Loss of power steering on the 2008 Chevrolet Equinox
Only 5 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 loss of power steering gets reported
There are 8 reports of loss of power steering on the 2008 Chevrolet Equinox, 5 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 80,000 miles. It is the 16th most-reported problem on this model year.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | — | 100,000 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
Putting it right typically runs $600–$2,800 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.
This mode is classified as critical, which means a failure can leave the car unable to stop, steer, or stay out of the way of traffic. It is weighted accordingly in the risk score.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 4 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2006, at a median of 55,000 miles, and latest on the 2008 at 100,000 miles.
By volume the 2007 carries the most reports, with 14; the 2008 has 8. 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.
I was on my way to my daughters drs app with her friend in my 2008 chev equinox,this app was approximately 1 hr away and highway driving. When the steering locked up and wouldn't let me turn , managed to force a small enough to pull over to side of road.it was very scary ,we could have been killed. Manage to off highway down to community to nearest gm dealer safely.they told me its not safe to drive,and never seen anything like this before,my warranty is out,still paying on this and it could have killed us! *tr
Got into my car that morning to take my daughter to daycare and I was turning the curb to get onto the freeway my steering locked up and was hard to manage. Looked down and there were two lights on traction control off and service stabilitrack system. No warning just gave out. Me & my child could have been injured if we were going any faster. Then it cost over $1200 dollars at the dealership. I have read so many issues with the same thing. There should be a recall on this part. There is no way that everyone who has the 2008 chevy equinox is have the same issue. Not only is my truck still in the shop ($1200 plus) im still having to pay a truck note also. Can someone please take care of this. Its to close to christmas to be paying such high expenses on a problem that could have been solved. *tr
My 74 year old brother bought his 2008 equinox new it has less than 120,000 miles on it and it is the biggest heap of crap chevrolet invented!!!! 5. Power steering went out costing $2500.00 to fix jan 2015 6. Transmission starts jerking when hitting 45 MPH dealership informed us of the transmission when we took in for a recall on a defective gas modual that they never replaced saying the part was ok. They drove it and said that its the transmission and asked $500.00 to run a diagnostic. Started feb 2016 7. The stable link light periodically comes on saying to service the stable trac then goes off started march of 2016 8. The top of the brake light on the back hatch is gone where it fell off at some point has many other things wrong. Turn signal gears to turn off signals for right and left signal do not work. The washer fluid motor does not work. Drivers door power window motor broke from window.drivers door has to be manually locked and unlocked. This vehicle is a clean and in excellent shape it was bought new and is owned by an elderly man. It has not been abused has less that 120,000 miles on it
Also reported on the 2008 Chevrolet Equinox
Other electrical problem
Other body or interior problem
Airbag warning light or occupant sensor fault
Other driver assistance problem
Other steering problem
Timing chain, belt or tensioner failure
How far this goes
This page is kept out of search results because 8 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 8 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 loss of power steering happen on the 2008 Chevrolet Equinox?
Across 5 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 100,000 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 loss of power steering on the 2008 Chevrolet Equinox?
8 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.4 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