American cars may not be known for having the nicest interiors or even being the best built, but typically you can at least rely on a good, old-fashioned American V8 to be basically bulletproof. While that certainly isn’t the only reason LS swaps are so popular, it sure doesn’t hurt. But that isn’t necessarily the case for GM trucks and SUVs equipped with the 6.2-liter L87 V8. In fact, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration just announced a recall of nearly 600,000 vehicles after an investigation found a dangerous risk of engine failure.
The recall covers vehicles built between 2021 and 2024 and includes the Cadillac Escalade and Escalade ESV; the Chevrolet Silverado, Suburban, and Tahoe; and the GMC Sierra, Yukon, and Yukon XL. Only about 3% of the 597,630 trucks are expected to have problems with their crankshafts and connecting rods that would require a fix, but they still have to bring them all in to check. And it isn’t like these engine failures are hypothetical, either. GM’s own investigation already found 28,102 complaints over crankshaft, connecting rod or engine bearing failure. Thankfully, the company is going to fix it, but that’s a whole lot of engines that shouldn’t have needed to be replaced in the first place.
Of the 28,000 complaints, 14,332 of them “involved allegations of loss of propulsion,” but what’s more concerning is that GM found at least a dozen “potentially related alleged crashes” and an identical number of “potentially related alleged injuries in the U.S.” It also found “42 potentially related fire allegations in the U.S.” but notes that “in the majority of these cases (a) the causation of these incidents is unclear and (b) the alleged fire damage is contained to the engine compartment and consistent with damage that can occur, in rare instances, during engine failure.”
Not the first we’ve heard of this
Considering the number of vehicles included in the recall and the number of reported engine failures, you shouldn’t be surprised to learn this recall didn’t exactly come out of nowhere. The Drive did a great job covering the rising number of L87 engine failures, including one Cadillac Escalade with a V8 that failed after only four miles. Yikes. GM also knew something was up, opening and later closing three prior investigations in February 2022, June 2023, and July 2024 “based on the available safety field information.” The problem isn’t restricted to the U.S., either, with Car and Driver reporting the actual total number of vehicles included is about 721,000 worldwide.
After doing enough teardowns, though, they found several supplier quality issues at intermittent intervals in vehicles built between March 1, 2021, and May 31, 2024, leading GM’s Safety Field Action Decision Authority to decide it was time for a recall. As always, if you own one of the affected vehicles, the cost of the dealer inspection and any necessary repairs will be covered by GM.
That won’t help owners who have already had to spend their own money replacing a grenaded engine, though, so thankfully, GM has also said it plans to reimburse those folks, too. Like with the recall inspections and potential fixes, owners who believe they deserve to be reimbursed for engine repairs or an engine replacement should contact their dealer and move forward from there.
