Recall · 21V051000
General Motors recalled 14 models over air bags
284,645
Vehicles covered
14
Models
14
Model years
February 5, 2021
Filed with NHTSA
AIR BAGS:FRONTAL:PASSENGER SIDE:INFLATOR MODULE
- The defect
- General Motors, LLC (GM) is recalling certain 2012 Cadillac Escalade, Escalade ESV, Escalade EXT, Chevrolet Avalanche, Silverado 1500, Silverado 2500/3500, Suburban, Tahoe, GMC Sierra 1500, Sierra 2500/3500, Yukon, and Yukon XL originally sold, or ever registered, in the states of Alabama, California, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Texas, Puerto Rico, American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands (Saipan), and the U.S. Virgin Islands or "Zone A." These vehicles are equipped with non-desiccated passenger frontal inflators containing phase-stabilized ammonium nitrate (PSAN) propellant. These inflators may explode due to propellant degradation occurring after long-term exposure to high absolute humidity, high temperatures, and high temperature cycling.
- What it can cause
- An inflator explosion may result in sharp metal fragments striking the driver or other occupants, resulting in serious injury or death.
- What the dealer does
- GM will notify owners, and dealers will replace the front passenger air bag inflator with an alternate one, free of charge. Interim letters notifying owners of the safety risk were mailed on February 22, 2021. Second notification letters will be mailed once the remedy is available. Owner notification letters were mailed on May 11, 2021. Owners may contact Cadillac customer service at 1-800-458-8006; Chevrolet customer service at 1-800-222-1020; and GMC customer service at 1-800-462-8782. GM's number for this recall is N212328770.
- NHTSA's note
- Owners may also contact the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Vehicle Safety Hotline at 1-888-327-4236 (TTY 1-800-424-9153), or go to www.safercar.gov.
The repair is free, whatever the age or mileage of the vehicle, and whether or not you are the original owner.
Which vehicles
A recall reaches a range of VINs inside these model years, not every car built in them. Yours may not be covered even if it is listed here, and the only way to find out is NHTSA's own VIN lookup .
| Vehicle | Model years | Safety record |
|---|---|---|
| CadillacEscalade | 2012 | 2012 |
| CadillacEscalade ESV | 2012 | Not published here |
| CadillacEscalade EXT | 2012 | Not published here |
| ChevroletAvalanche | 2012 | 2012 |
| ChevroletSilverado 1500 | 2012 | 2012 |
| ChevroletSilverado 2500 | 2012 | 2012 |
| ChevroletSilverado 3500 | 2012 | 2012 |
| ChevroletSuburban | 2012 | 2012 |
| ChevroletTahoe | 2012 | 2012 |
| GMCSierra 1500 | 2012 | 2012 |
| GMCSierra 2500 | 2012 | 2012 |
| GMCSierra 3500 | 2012 | 2012 |
| GMCYukon | 2012 | 2012 |
| GMCYukon XL | 2012 | 2012 |
How this campaign compares
At 284,645 vehicles this is a bigger campaign than 96% of the 19,818 vehicle recalls filed since 1995 whose size NHTSA published. The middle campaign on file covers 472. It covers one model year, 2012, so the oldest vehicles on it were 9 model years old when the defect was reported to NHTSA.
Chevrolet vehicles have been recalled over the air bags 58 times before this, most recently in November 2020 as 20V736000. That is not evidence the earlier repair failed.
This site holds the complaint record for 12 of the 14 model years the campaign names. Their owners have filed 850 complaints with NHTSA, 607 of them before this campaign was filed. 239 of those name the air bags, the system this recall is about — a count of complaints, not of this defect. The earliest of them reached NHTSA in February 2012, 8 years before this filing.
The vehicles on this campaign carry one other recall published here: 21V054000 (air bags).
Check your own car
A VIN check is the only answer for a specific vehicle, and it also shows every other open recall on it, which is usually the reason it is worth doing rather than reading one campaign.
Filed by General Motors, LLC with NHTSA on February 5, 2021 as campaign 21V051000. Every word of the defect, consequence and remedy above is NHTSA's published record of that filing, not a summary of it.
Compiled and maintained by guarledes . Data last checked 2021-02-05.
Independent developer and analyst