was no warning before the failure. The manual states that if the ABS light goes on that the system is not active, but the van is still ok to drive-but no light came on. I have tlked with others who own gm car/vehicles and they have reported similiar instances. Does gm have a problem with their brakes?

67,000 miles NHTSA complaint 610125 filed 2007-01-19

On vacation ABS light would come on during driving. When braking, just before coming to a stop, more travel in the pedal and brakes chattered. Abs light might be on or off during braking. Went to dealer, right front sensor erratic. Replaced right front sensor. Works good again. Van has 32,000 miles. *tr

32,589 miles NHTSA complaint 645751 filed 2007-11-12

On vacation ABS light would come on during driving. When braking, just before coming to a stop, more travel in the pedal and brakes chattered. Abs light might be on or off during braking. Went to dealer, right front sensor erratic. Replaced right front sensor. Works good again. Van has 32,000 miles. *tr

32,589 miles NHTSA complaint 645752 filed 2007-11-12

Also reported on the 2003 GMC Safari (gmc)

Loss of braking

2 reports median 85k

Airbag failed to deploy in a crash

1 reports median 48k

Other brake problem

1 reports median 64k

How far this goes

This page is kept out of search results because 3 reports is not enough to publish percentiles from. It stays reachable because somebody looking at this exact car would rather see the reports than be told there are none.

Complaints are voluntary, so 3 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 abs module or sensor failure happen on the 2003 GMC Safari (gmc)?

Across 3 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 35,000 miles. A quarter were filed before — and a quarter after —. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.

How common is abs module or sensor failure on the 2003 GMC Safari (gmc)?

3 reports have been filed with NHTSA. 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