Other electrical problem on the 2004 GMC Sierra 2500
3 fires 3 of the 14 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 electrical problem gets reported
Owners of the 2004 GMC Sierra 2500 report other electrical problem at a median of 60,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 55,000 miles and a quarter after 75,000 miles, from 12 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 85,000 miles. It is the 3rd most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 40,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 90,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 47,073 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
A window that narrow is the signature of a part that fails on its own schedule rather than on how the car is driven — which is usually a design or supplier problem rather than wear and tear.
8% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 40,500 miles | 54,750 miles | 61,500 miles | 74,482 miles | 87,573 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, 3 a fire 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 $250–$2,000 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 13 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2020, at a median of 200 miles, and latest on the 2015 at 115,000 miles.
By volume the 2005 carries the most reports, with 18; the 2004 has 14. 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.
Dt*: the contact stated the speedometer went out on the vehicle. The service dealer offered to fix at a charge but the contact declined and expressed that the component should be recalled.*ak updated 9/13/2006 - *nm
Tl*the contact owns a 2004 gmc sierra 2500. The contact was warming up his vehicle with a portable compressor hooked up to the auxiliary power in the center of the dashboard to inflate a tire. He noticed smoke near the windshield on the driver's side. The contact unplugged the compressor, shut off the vehicle, opened the hood, and disconnected the battery. The front of the vehicle, underneath the dashboard and the cabin were engulfed in flames. The fire department extinguished the fire. There were no injuries. A police report was filed. The current and failure mileages were 63,000.
Instrument display panel specifically the speedometer is now frozen at 120 MPH. It happened at just under 60k miles on the vehicle. I had received notice that they would repair but now have to many miles on the vehicle. The cap on mileage is approximately 70k. Im happy to know that this part of the vehicle has nothing to do with safety. Gmc wanting some $500 - $600. Dollars to fix this is the real issue. The 2004 chevy I own as well did the exact same thing. No problem here is there? *tr
Also reported on the 2004 GMC Sierra 2500
Instrument cluster or gauge failure
Loss of braking
Brake line, hose or caliper failure
Other brake problem
Exhaust leak or fumes in the cabin
Other body or interior problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 14 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 electrical problem happen on the 2004 GMC Sierra 2500?
Across 12 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 60,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 55,000 miles and a quarter after 75,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other electrical problem on the 2004 GMC Sierra 2500?
14 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 25 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