Other steering problem on the 2003 Cadillac Cts
1 crash 1 fire 2 of the 13 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 7 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 other steering problem gets reported
There are 13 reports of other steering problem on the 2003 Cadillac Cts, 7 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | — | 108,000 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, 1 a crash and 1 a fire 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 $350–$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 10 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2013, at a median of 15,000 miles, and latest on the 2008 at 125,000 miles.
By volume the 2003 is the worst of them, which makes this a problem of this specific year rather than of the model as a whole.
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 am and have been experiencing numerous failures with my vehicle. I have contacted gm numerous times beginning approximately a few months after I purchased the vehicle to inform them that the vehicle is defective, only to be told my vehicle is out of warranty, so they refuse to fix it or give my one that is not defective. My vehicle is still defective to this date. *tr
While driving at a steady and even speed my car would suddenly pulled to the left as if the left front wheel had the break apply. Almost instantly my "stability system engaged" display would go on and the car would correct itself. This went on to become a regular event with each time I took the car out. The most it occurred was 30 or so times in a 90 mile trip, but it happened regularly on local 2 mile trips to the store. Sometimes it would be more severe than others . In addition and occasionally, when the breaks were applied, there would be a "loudish" crunch sound and resistance to foot pressure that would give way after the initial break application. There was also a vibration "buzz" through the gas pedal when this all would occur. The first time I took the car to the dealer they could not find anything wrong or duplicate the problem. I took them information I had found on the web about the problem and they checked their service bulletins for a problem. It was fixed by changing a steering sensor at a cost of $430.
I was driving home from work when this first happened. All of a sudden a loud screeching noise and the brakes would not stop in time. I had to pump the brakes to work. I took my car to cadillac in arizona and they had it for 2 days and could not find an issue. I drove home that day with it and sure enough it did it while I was home. It had now began to jerk me to the right and left when I press on the brakes, scaring me thinking I am going to hit the car next to me. I took it to midas this time and they noticed a problem and said maybe its a wheel barring. They replaced issue duplicated itself shortly after. Since I did not have a second car or pay for a rental I had to take my car home to go back to work the next day. This problem is a safety hazard and I have even been pulled over because the cop asked why I was swerving while driving. I told the office its the code that comes up on my screen and it makes my car halt while driving and I can not control it. He stated that its a very serious issue and if another officer was on duty they might impound my car due to a safety hazard but he would give me a chance to take it home to go…
Also reported on the 2003 Cadillac Cts
Other electrical problem
Other engine problem
Other lighting problem
Other body or interior problem
Other driver assistance problem
Other speed control problem
How far this goes
This page is kept out of search results because 13 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 13 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 steering problem happen on the 2003 Cadillac Cts?
Across 7 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 110,000 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 other steering problem on the 2003 Cadillac Cts?
13 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.2 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