Steering rack, gear or tie rod failure on the 2011 Chevrolet Impala
Only 4 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 steering rack, gear or tie rod failure gets reported
There are 4 reports of steering rack, gear or tie rod failure on the 2011 Chevrolet Impala, 4 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 98,000 miles. It is the 29th most-reported problem on this model year.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | — | 46,250 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 $700–$2,600 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 17 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2003, at a median of 5,000 miles, and latest on the 2012 at 65,000 miles.
By volume the 2000 carries the most reports, with 63; the 2011 has 4. 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.
On 7/22/2011 while operating the vehicle at highway speed, the power steering abruptly quit working. Vehicle was repaired by dealership (al serra chevrolet north - colorado springs) under warranty. Mileage 5875. *tr on 9/27/11 while operating the vehicle at highway speed, the power steering abruptly quit working. Vehicle was repaired by dealership (al serra chevrolet north - colorado springs) under warranty. Mileage 7661. On 2/16/2012 while operating the vehicle at highway speed, the power steering abruptly quit working. Vehicle was repaired by dealership (al serra chevrolet north - colorado springs) under warranty. Mileage 9948 on 8/20/2013 while operating the vehicle at highway speed, the power steering abruptly quit working. Vehicle was repaired by dealership (al serra chevrolet north - colorado springs) under warranty. Mileage 23429 on 8/13/2014 while operating the vehicle at highway speed, the power steering abruptly quit working. Vehicle has not yet been repaired. Mileage 27130. On each occasion dealership stated that the seal for intermediate shaft on rack and pinion failed and the rack and pinion were replaced. Problem…
My daughter was driving this vehicle home from a trip and stopped at a store. When she returned to the vehicle it would not move. We had to have the vehicle towed and had to replace the transmission and replace the steering gear on this vehicle. The vehicle only has 55,500 miles on it. I don't feel this is a repair that should have been necessary with this few miles. We are the original owners on the vehicle and took possession from the dealership on 2/2/11. I do have the repair bills. Work was performed on 6/9/17.
My daughter was driving this vehicle home from a trip and stopped at a store. When she returned to the vehicle it would not move. We had to have the vehicle towed and had to replace the transmission and replace the steering gear on this vehicle. The vehicle only has 55,500 miles on it. I don't feel this is a repair that should have been necessary with this few miles. We are the original owners on the vehicle and took possession from the dealership on 2/2/11. I do have the repair bills. Work was performed on 6/9/17.
Also reported on the 2011 Chevrolet Impala
Other engine problem
Other driver assistance problem
Other electrical problem
Other body or interior problem
Other speed control problem
Other powertrain problem
How far this goes
This page is kept out of search results because 4 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 4 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 steering rack, gear or tie rod failure happen on the 2011 Chevrolet Impala?
Across 4 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 45,000 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 steering rack, gear or tie rod failure on the 2011 Chevrolet Impala?
4 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.1 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