What causes chevrolet silverado steering column noise?

If You own a Chevy Silverado You may have encountered the common clunking, groaning, or creaking that emanates from somewhere forward of Your steering wheel. In some cases, the annoyances reveal themselves as early as about 10,000 miles.Often, the issue is due to a bad intermediate steering shaft. The shaft moves slightly when the truck body flexes on the frame. The column is mounted to the body and the steering box is mounted to the frame. Some models were built with rubber isolators, and some were not. The stock GM steering shaft contains a splined slip joint that comes from the factory with grease in the slip portion. Over time, this grease slowly works its way to one end of the joint, and the slight play in the shaft pieces causes the noisy condition.