10.0
really awful- Crashes / Fires:
- 1 / 0
- Injuries / Deaths:
- 3 / 0
- Average Mileage:
- 1,111 miles
About These NHTSA Complaints:
The NHTSA is the US gov't agency tasked with vehicle safety. Complaints can be spread across multiple & redundant categories, & are not organized by problem. See the Back button — blue bar at the very top of the page — to explore more.
My ESC randomly comes on. Service parking brake message comes on intermittently. Messages pop a up saying steering wheel assist limited, drive with care. Again, all of these are intermittent but when they happen my steering wheel locks up. Even mid turn. Being intermittent it doesn-??t always happen and weather seems to affect when it happens, or that-??s a coincidence.
- Rochelle , IL, USA
At 86,000 miles information board on dashboard alerted -??Service, Brake Assist-?? upon braking from coming off of interstate. Diagnosed to a failed cam shaft driven Vacuum pump for power brake booster, next to no braking power with little to no warning what so ever. Terrible design from GM. Near miss collision due to brake failure with no warning. This needs an immediate attention through the engineering department to create a redundancy within the system. Nearly caused a very bad accident with my [XXX] and [XXX] daughters in the vehicle while fiancé was coming to pick me up from being on the road as a OTR truck driver. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)
- Jacksonville , FL, USA
The brake vacuum pump failed. I am extremely fortunate this happened at a rest stop after being on interstate 80 for numerous miles. Had this happened at highway speeds it would have been catastrophic for myself and most likely others. I do not have the part. The problem was confirmed and the psrt was replaced by Mavis Discount Tire in Mountain Top, PA There were no warning lights, signs, or symptoms prior to the malfunction. It is my understanding that GM has recalled the part on other models, but did not include the Terrain in the recall. I believe it should be before someone is seriously injured.
- Hughesville, PA, USA
I was riding on the freeway when my brakes failed. i was not able to press down on my brakes with zero warning. I had to swerve to miss cars and pull on the shoulder of the freeway and my car still would not slow down. I finally got from 65 to 35 and pressed on my emergency brakes. I stopped the vehicle then my engine light came on and I got my car towed to the car shop where my car would not stop and suffered internal damage to my engine from the brakes and vacuum pump
- Southfield, MI, USA
Break booster pressure sensor and engine underbooster causes the car to slam on breaks or not break at all.
- Elkton , MD, USA
The brakes failed with zero warning while driving. Car only has 60,000 miles. Extremely dangerous and it looks like it has been reported and known issue! It needs to be recalled.
- Turnersville , NJ, USA
on two occasions the vacuum pump booster failed causing the vehicle to lose braking ability while traveling on a highway at highway speeds. The vehicles brake completely failed and were unable to be engaged. the part was initially replaced by the dealer at the owner's expense and then the same issue occurred only a few months later. the second occurrence cause additional damage to the camshaft and timing chain causing the vehicle to not even be able to start. The vehicle was inspected by the servicing dealer and found metal shavings in the oil as well as extensive damage to the engine.
- Eastport, NY, USA
My daughter was driving her 2019 GMC Terrain at 15 - 20mph when she suddenly lost her brakes. Fortunately she had just turned into a new housing development where the road ended into an empty field. This could have been catastrophic for her & other citizens on the road. The following morning she would have been heading to work on a highway with heavy traffic with a posted speed limit of 65mph. We towed the vehicle home & after some investigating I found a vacuum pump failure. This vacuum pump broke apart internally sending chunks & shards of metal into her valve train. This issue is mentioned several times in Terrain forums & someone needs to address this issue before it becomes a fatality.
- Madera, CA, USA
The contact owned a 2019 GMC Terrain. The contact stated that while the wife was driving at approximately 60 MPH, the brake pedal was depressed and it felt stiff. The vehicle failed to decrease in speed and as a result, the driver merged to the shoulder of the road however another vehicle crashed into the front driver side of the vehicle. The driver was able to merge to the shoulder of the road where the road bumps were able to decrease the speed of the vehicle. The ABS warning light was illuminated. The driver, front passenger, and rear driver's side passenger all sustained headaches and received medical attention via an ambulance on the scene. No occupants in the second vehicle were reported injured. A police report was taken at the scene and the vehicle was towed away. The cause of the failure was not determined. The manufacturer and local dealer were not contacted. The failure mileage was 40,000.
