Steering column or shaft failure on the 2006 Pontiac G6
4 crashes 3 injuries 7 of the 122 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 steering column or shaft failure gets reported
Owners of the 2006 Pontiac G6 report steering column or shaft failure at a median of 72,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 47,000 miles and a quarter after 94,000 miles, from 105 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 85,000 miles. It is the 4th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 35,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 117,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 82,360 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.
13% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 35,000 miles | 47,000 miles | 71,578 miles | 94,000 miles | 117,360 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, 4 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 $600–$2,500 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.
This mode is classified as critical, which means a failure can leave the car unable to stop, steer, or stay out of the way of traffic. It is weighted accordingly in the risk score.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 6 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2007, at a median of 42,500 miles, and latest on the 2009 at 100,000 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.
While going around a curve, power steering message came on console. I lost all power steering. I had to restart car to get the power steering back on. I took it to dealer, they are going to replace the steering column, since there isn't a power steering pump it is all electrical and the switch is in the column. They don't know when the piece will come in, but they said I could drive it and if it goes out again, it won't do any harm, just be a "surprise". I pray that it doesn't go out going at a higher speed around a curve. *jb
Tl*the contact owns a 2006 pontiac g6. When starting the vehicle, the power steering locked. The failure also occurred while driving 30mph. She turned the engine off and was unable to steer to the left or the right. The contact had to wait a few seconds so that it would reset itself and restart. The dealer informed her that the sensor in the steering column would have to be replaced. The cost to repair the vehicle is $1,000. . The current and failure mileages were 44000. Updated 01-10-08. *kb the power steering motor was replaced and the problem ceased. Updated 12/31/07
Failure of power steering in pontiac g6 indicated by "power steering" sensor. Intermediate shaft and the power steering light sensor needs to be replaced. Repair being done at sudbay motors, gloucester, ma. Friends owning the same model & year had same problem and repair completed this year under warranty, my car is over the miles limit for warranty. *tr
Also reported on the 2006 Pontiac G6
Other steering problem
Loss of power steering
Cruise control failure
Other electrical problem
Steering rack, gear or tie rod failure
Other brake problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 122 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 column or shaft failure happen on the 2006 Pontiac G6?
Across 105 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 72,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 47,000 miles and a quarter after 94,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is steering column or shaft failure on the 2006 Pontiac G6?
122 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 1.2 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