Other brake problem on the 2002 GMC Sierra 2500
2 crashes 1 injury 3 of the 20 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 brake problem gets reported
Owners of the 2002 GMC Sierra 2500 report other brake problem at a median of 90,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 55,000 miles and a quarter after 120,000 miles, from 17 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 88,000 miles. It is the 2nd most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 25,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 155,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 133,200 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
When the reports scatter this far, the mileage is telling you about how these cars were driven more than about the part itself.
18% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23,800 miles | 55,445 miles | 90,451 miles | 118,000 miles | 157,000 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 and 1 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 $300–$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 14 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2017, at a median of 1 miles, and latest on the 1999 at 170,000 miles.
By volume the 2003 carries the most reports, with 23; the 2002 has 20. 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 2002 gmc sierra 2500 hd. Whenever the contact depresses the brake pedal while driving at any speed, the pedal pulsates and acts as if it does not want to go down properly. The brakes make a noise and the vehicle does not stop properly. The current mileage was 7,000 and failure mileage was 300.
Started my vehicle so could move it in front of my garage. When I tried to turn the steering wheel wouldn't move and I had very limited braking power. It took an exceptional amount of pressure on the brake pedal just to stop the vehicle at a very low speed. Thankfully no one was hurt and no property damage occurred. *tr
I have a 2002 gmc sierra 2500hd pickup truck that is exhibiting ABS braking problems at low speeds. The ABS system will engage and disengage at low speeds on perfectly dry driving surfaces. I was informed by a friend that he thought gmc had a recall on this issue. I researched on the web and found a recall that described this situation exactly. I contacted the local dealer and they said there was no outstanding recalls for my vehicle. I then contacted gmc directly (from a phone number listed on one of the web obtained recall notices) and they ran my VIN and said that my truck was not covered by the recall. I want to know how to get my truck and similar trucks included in the recall that apparently did not include my specific vehicle. *tr
Also reported on the 2002 GMC Sierra 2500
Loss of braking
ABS module or sensor failure
Brake line, hose or caliper failure
Fuel tank, filler or EVAP failure
Other body or interior problem
Other engine problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 20 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 brake problem happen on the 2002 GMC Sierra 2500?
Across 17 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 90,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 55,000 miles and a quarter after 120,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other brake problem on the 2002 GMC Sierra 2500?
20 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 6.2 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