2002 GMC Sierra 2500 at 85,000 miles
You did not give a mileage, so this uses 85,000 — the median reported failure mileage for this model year, which is a rough stand-in for “a typical example of this car”. Put your real reading in the box below for an answer about your car.
At 85,000 miles on this car
At 85,000 miles on a 2002 GMC Sierra 2500, 20 of the failure modes other owners have reported already have their median report at or below your reading, and 3 more fall inside the window where they are usually reported. The heaviest of the ones already due is ABS module or sensor failure.
Already past the median 20
Half of all reports of these failures came in at or below where your car is now.
- ABS module or sensor failure 70k
- Other engine problem 52k
- Differential or transfer case failure 37k
- Tire blowout or tread separation 72k
- Other steering problem 69k
- No-start or intermittent start failure 55k
- CV axle or driveshaft failure 60k
- Loss of power steering 58k
- Turbocharger or supercharger failure 83k
- Engine sensor failure 32k
- Wiper or washer failure 3k
- Other powertrain problem 17k
8 more.
You are in the window 3
Your reading falls inside the middle half of reports for these.
Typically later 8
Reported further down the road than where you are.
- Transmission will not engage a gear 90k
- Fuel leak or fuel odor 91k
- Other body or interior problem 92k
- Other wheel or tire problem 96k
- Rust or structural corrosion 101k
- Brake line, hose or caliper failure 113k
- Complete transmission failure 117k
- Alternator or charging system failure 127k
Timing unknown 5
Reported, but too few owners gave an odometer reading to place them.
- Seat belt or retractor failure 2×
- Liftgate, tailgate or trunk failure 2×
- Other speed control problem 2×
- Fuel injector failure 1×
- Airbag failed to deploy in a crash 1×
Why the list is generic until you type a number
Every figure below is a comparison against your odometer, so with no reading given the page has to pick one: 85,000 miles, roughly what a 2002 car covers at 12,000 miles a year. A reading 30,000 miles either side of that moves failures between the columns, which is the difference between a useful list and a generic one.
Already inside the reported range
20 failure modes on the 2002 GMC Sierra 2500 have a median reported mileage at or below 85,000: ABS module or sensor failure (median 70,000 miles, 19 reports), other engine problem (median 50,000 miles, 8 reports), differential or transfer case failure (median 35,000 miles, 6 reports), tire blowout or tread separation (median 70,000 miles, 6 reports), other steering problem (median 70,000 miles, 4 reports) and no-start or intermittent start failure (median 55,000 miles, 3 reports).
Half the owners who reported each of these had done so by that mileage, which means half had not. A failure being "due" here is a statement about other people's cars, and the useful response is an inspection rather than a pre-emptive repair.
The window you are in now
3 further modes are reported in a band that includes 85,000 miles: other brake problem (55k to 120,000 miles), fuel tank, filler or EVAP failure (85k to 170,000 miles) and loss of braking (70k to 140,000 miles). These are the ones to watch on this car over the next few thousand miles.
A window here is the 25th to 75th percentile of reported mileages, so it holds the middle half of the reports and excludes the tails on both sides.
Still ahead of you
8 further modes sit above your reading, the nearest being transmission will not engage a gear at a median of 90,000 miles. On a car you intend to keep, these are the ones that decide whether it is worth keeping.
What this list is not
It is a reading of what owners of other 2002 GMC Sierra 2500s reported, and at what odometer reading they reported it. It is not a maintenance schedule, not a diagnosis, and not a prediction about this car: two identical cars with different service histories are not the same car.
Complaints are filed voluntarily, mileages are typed in by owners and cluster on round numbers, and a failure mode with few reports has a wide window even when the median looks precise. Modes with fewer than 8 dated reports are shown without percentiles for that reason.
Where 85,000 miles falls on the curve
The three columns above sort the failure modes one by one. This is the same evidence in aggregate: every dated report on this model year, stacked up in the order the odometer readings arrived. The dashed line marked you is where your car sits. How much of the line is to the left of that mark is how much of this model year's reported trouble is, on the evidence, already behind you.
About 45% of the dated reports on this model year had already been filed by 85,000 miles. That is the share of the problems that show up in this record, not of the problems this car will have. A further 7 reports came in above the top of the scale, which is why the line stops short of the top.
- Line share of reports filed by that mileage
- Dashed the mileages called out above
A steep early climb means a car whose reports cluster young, which is the pattern of a defect rather than of wear. A line that only gets going past six figures is the opposite. Neither shape says anything about the specific car in your driveway, and a curve built from a few dozen readings can be moved by one owner with a talkative afternoon.
Full report for the 2002 GMC Sierra 2500 Compare with another car
Questions this page answers
What should I expect at 85,000 miles on a 2002 GMC Sierra 2500?
20 of the failure modes owners have reported on the 2002 GMC Sierra 2500 have a median report at or below 85,000 miles, and 3 more fall inside the mileage window where they are usually reported. That is a watch list drawn from other owners, not a prediction about this car.
How to use the three columns. The left column is the list to hand a mechanic before you buy, and to check the service history for if you already own the car. The middle column is what to budget for this year. The right column is not a reprieve — it is a reminder that a used car has a bill schedule, and this is roughly where it falls. All of it is drawn from 164 owner complaints about this exact model year, not from a maintenance manual. How the percentiles are computed.
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