NHTSA widens GM L87 engine failure probe to nearly 1 million vehiclesGeneral Motors is facing a federal safety investigation covering nearly one million pickup trucks and SUVs after regulators received hundreds of reports of engine failures in vehicles that had already undergone recall repairs.The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said Friday that it has initiated an engineering analysis encompassing 997,743 GM vehicles powered by the automaker's L87 V-8 engine. The probe covers model years 2021 through 2026 of several models, including the Cadillac Escalade and Chevrolet Silverado 1500, two of GM's most profitable lines, as well as the GMC Yukon.The agency said it has logged close to 500 complaints about engine failure in vehicles that owners had already brought in for service under an earlier recall, with roughly two dozen of those cases requiring full engine replacements. The regulator also received 191 reports of engine failure in vehicles produced after the period covered by the earlier recall, along with one report of a crash and injury.AdvertisementAdvertisementThe new probe is an expansion of a prior investigation into GM's handling of the L87 engine problem. GM issued a recall last year covering roughly 600,000 vehicles from model years 2021 to 2024, which the company attributed to a supplier. As part of that recall, GM pledged to address the issue by either switching affected owners to a higher-viscosity oil or replacing their engine altogether. In January, NHTSA said it had concerns about the adequacy of that recall after receiving three dozen complaints of engine failure from owners who had already received GM's fix, according to The Wall Street Journal.GM Chief Financial Officer Paul Jacobson told analysts in January that the company did not expect any additional vehicles would need to be recalled, according to The Wall Street Journal.The probe is the latest in a series of safety actions at GM. GM issued a U.S. recall for more than 270,000 Chevrolet Malibu vehicles over a rearview camera defect that can cause the backup display to go blank or show a distorted image. GM also recalled about 23,000 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 and ZR1 vehicles after a cooling fan defect was found to pose a fire risk.When the initial L87 recall was issued, company executives disclosed that the engine problem had generated roughly $500 million in incremental costs.AdvertisementAdvertisementA GM spokesman offered the following comment: "The safety and satisfaction of our customers are the highest priorities for the entire GM team, and we continue to cooperate with NHTSA's evaluation of this matter."
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