Other brake problem on the 2006 Chevrolet Malibu
3 crashes 3 injuries 6 of the 43 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.
When other brake problem gets reported
Owners of the 2006 Chevrolet Malibu report other brake problem at a median of 90,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 52,500 miles and a quarter after 127,500 miles, from 30 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 88,000 miles. It is the 7th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 35,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 160,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 124,999 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
When the reports scatter this far, the mileage is telling you about how these cars were driven more than about the part itself.
13% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 34,439 miles | 52,493 miles | 89,500 miles | 127,016 miles | 159,438 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, 3 a crash and 3 an injury 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 $300–$1,800 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.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 25 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 1997, at a median of 10,000 miles, and latest on the 2005 at 110,000 miles.
By volume the 2000 carries the most reports, with 117; the 2006 has 43. 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.
Shaking in steering wheel when brakes are applied,this happen everytime I apply the brakes. The dealer resurfaced front rotors and replaced pads..car still have a grinding noise in front wheelarea dealer said that the replacement pads are causing the grinding and there's nothing that can be done to stop the grinding because of the way the replacement pas are designed. This car is not safe to drive and I told the dealership this and they claim it is safe. *tr
The 2006 chevy malibu, that I own, has steering problems where the electric power steering goes off making the car virtually impossible to steer. It has done this 8 to 10 times the last few months. It then resets itself, so I hear. Luckily, so far, it has happened only at low speeds. This car started having this problem at around 50,000 miles. If this happened at high speeds, accidents/deaths could certainly occur. I searched online and see that many malibu owners have had the same incidence with the steering. My steering is also making a thumping noise at low speed turns. I took my car to the dealership where purchased. They said it would cost $1400 to fix the steering problem. I feel gm should recall these vehicles for safety reasons. The whole steering system in these vehicles are a disaster and these cars should be addressed before someone is seriously hurt. Gm needs to stand behind their vehicles, especially in regards to safety. *tr
Power steering going out and cannot steer. Power steering will not work after starting the car. 2006 malibu lt. Purchased new in 2006. Only 40,000 miles on it. Rotors have been replaced twice in first year. When used in mountain driving they warp and have to be replaced. *tr
Also reported on the 2006 Chevrolet Malibu
Other steering problem
Loss of power steering
Steering column or shaft failure
Other electrical problem
Fuel gauge or level sensor failure
Steering rack, gear or tie rod failure
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 43 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 brake problem happen on the 2006 Chevrolet Malibu?
Across 30 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 90,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 52,500 miles and a quarter after 127,500 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other brake problem on the 2006 Chevrolet Malibu?
43 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.6 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