Recall · 21V496000
General Motors recalled 4 models over equipment
338,020
Vehicles covered
4
Models
12
Model years
July 1, 2021
Filed with NHTSA
EQUIPMENT:ELECTRICAL:ENGINE BLOCK HEATER
- The defect
- General Motors, LLC (GM) is recalling certain 2017-2019 Chevrolet Silverado 2500, 3500 and 2017-2019 GMC Sierra 2500 and 3500 vehicles equipped with a Duramax diesel 6.6 liter engine and an optional engine-block heater cord. An electrical short-circuit may occur in the engine-block heater cable or in the terminals that connect the heater cable to the block heater.
- What it can cause
- An electrical short-circuit can increase the risk of a fire.
- What the dealer does
- Dealers will replace engine block heaters and heater cords. Vehicles that have this feature disabled as a remedy to the safety condition will be contacted and offered replacement block heaters and heater cords under a separate customer satisfaction program, free of charge. GM will provide free replacement block heaters and cords under a separate customer satisfaction campaign. For vehicles previously included in recall 19V-328, the heater cord will be replaced and rerouted, free of charge. Interim owner notifications were mailed on August 13, 2021. Owner notification letters are expected to be mailed on April 4, 2022. Customers may call GMC customer service at 1-800-462-8782. GM's number for this recall is 212329840.
- 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.nhtsa.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 .
How this campaign compares
At 338,020 vehicles this is a bigger campaign than 97% of the 19,818 vehicle recalls filed since 1995 whose size NHTSA published. The middle campaign on file covers 472. It covers model years 2017 to 2019, so the oldest vehicles on it were 4 model years old when the defect was reported to NHTSA.
Chevrolet vehicles have been recalled over the equipment 27 times before this, most recently in June 2021 as 21V440000. That is not evidence the earlier repair failed.
This site holds the complaint record for all 12 model years the campaign names. Their owners have filed 377 complaints with NHTSA, 141 of them before this campaign was filed. 26 of those name the equipment, the system this recall is about — a count of complaints, not of this defect. The earliest of them reached NHTSA in April 2017, 4 years before this filing.
The vehicles on this campaign carry 5 other recalls published here, the newest being: 26V325000 (air bags), 26V166000 (air bags), 25V432000 (air bags), 24V756000 (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 July 1, 2021 as campaign 21V496000. 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 2021-07-01.
Independent developer and analyst