NHTSA Investigating 1.7 Million Chevy Equinox and GMC Terrain SUVs for Windshield Wiper Failure [News]

The NHTSA is investigating whether or not General Motors should recall up to 1.7 million SUVs.

The recall in question revolves around a windshield wiper failure that affected GMC Terrain and Chevy Equinox SUVs from 2010-2016. GM already had to recall 367,800 Terrains and Equinoxes from model year 2013 for the same issue. However, GM received 249 additional complaints about the issue, forcing the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to investigate further.

2018 GMC Terrain Denali AWD

The expanded investigation will see if GM should include models from 2010-2016 in the recall. Including those model years could expand the recall to a grand total of 1.7 million SUVs. GM is cooperating with the investigation despite seeing no accidents or injuries related to the issue.

The Problem

The issue specifically refers to a ball joint in the windshield wiper that is prone to rusting and failing. The failure results in an inability to clean the windshield, which can cause a potential safety hazard in poor weather conditions. The rusting issue is caused by poor placement of certain drain holes. As a result, the fix could include dealerships having to re-drill the drain holes elsewhere on the vehicle. Plus, GM will add a water deflector to ensure the problem doesn’t persist.

2018 Chevrolet Equinox
[Photo: Derek Mau]
It appears GM has already recalled over 15,000 vehicles from 2010-2016 in Canada for a similar issue. Perhaps they will have to expand that recall to cover US models as well.

We will do our best to keep you up to date on the status of the NHTSA investigation. Should they see it necessary to expand the recall in the US, we will cover all of the details right here on TFLcar.com.

We recently had the chance to compare the latest version of these SUVs: the 2018 GMC Terrain with all-wheel drive and 2018 Chevy Equinox with front-wheel drive. Logically, we wanted to see how these different powertrains affected gas mileage, so we took them both on our TFL MPG loop to see how they performed up here at altitude. Check out the video below: