Other steering problem on the 2006 Pontiac G6
35 crashes 3 fires 19 injuries 1 death 58 of the 773 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 steering problem gets reported
Owners of the 2006 Pontiac G6 report other steering problem at a median of 79,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 52,000 miles and a quarter after 121,000 miles, from 646 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 95,000 miles. It is the 1st most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 34,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 160,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 126,050 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.
12% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 33,950 miles | 52,000 miles | 79,000 miles | 120,864 miles | 160,000 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, 35 a crash, 3 a fire, 19 an injury and 1 a fatality 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 $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 6 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2006, at a median of 79,000 miles, and latest on the 2010 at 115,000 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.
I was driving approx. 55-60 MPH when the steering wheel locked up and I lost control of the vehicle, crossing the center lane. It remained locked for about 30 yards and then released. *nm update (10/9/08): the steering is electrical. The steering would not budge...I was pulling down on it with everything in me to try to get it back into my lane and it would not move. When I took it in for repair they said they could find nothing wrong with it. Out of fear of it happening again and gm unwilling to do anything about it, my vehicle sat for nearly 3 months before I had no choice but to take the risk and drive it.
2006 pontiac g6 gtp driving (approx 20-30 MPH) down a residential street when a large truck came down the street in the opposite direction. I turned my wheel slightly to move away from the center line. The steering wheel locked, making it impossible for me to turn the wheel back so that I could go straight again. My car hit the back wheel of a parked car. There was damage to both cars. Fortunately, no one was injured. The damage to both cars is currently being assessed. *jb
Power steering computerized module failed during highway driving at high rate of speed. Power steering loss alert appeared on radio. Wheel of car locked; vehicle was rendered unsteerable causing crash and personal injury. Vehicle had this exact module repaired at dealership two weeks prior when power steering was lost in the same manner w/the same warning alert, but first instance occurred at a 2mph speed in parking lot.
Also reported on the 2006 Pontiac G6
Loss of power steering
Cruise control failure
Steering column or shaft failure
Other electrical problem
Steering rack, gear or tie rod failure
Other brake problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 773 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 2006 Pontiac G6?
Across 646 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 79,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 52,000 miles and a quarter after 121,000 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 2006 Pontiac G6?
773 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 7.3 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