ABS module or sensor failure on the 2004 GMC Sierra 1500
1 crash 1 of the 6 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.
Only 5 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.
When abs module or sensor failure gets reported
There are 6 reports of ABS module or sensor failure on the 2004 GMC Sierra 1500, 5 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 12th most-reported problem on this model year.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | — | 37,500 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 is 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 $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 on other years
The same failure is reported on 17 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2019, at a median of 10,000 miles, and latest on the 2007 at 180,000 miles.
By volume the 2000 carries the most reports, with 29; the 2004 has 6. 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.
I was traveling at 35 MPH on a city street and had to stop quickly. I applied the brakes and received no response as they went to the floor. The anti-lock system finally started to respond right before impact with the back corner of a van. This resulted in extensive damage to my pick-up and the van. I'm still waiting on the insurance company to fix my truck. *nm
I own a 2004 gmc sierra 1500 z71 with 32,000 on the odometer. On the morning of 27aug2008 the ABS motor located on the framerail under the driver's seat turned on immediately upon turning the ignition to on. The ABS light came on the dash. I had to continue and drive to work. The light stayed on the whole time. Once I arrived at work I removed the fuse for the motor. Now I have no ABS and the lights are on all the time. This is the second time this has happened on this vehicle. The first time was only a few days after it was purchased. It was replaced under warranty. The warranty has expired and it will cost approx. $900 to repair. After some investigation online, I have found scores of people that have had the same problem. There is currently no recall in effect according to this website. I feel that this is unacceptable. This is a very clear safety issue. Not only does it render the vehicle without anti-lock brakes, it drains the battery if the fuse is not pulled soon after the problem emerges. This could leave someone stranded in a variety of conditions if they were unable to pull the fuse or not a full understanding of vehicle…
2004 gmc sierra 1500 4x4 extended cab / 37,828 miles / driven in pennsylvania - ABS activates at low speed (approximately 5 - 10 MPH) when attempting to stop on dry pavement. When ABS activates, the truck will not stop as expected and have not been able to keep truck from entering intersections. Problem is intermittent but is increasing in regularity. Mechanics have stated this is a common problem with gm trucks and the hub with speed sensor will need replaced or repaired. Issue is determining which hub and sensor is malfunctioning. A recall for the same problem was issued for 1999 - 2002 models under NHTSA campaign id# 05v379000. *tr
Also reported on the 2004 GMC Sierra 1500
Instrument cluster or gauge failure
Other electrical problem
Loss of braking
Other brake problem
Brake line, hose or caliper failure
Steering column or shaft failure
How far this goes
This page is kept out of search results because 6 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 6 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 2004 GMC Sierra 1500?
Across 5 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 40,000 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 2004 GMC Sierra 1500?
6 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 6.1 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