GM expands truck axle recall to almost 27,000

The original GM light duty truck axle recall in December included the Cadillac Escalade EXT, Chevrolet Avalanche, Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra (click here for a look at the original recall announcement). Today’s announcement adds to that group a handful of smaller trucks and a couple SUVs including the standard and ESV versions of the Escalade; the Chevy Colorado, Silverado, Suburban and Tahoe; and the GMC Canyon, Yukon and Yukon XL.

This problem stems from incorrect heat-treating of the pin during the manufacturing process and owners can expect to receive an email instructing them to return (carefully) to their local dealership where the axle pins will be removed and replaced by pins that have been properly treated to deal with the inherent abuse.

General Motors asks that if you are the owner of one of these GM trucks, you refrain from driving the vehicle until the problem is repaired as there are no early warning signs of the problem coming. Once the pain fails, it happens all at once and that leaves piece of metal floating around the internal workings of the axle assembly. Should some of that metal get into the wrong place, there is a great risk of the rear axle locking up sudden – making it much more difficult to control the truck at speed.

Other recall information:
GM recalls 2011 Cadillac, Chevrolet and GMC trucks over axle risks
Chrysler recalls 56,000 2011 Ram 1500 for axle risk
Chrysler recalling 76,000 diesel Ram trucks over braking concern