Steering rack, gear or tie rod failure on the 2006 Chevrolet Silverado
Only 2 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 3 reports of steering rack, gear or tie rod failure on the 2006 Chevrolet Silverado, 2 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 18th most-reported problem on this model year.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | — | 5,938 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 8 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2006, at a median of 5,000 miles, and latest on the 1999 at 70,000 miles.
By volume the 2003 carries the most reports, with 38; the 2006 has 3. 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.
Tl*the contact owns a 2006 chevrolet silverado. While driving approximately 30 MPH the contact stated that she hit a bump in the road and the vehicle front end became loose which caused the vehicle to move in another lane. The vehicle was taken to an authorized dealer who advised her to take the vehicle some where else to get a front end alignment. The contact stated that the failure was constant and became progressively worse. In march 2009 the dealer replaced the steering gear. In december 2009 the dealer replaced the intermediate steering shaft, the bearings, bushing and the lower steering shaft. The dealer also repaired a leaky seal on the left and right side of the steering gear which included a gear kit in september 2010. The contact was not experiencing a failure at this time but stated that she had several problems with the steering. The failure mileage was 875 and the current mileage was 70,200.
Popping noise from steering,when turning on irregular surfaces which can also be felt in steering wheel,leading driver to believe that there is a defect in the front suspension or steering. Contact w/dealer service manager indicated that this is a common issue on full size gm trucks for several years,resulting from a poorly designed"intermediate steering shaft",which apparently needs to be replaced every few thousand miles to forestall this problem. Research shows that this issue is well known to owners of such vehicles and gm as there have been tsbs(patch-up)issued multiple timesthese bulletins seem to indicate basically to grease the part,thereby temporarily quieting it for a time with no permanent resolution,until owner is "off-warranty"snf willing to shell out the out of pocket costs for correct repair. My vehicle(2006) was purchased new with a standard 3 yr/36000mi warranty which expired 3/09 datewise,however the vehicle only has 11000 highway miles on it and has never been used off-road or abused. Apparently gm has,as of 01/07 a redesigned replacement part(per gm tsb)but,is at owners cost(parts/labor) if your 3yr/36000 or…
Also reported on the 2006 Chevrolet Silverado
Other brake problem
Loss of braking
Brake line, hose or caliper failure
Other wheel or tire problem
Other body or interior problem
Other suspension problem
How far this goes
This page is kept out of search results because 3 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 3 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 2006 Chevrolet Silverado?
Across 2 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 5,000 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 2006 Chevrolet Silverado?
3 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