Loss of power steering on the 2015 Chevrolet Impala
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 10 reports of loss of power steering on the 2015 Chevrolet Impala, 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 11th most-reported problem on this model year.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | — | 69,000 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 6 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2007, at a median of 30,000 miles, and latest on the 2009 at 90,000 miles.
By volume the 2014 carries the most reports, with 19; the 2015 has 10. 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.
At 1884k mi leaving home depot parking lot pwr steering went out with warning on dash (power steering failure drive with caution). Towed to porter chevrolet in newark de. Where they replaced the electric pwr steering rack. The car was in the shop for a week. Now, at 3838k mi the same situation has occurred after pulling out of my driveway and starting down the street. This 4908 lb. Car is almost impossible to steer when this happens.
On 11/20/17 my wife was driving our car, taking one of our daughters to school when the car sounded an alarm and message of "power steering failure - drive with caution" appeared on the dash. She was on a city street and moving, but needed all her strength and body weight to turn the wheel. She had the car towed tot he dealer, who advised that their was a total failure of the electronic steering rack and pinion system, making the car unsafe to drive. Further, the parts needed to repair the condition are apparently on national back order, and as of this writing gm/chevy is not responding to my dealership's request for an eta on the needed parts. I am being told my car will very likely be kept through the new year. I am very concerned as this is a major safety issue for my family. Further, if these parts are on back order, and gm is not responding to the dealer with an eta, that tells me that this is likely a wide spread problem. I do not want my car 'repaired' with a faulty design or part that may fail again, creating a dangerous situation.
While driving a complete loss of power steering making the car extremely difficult / dangerous to steer. The entire electric power steering system needed to be replaced along with the side detection modules. A frightening experience.
Also reported on the 2015 Chevrolet Impala
Other electrical problem
Lane keep or steering assist fault
Other steering problem
Other lighting problem
Other body or interior problem
Parking brake failure
How far this goes
This page is kept out of search results because 10 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 10 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 2015 Chevrolet Impala?
Across 5 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 70,000 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 2015 Chevrolet Impala?
10 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.3 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