AtWhatMileage
Steering · 27 owner reports

Other steering problem on the 2016 GMC Sierra 1500

Reports of this failure 27
With an odometer reading 14
Reports per 1,000 built 0.3 per 1,000
Filed below 36,000 miles 29%
Mention a crash, fire or injury 0
Typical repair $350–$2,400
What it means when it happens High
Rank among this year's problems 4th

When other steering problem gets reported

Owners of the 2016 GMC Sierra 1500 report other steering problem at a median of 60,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 35,000 miles and a quarter after 75,000 miles, from 14 reports that carried an odometer reading.

A part like this is normally expected to survive 95,000 miles. It is the 4th most-reported problem on this model year.

The mileage distribution

The reported range runs from 5,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 85,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 82,720 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.

29% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.

The whole distribution

Percentiles of the 14 odometer readings owners gave.
10th25thMedian 75th90th
4,420 miles 36,000 miles 60,000 miles 74,094 miles 87,140 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 $350–$2,400 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 2020, at a median of 10,000 miles, and latest on the 2005 at 80,000 miles.

By volume the 2014 carries the most reports, with 98; the 2016 has 27. 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.

What owners wrote

Verbatim from NHTSA complaint narratives, trimmed for length. The mileage is the one the owner gave.

This vehicle suffers from the notorious chevy shakes that is aflicting 2014/2015/2016 gm 1500s. I returned truck one business day after buying it for shaking problems. The shaking/vibrating was felt in the steering wheel, gas pedal, and seat of your pants. They said tires were out of balance. Picked up truck to find it still did it the next time out at high way speeds 55-70 MPH. 2nd trip to the dealer for shaking they said tires needed balanced and I had 1 bad tire they replaced. Took truck on another highway trip and problem was still there, shaking same as listed above. 3rd trip to dealer fror same thing, they said tire they installed as a replacement was bad? Replaced tire and said truck is fixed. Took truck on highway same speeds still shakes. Vibrating/shaking steering wheel numbs your hands while driving an hour or more on freeway, shakes felt from seat make my 12 year old daughter feel like shes going to throw up if she doesnt get out of truck, wife gets headaches from it and on 2 trips of 2.5 hrs in duration I was physically ill and had to go to bed. The shaking vibrating is like riding upon a massage chair or vibrating…

100 miles NHTSA complaint 1309381 filed 2016-08-18

One day the power steering wouldn't work at all for several trips. I would turn the truck on and a service warning message would display stating "have your power steering serviced" the next day the power steering quit working while in the middle of a turn. Received the same warning as I received several times the day before.

5,400 miles NHTSA complaint 1310869 filed 2016-08-23

Power steering keeps going out for a short period time then starts again ,check power steering light comes on then goes off. This has happen about 20 times in less than year and half while driving in city and highway and parking lot. Dealer says they can't find anything

4,000 miles NHTSA complaint 1398457 filed 2017-08-07

Also reported on the 2016 GMC Sierra 1500

Other brake problem

74 reports median 48k

Other powertrain problem

57 reports median 38k

Other electrical problem

34 reports median 57k

Other engine problem

21 reports median 58k

Loss of braking

17 reports median 45k

Torque converter failure

14 reports median 79k

How far this goes

Complaints are voluntary, so 27 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 steering problem happen on the 2016 GMC Sierra 1500?

Across 14 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 60,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 35,000 miles and a quarter after 75,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.

How common is other steering problem on the 2016 GMC Sierra 1500?

27 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