- general motors is recalling its 2019 pickups for a second time in a matter of months; this time, it's to repair a problem with the electronic braking system that was caused by the recall's original fix.
- owners reported their electronic brake systems failing after using the onstar app to remotely start their vehicles.
- owners of affected 2019 chevrolet silverados, gmc sierras, and cadillac ct6s can bring their vehicles into dealers to have their vehicles serviced for the updated recall.
general motors issued a recall in december of last year to fix a bug in the software that affected electronic brake controls in some of its 2019 model pickups. the manufacturer is now issuing an updated recall, originally reported by the detroit free press, after some trucks serviced under the first recall later had their brakes fail. the problem has been reported to occur after owners used the onstar app to remotely start their vehicles.
the original recall impacted nearly 550,000 2019 model vehicles, mainly the chevrolet silverado 1500 and gmc sierra 1500 pickups but also fewer than 1000 cadillac ct6 sedans with four-cylinder and v-8 engines. in these vehicles, an issue in the software for the electronic brake control could cause the electronic stability control and the anti-lock brakes to become disabled.
starting late last year, owners of the vehicles who had gone in to have the original recall carried out started to experience new problems after remote-starting their vehicles with gm's onstar app. owners reported that when they did this, they experienced multiple cases of the electronic braking system failing as well as the dashboard illuminating with warning errors, according to complaints on the national highway traffic safety administration (nhtsa) website.
"upon starting the vehicle and taking off after remotely starting it, multiple warnings popped up on the trucks' [display]," one complaint from january 27 reads. "after seeing those i applied the brake to stop and the brake pedal went to floor leaving the truck without any type of braking power what so ever [sic]. after coasting to a stop i shut the truck off restarted it and the check engine icon was on. the brakes did work after the truck was shut off and restarted."
of the 550,000 affected vehicles, gm spokesman dan flores told c/d, about 162,000 had received the original fix. around 1600 to 1700 owners of those affected vehicles have brought their vehicles back in for a fix to the fix. the new repair involves having dealers "reflash the vehicles' electronic brake control module with a new calibration that resolves [both] the initial issue and the recent complaints," flores said.
starting on january 15, owners of an affected vehicle can bring their recalled pickup or ct6 sedan to a dealership to receive a fix for the updated recall. flores told c/d that gm has submitted the updated recall to nhtsa and that it will be posted on nhtsa's website in the near future, along with current owners receiving notification of the updated recall through the mail. a stop-sale order was put on the affected vehicles still on dealership lots until the dealers perform the series of fixes.
"we apologize for the inconvenience this may cause our customers who will need to return to their dealership for additional servicing," flores said. "the safety of our customers is the overriding priority in everything we do."