Other steering problem on the 2008 Pontiac G6
8 crashes 2 fires 5 injuries 15 of the 270 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 2008 Pontiac G6 report other steering problem at a median of 87,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 55,000 miles and a quarter after 132,000 miles, from 219 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 42,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 159,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 116,560 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.
8% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 42,240 miles | 54,607 miles | 86,735 miles | 131,899 miles | 158,800 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, 8 a crash, 2 a fire and 5 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 $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 carries the most reports, with 773; the 2008 has 270. 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.
I have noticed that my steering wheel will lock uncontrollably and intermittently. It has not caused an accident yet, but it does has a binding and rocking motion in the steering wheel. I have to cut the engine off and reset the power steering after its displayed on the instrument panel. Gm has done nothing and there is no recall as of the date of this posting to replace or fix the discrepancy. I am concerned that it may cause an unfortunate accident that could cause a fatality if this is not corrected and I pray that it does not happen. I feel for the individuals that have had an accident so far and I hope that they take there complaints to gm and make them pay for it. Just to set the record my vehicle has approx 49535 miles on it and this has happened more than 30 times with it getting worse. I surely can't afford to have it fix. *tr
Steering makes a popping and clunking sound when turning. Is getting worse (louder) as time goes on. The noise is now pretty much every time you turn and steering is becoming more "stiff" but not as yet dangerous. *tr
Tl*the contact owns a 2008 pontiac g6. He stated that the power steering failed intermittently. The vehicle was taken to the dealer five times. The dealer changed the steering module, steering gears, and replaced the stabilizer link, to no avail. The dealer advised the contact that the steering failure caused other components to fail as well. All repairs were made under warranty. To date, the failure persists. The failure and current mileages were under 37,793.
Also reported on the 2008 Pontiac G6
Cruise control failure
Headlight failure or clouding
Other electrical problem
Other lighting problem
Other brake problem
Wiring harness or short circuit
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 270 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 2008 Pontiac G6?
Across 219 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 87,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 55,000 miles and a quarter after 132,000 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 2008 Pontiac G6?
270 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 2.5 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