- Queens, NY, USA
Vaccumm pump failed and broke metal shavings off into engine resulting in -??engine failure-??. I was driving on the highway with my 6 year old child in back seat, car completely shut down and shot a -??reduced engine power-?? message while on a busy on ramp heading onto highway. This created an extremely dangerous situation for myself and my child as many cars almost smashed into the vehicle. I-??ve seen many other complaints of this happening, the same exact parts and issue happened to the Chevy Equinox which resulted in a recall but they have yet to recall the Terrain, which is having the exact same issue. I am a single mother, with 20k still on my loan. This mistake made by gmc has now costed me over 5,000$ out of pocket for something that is not my fault and completely out of my control. Even after all of the money poured into this repair, I still feel unsafe in my own vehicle as there is no guarantee this issue will not happen again. I-??ve kept up on all oil changes and maintenance of my vehicle. The issue was confirmed by a GMC mechanic which cost 500$ out of pocket for diagnosis as well. I also had to spend 1000$ on a rental out of pocket because of this. I have seen many others complaints of the same issue happening to their GMC terrain and am appalled no recall has been discussed after the reaccuring issue. I should not be having to pay out of pocket for an issue GMC has yet to fix or issue a recall on. I had to miss days of work, and it really was a huge inconvenience. I do not feel safe in my own vehicle even after the repair, cause I have no guarantee this won-??t just happen all over again.
- Norton , MA, USA
I had just gotten off the highway and had gone less than a mile on a 35 mph road when the brakes acted like the antilock brakes came on for a brief second then the brake pedal became very hard to push. This resulted in me having a difficult time stopping the vehicle. The service brake light also came on.
- Eaton Rapids, MI, USA
While driving on 95, I lost all engine and power breaks with no warning. A message came up on my dash stating that I had lost engine power. Fortunately an exit was up ahead so I was able to get there and coast down the ramp. I attempted to make a right turn to get out of the way but ran out of momentum. Dealership stated my vacuum break pump failed and went into the cam shaft. They had to replace those and the solenoid actuator and value. They also conducted an oil change. I received it back yesterday, started the car today and the check engine light was on. They found more debris and replaced another point and said if the light comes on again it's the timing chains in the engine. I went out leave and the check engine light was on. They are now keeping it to repair the timing chains. I am fighting with GM to cover the expenses since I see this is an issue in previous models/years of GMC and Chevy vehicles.
- Levittown, PA, USA
Brakes got hard all of a sudden locked up, almost hit another car, front collision warning keeps going off and automatically hitting brakes with no one in front of me. I-??ve read it could vacuum brake pump failure. Please recall this as many people have kids and could hurt them.
- Richlands, NC, USA
It began with showing "Service Brake Assist" for about 2 weeks + then on Dec 18th 2023 around 10:30 as my fiancé was stopped at a stoplight and all of sudden when the light turned green she attempted to continue forward as traffic started to move only to stall stalled out before any movement could be achieve the battery was reading severely depleted and the vehicle would not function at all she was stuck in Drive and could not put the vehicle in neutral or even park to even try to restart the vehicle, she could not even turn the steering wheel, roll down the windows, open the door, or anything. the only thing she was able to accomplish was opening the hood so an officer that had arrived at this time could give her a jump, The officer also proceeded to leave the negative cable on the battery terminal and disconnected the Positive cable from the battery terminal which would have indicated a bad starter or depleted battery when the positive cable had been removed, which was not the case. she continued to where her appointment was and that is where i met her and took over vehicle to transport it home, driving with hazards on. I arrived at the house with no incident. then at 4:45pm on the evening of 12/18/2023 while at the stoplight I had a similar issue occurred as i was going from a stationary position to a forward slowly accelerated speed gaining momentum where the vehicle wanted to stall out while i was stopped at a stoplight attempting to proceed forward. and then at around 10:20 pm while stopped at a stop sign a similar issue occurred as i was going from a stationary position to a forward slowly accelerated speed gaining momentum attempting to proceed forward. On Dec 19th 2023 around 10:00 am I test started the car by remote and it started up and then i turned it off, now it is showing that the battery is completely depleted at 1:26
- Crestview, FL, USA
For the third time, the brake booster has failed on our GMC Terrain. We had the first replaced with an OEM part. That booster failed after 2 weeks. A second OEM brake booster was installed. That one lasted about a year until it failed as well. This time we were traveling down the interstate and interstate speeds. There were no indications of an issue until trying to slow down when attempting to exit the interstate. Luckily it was a long ramp and there was not much traffic as I had to push extremely hard to slow down the vehicle. Knowing immediately what had happened, we noticed a GMC dealership was just down the road and safely made it. We left the vehicle at the dealership and rented a car to continue our vacation. We are now being told that not only did the brake booster fail, but the components entered the engine and caused major damage. The suggested repair is a full engine replacement. This is unacceptable for an issue that GMC has know about and has had recalls for on other years of their vehicles. Not only could my family have been severely injured, or worse, we are not financially able to repair the vehicle.
- Argos, IN, USA
My 2019 gmc terrain, vaccum pump failed at about 45000 miles, was driving on the highway and brakes were hard to stop, almost crashed. About 52000 miles, vacuum pump failed again, also while driving on the highway. Brakes were hard to stop, again almost causing me to crash. 69000 miles again vacuum pump failed while driving on the highway, again almost causing me to crash. All times pump was replaced under warranty and now this has caused my engine to fail. i was denied factory warranty, pre certified and extended warranty. Now im stuck with a car with with three years left to pay on
- San Diego, CA, USA
There are 3 recalls and one open on this car I was sold by a dealership, none of them ever fixed. I drive to work in the highway the car never had any warning light on but the RPMS would occasionally go up for no reason. I told the dealership the second day that it had issues, they took it and say they fixed the back brakes but did nothing about the engine or transmission whatsoever ever. This was the beginning of may and it was in the shop two weeks. I called my lender to even get out of the loan and a saleswoman even tried assisting me into talking her manager out of the loan because of all the issues. Fast foreword to august I had just gotten a new job and was driving in the night after hearing that ticking or slight knocking noise and I went to my job and as i tried to park the brakes went completely stiff on me! I could not get the car to slow down I had to weave through other cars and people in till it finally coasted to a stop. So I put it in park and immediately after the check engine light came on. I tried to start it and it would start, putter and turn off over and over. I had to end up calling OnStar to have a diagnosis which she said something like solenoid and something being clogged. So it was towed to my residence and before i could get it towed to s shop they lender came and repossessed it because I had missed payments due to losing my job unexpectedly, completely unexpectedly. I told the lender of the problem and the unfortunate troubles I was having to pay for the car but I had just landed a job and could start payment but she didn-??t care. She said she is going to tow it. I had my friends dad who is a licensed mechanic look at it before it was towed and he said the car was trash, basically a lemon that there was oil clogged and instead of passing through like it-??s supposed to do it being pushed the opposite way and ending up in other reservoirs it shouldn-??t be in. I obviously didn-??t do that type of damage oil and trans problems I was scammed
- Indianapolis, IN, USA
2019 gmc terrain with 45000 miles, regular maintenance performed. Driving on highway 70mps brakes failed with no warning. No issues with brakes or lights coming on up to this point. Brake pedal became stiff very minimal brake working lights began flashing on dash stating "service brake assist". Barely made it off the highway without a catastrophic Collison. Took car in states brake vacuum pump completely failed. Apparently there are many models of gmc/chevy that were recalled and have known issues with the brake vacuum pump. Not sure why the terrain is not included. It needs to be, this was a very dangerous situation. I had children in the car and was very scary! 600$ to repair, and from reading other reviews the pumps are breaking often, sometimes ruining engines. Gmc stand behind your product and fix this!
- Brownsburg, IN, USA
In July 2022 vacuum pump failed and created a hard brake situation going 55 mph downhill. Vehicle removed from roadway safely, transported and vacuum pump replaced. In May of 2023 vacuum pump again failed driving at around 25mph, vacuum pump failed catastrophically and blew up inside cam cover. Taken to garage via flatbed and reported car needed a new engine or alternatively we could try a new cam and vacuum pump with hopes pieces did not make it into engine. Now vehicle sits while I still owe money as I do not have 3-5000 to repair it. The fact that this is such a common issue and has happened frequently with other GM models is criminal. I feel as if GM should offer a buyback on affected models or reimburse customers for damages done. Vehicle is outside of warranty currently at 83k first vacuum pump failure occurred at around 70k.
- Bradford, PA, USA
- Ontario, NY, USA