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Software Defect Prompts Recall of 88,129 GMC Terrain Crossovers


— June 6, 2018

Do you drive a GMC Terrain Crossover? If so, you may want to see if your vehicle is included in a recent recall issued by General Motors. According to the recall notice, the company is recalling “certain 2018 GMC Terrain crossover in the U.S. because a software defect may prevent airbags from deploying during a crash.” About 88,129 vehicles manufactured between March 2017 and May 2018 are affected by the recall.


Do you drive a GMC Terrain Crossover? If so, you may want to see if your vehicle is included in a recent recall issued by General Motors. According to the recall notice, the company is recalling “certain 2018 GMC Terrain crossover in the U.S. because a software defect may prevent airbags from deploying during a crash.” About 88,129 vehicles manufactured between March 2017 and May 2018 are affected by the recall.

According to GM, the software defect involves the sensing diagnostic module, “which controls airbag deployment.” It turns out the sensing diagnostic module (SDM) in the affected Terrains “might not deactivate correctly when the vehicle is powered off.” When this happens, it could cause the module to remain defective “while the vehicle is restarted.”

Image of the GM World Headquarters in Detroit
GM World Headquarters in Detroit; image courtesy of KiwiDeaPi via Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org

According to the notice, “if the SDM is inoperative when the vehicle is started, the airbag warning lamp will be illuminated, the driver information center will display a ‘service restraint system’ message, and warning chimes will sound.” It’s important to note, however, that the defect is only present in an estimated 1% of the recalled vehicles.

The defect itself was discovered by a GM engineer back in January. Shortly after, an investigation was launched and, fortunately, “data analysis performed on April 20 showed no accidents, injuries or fatalities.”

For now, GM is working on a plan to notify customers and dealerships. For now, GM dealerships have been instructed to “reprogram the modules with updated software.” Customers with questions or concerns about the recall can contact GM’s hotline at 1-800-462-8782.

Sources:

GM recalls 88,129 GMC Terrain crossovers over software defect

GMC Recalls 2018 Terrain Over SDM Software Issue

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