Vehicle Data Hub

2003 Chevrolet Cavalier electrical system problems

Owners reported electrical system problems in 109 complaints for the 2003 Chevrolet Cavalier, 13% of the complaints on file. It is the 2nd most reported problem area for this model year.

At a glance

Complaints
109 13% of this year's complaints
Typical mileage
59,000 miles 80 complaints with mileage
Crashes and fires
4 and 4
Injuries and deaths
4 and 0

Source: NHTSA owner complaints

When electrical system problems show up

Electrical system complaints by mileage, 2003 Chevrolet Cavalier Complaints by odometer reading in 20,000-mile steps. The median is about 59,000 miles. 0k to 20k miles: 13 complaints 20k to 40k miles: 14 complaints 40k to 60k miles: 13 complaints 60k to 80k miles: 14 complaints 80k to 100k miles: 13 complaints 100k to 120k miles: 6 complaints 120k to 140k miles: 3 complaints 140k to 160k miles: 1 complaints 160k to 180k miles: 1 complaints 180k to 200k miles: 2 complaints 200k+ miles: 0 complaints 040k80k120k160k200k miles Typical: 59,000 miles
Based on 80 complaints that include mileage. 50% were reported before 60,000 miles. The amber marker shows the median: half of these complaints happened before that mileage.
View the numbers
MileageComplaints
0k to 20k miles13
20k to 40k miles14
40k to 60k miles13
60k to 80k miles14
80k to 100k miles13
100k to 120k miles6
120k to 140k miles3
140k to 160k miles1
160k to 180k miles1
180k to 200k miles2
200k+ miles0

What the data shows

Of the 80 electrical system complaints that report mileage, the median is about 59,000 miles, and 50% were reported before 60,000 miles.

These complaints mention 4 crashes, 4 fires, 4 injuries.

What owners wrote

First problem with my car was a short in the brake lights. Chevrolet repaired that. Then the horn would work randomly. Chevrolet replaced that. The A/C failed to work on the driver side. Chevrolet repaired that. Then the keyless entry randomly stopped working, chevrolet told me they cannot find anything wrong the keyless entry still doesn't work properly. Then the car started turning off while I was driving. Chevrolet again told me they could not repair the problem due to nothing registering on the computer.

Reported at 24,000 miles, October 2004 CrashInjury

Power suddenly shut off, causing power steering to fail, which made me wreck into a ditch. It also caused the airbags to not deploy and prevented seatbelts from locking into place when the brakes were hit.

Reported at 189,587 miles, January 2012 Crash

Other problems reported for the 2003 Chevrolet Cavalier

Electrical system problems in other years

Electrical system problems across all Chevrolet models