2006 Chevrolet Suburban problems
NHTSA has received 33 complaints about the 2006 Chevrolet Suburban, and 15% of them involve body & structure. Next are latches & locks (12%) and air bags (9%).
At a glance
- Complaints
- 33 filed with NHTSA
- Most reported
- Body & structure 15% of complaints
- Crashes and fires
- 0 and 2
- Injuries and deaths
- 0 and 0
- Typical mileage
- 85,000 miles 26 complaints with mileage
Source: NHTSA owner complaints
Where the complaints are
Share of this model year's complaints by the part of the car involved. One complaint can name more than one part, so the shares can add up to more than 100%.
When problems show up
View the numbers
| Mileage | Complaints |
|---|---|
| 0k to 20k miles | 0 |
| 20k to 40k miles | 0 |
| 40k to 60k miles | 6 |
| 60k to 80k miles | 6 |
| 80k to 100k miles | 10 |
| 100k to 120k miles | 0 |
| 120k to 140k miles | 2 |
| 140k to 160k miles | 1 |
| 160k to 180k miles | 0 |
| 180k to 200k miles | 1 |
| 200k+ miles | 0 |
What the data shows
Of the 26 complaints that include odometer readings, half describe a problem before roughly 84,000 miles.
Safety-related details: 2 complaints mention a fire.
Looking only at complaints filed within five years of the model year (so older and newer years are comparable), the 2006 ranks 35th most-complained-about out of 35 model years of the Chevrolet Suburban with enough data (9 complaints in that window). It is also covered by 1 safety recall campaign.
What owners wrote
A few complaints as filed, shortened and with personal details removed. The first ones are among the most serious reports for this model year; the rest are typical.
We had the 2006 Suburban parked with the engine running while our family was just starting to get in. A couple of them noticed a slight smoke smell which we followed and we trailed it to the rear of the vehicle. While I was pulling off a left rear column trim piece to locate where the smoke was coming from, the far rear dome light fixture started dripping melted and burning plastic close by my head. I looked up and saw the rear dome light fixture on fire and flicked it down into the rear cargo area.
2006 chevy suburban rear hatch does not unlock, lock has failed, and has no manual ability to unlock , which is a safety issue.
The lift gate actuator stopped working. We are unable to open the liftgate by using the fob or unlock button on the driver/passenger door. There is no emergency release or key hole on the outside of the liftgate. The only way to unload our cargo is from the rear passenger doors and then remove the panel and release the door latches to open. We were able to "fix" it for a short time, but this resulted in a joy buzzer sound coming from the liftgate actuator everytime the door locked.
I have a 2006 chevy suburban z71 with just over 95,500 miles. The rear hatchback/liftgate locking mechanism appears to have failed. The vehicle was not in an accident, and no other event ocurred. The lock simply quit working. Neither the door nor the glass will unlock. There is no manual way to unlock or open the rear door when the power locks are not working. There is not an emergency release to pop the rear door or glass in case of emergency.