Headlight failure or clouding on the 2006 GMC Envoy
1 fire 1 of the 24 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 headlight failure or clouding gets reported
Owners of the 2006 GMC Envoy report headlight failure or clouding at a median of 85,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 65,000 miles and a quarter after 115,000 miles, from 21 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 88,000 miles. It is the 5th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 40,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 130,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 88,000 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
A spread this wide points at use rather than design. Towing, climate, service history and city mileage all move a failure like this, so the median is a weak guide to any individual car.
5% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 40,000 miles | 65,000 miles | 83,000 miles | 113,000 miles | 128,000 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
Of these reports, 1 a fire is 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 $150–$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 7 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2004, at a median of 65,000 miles, and latest on the 2002 at 160,000 miles.
By volume the 2006 is the worst of them, which makes this a problem of this specific year rather than of the model as a whole.
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.
Purchased a 2006 gmc envoy. The high beam headlights project a beam of light straight up from each light into the drivers and passengers field of view. It is not noticeable during dry conditions, but when there is mist, snow or fog it is very visible and distracting. You can see this effect by parking next to a building or parking in your garage. It lights up the ceiling in the garage very nice. I thought headlight were to project out, not up. In dry conditions, the trees are lit up by the bright lights. My dealer contacted gm and was told to check another truck, which did the same thing. Gm then said there was not a problem. This is my 3rd new gmc truck, and none of the others did this. I have never driven a vehicle that has done this. *jb
Safety issue: while driving home last night both low beam headlights went off. Pulled over and stopped the vehicle as it was dark. Turned head light switch on and off, but could not get lights to work. Bright lights worked and so did driving lights, therefore I drove on home. I checked the gmc web site and found no callbacks. However under problems with envoy vehicles from general motors there are reports that this same electrical problem is being considered for a callback. *tr
Safety issue: while driving home last night both low beam headlights went off. Pulled over and stopped the vehicle as it was dark. Turned head light switch on and off, but could not get lights to work. Bright lights worked and so did driving lights, therefore I drove on home. I checked the gmc web site and found no callbacks. However under problems with envoy vehicles from general motors there are reports that this same electrical problem is being considered for a callback. *tr
Also reported on the 2006 GMC Envoy
Fuel gauge or level sensor failure
Other electrical problem
Other fuel system problem
Fuel tank, filler or EVAP failure
Other visibility problem
Other lighting problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 24 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 headlight failure or clouding happen on the 2006 GMC Envoy?
Across 21 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 85,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 65,000 miles and a quarter after 115,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is headlight failure or clouding on the 2006 GMC Envoy?
24 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 1.0 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