This data is from the NHTSA — the US gov't agency tasked with vehicle safety. Complaints are spread across multiple & redundant categories, & are not organized by problem.
So how do you find out what problems are occurring? For this NHTSA complaint data, the only way is to read through the comments below. Any duplicates or errors? It's not us.
Our college age daughter had a potentially dangerous problem recently involving her brand new 2019 Chevy Equinox losing power in the middle of traffic on the expressway! she called me crying and frantic saying that a tractor-trailer was right behind her when this happened. She managed to pull over to an exit and park in a nearby plaza parking lot. When I got there and drove the car the tach was up over 2,000 RPM's but the car was only going about 15 mph! I decided it was unsafe to drive so we had it flatbedded to the dealership where we leased the vehicle. There an experienced tech opened the hood and showed us exactly what the problem was. He said the hose from the turbo-charger had come loose! and that without that hooked up to the engine, the engine would have lost about 80% of its power! we were really upset that this happened on a brand new Equinox with only 500 miles on it! our daughter could have been killed!
For unknown reasons vehicle caught fire. Vehicle was parked in a motel gravel parking lot for about 10 hours after having been driven for about 7 hours. Engine compartment was completely consumed by the fire before being put out by fire department.
8/23/19 I bought a new, 2019 Equinox premier. On 9/19/19 traveling 70 mph on interstate 70 near columbus, oh, car made loud bang, shook, and went to reduced power mode. Car behind us was able to quickly change lanes avoiding a crash.towed to wyler Chevrolet, told car had a recall notice regarding charge cooler hose. We were never notified of recall. Wyler told us it's fixed so we continued trip to pittsburgh. 9/22/19 same thing happened. This time towed to classic Chevrolet in pittsburgh, they knew nothing about the recall but found it on GM website, printed the necessary repair information, 9/23/19 told us car had a guaranteed fix. 9/24/19, driving 70 mph in pittsburgh rush hour traffic, bang, shaking car, reduced power mode. Onstar told us to drive to crevilli Chevrolet in pittsburgh. Mychevrolet told us they would pay for a rental so we could return to cincinnati and tow the car to our dealer joseph Chevrolet in cincinnati. 9/28/19 car is still sitting where we parked it at crevilli in pittsburgh. We have a case number and advisor. Unfortunately we know nothing as they won't return phone calls and have no documentation that they will pay for rental car. We are fl residents and have to be in flfor medical appointments by 10/7/19 however our brand new car is in pittsburgh. Internet search reveals numerous stories regarding same scenario while driving 2019 Equinox. Unbelieveable that Chevrolet is allowed to continue selling these defective vehicles putting drivers in harms way. All who have posted online complain about terrible GM customer service. My wife and I are 73, on a fixed income, and this stress is taking a toll on our health. Financially we are making payments on a vehicle that can't be driven and is sitting in pittsburgh. What are we to do? no on will tell us the status of our case.
Was driving the vehicle home one evening. Hit the acceleration pedal like normal, and I heard a loud 'pop' or 'thunk' under the hood. Thought it was really bad wheel hop or something. Right after that the cel came on, and the vehicle went into 'low power' mode. Was able to drive it back home slowly. Had it towed to dealer, said a hose to the turbo came off. Took a few days to fix. Picked it up from the dealer, got out of the parking lot. Made it maybe a few hundred feet, and the same exact thing happened. Drove it right back to dealer. They were able to quickly order part and fix it again within a day, this time replacing the clip and the hose. Driven the car pretty hard to make sure it will hold. It has so far and hopefully will continue to do so. This is obviously a serious issue with this particular model, as there are a ton of reports here about the exact same scenario.
2019 Chevy Equinox turbo hose blew off. The retaining clip failed to properly hold hose in place. The hose blew completely off making a loud noise. The vehicle then immediately went into low power mode. All acceleration was gone. Loss of power created the RPM's to increase while going up hill the engine struggling to climb.. the vehicle lost speed all the way up the hill. The turbo was useless at this point. Very unsafe to suddenly lose that much power to yoour vehicle. GM has to find a solution to this problem. My local dealer is not very helpful.
- Piketon, OH, USA
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On June 28 we were traveling from northern California to southern calif. When going up a steep incline, I heard a popping sound coming from the engine. Immediately, lost power, check engine light came on, with a message "reduced power". at the time, car was virtually brand new, with only 1335 miles we were in a fairly remote area, so I pulled off the interstate, and called for a tow to nearest Chevrolet dealer (37 miles away). Dealer was already closed, it was 9 pm. Left car overnight at dealer, and contacted them next day. Dealer service dept. Stated it was a "throttle body pipe that popped off, and it would take a few days foe fix, and replacement part. We were 400 miles away from home, dealer did arrange for rental car to go back home with. Repair took nearly 2 weeks. When notified that car was ready, I drove back down to valencia, calif. From sacramento area to bring car home. I went 2 blocks, and check engine light immediately appeared, returned to dealer, and the installed some sort of clamp, as a fix, and was told all is now ok. I proceeded home, going up the same incline 35 miles later, and same problem occurs, lost power, check engine light, with reduced power message. Was towed back to same dealer again. Service manager explained this was a common problem in Equinox model, that GM has no good answer for. Again, diagnosis was "intake pipe popping off throttle body". again, it took 2 weeks to replace intake pipe and throttle body. After repairs, I'm still noticing that acceleration is somewhat choppy, and not smooth. I still am not happy, and intend to have my local dealer, address this problem, that I'm starting to see, is a widespread GM Chevrolet problem.
Car would start bucking, stuttering and jerking. This occurred three times. A/C compressor froze, had to be rebuilt. Almost got rear ended twice. The dealer could find no problem on the last two times. This happened on city streets while in motion and from a stop.
I was driving on the highway at 70 mph when I heard a loud bang. The vehicle immediately loss engine power and began 'sputtering.' The reduces engine power warning came on and the check engine light. I was able to safely make it off the interstate before the car completely stalled/quit. I have to have the vehicle towed and pushed into the service bay. I was told the intake valve was damaged and came loose. This could have been a very dangerous even fatal situation if theirs had been a car tailgating me.
On May 18th 2019 while accelerating from 45 to 65 mph to enter onto a freeway, heard/felt loud pop from engine, lost power warning lights appeared "reduced power". contacted on star, noted the problem drove to dealer 8 miles away, diagnosed as plastic clamp on hose from turbo charger broke. Equinox had 732 miles on it, in shop for 14 days waiting for fix. Metal clamp added to re-enforce the plastic clamp, dealer stated new hose ordered as still defect in the plastic coupling. August 7th, back at the dealer to install new tube for turbo charger. August 13th driving 45mph, accelerated lightly maybe from 1600 RPM up to 2500 RPM, felt/heard pop from bottom of engine same warning of reduced power. Same issue as before, different part of the tub from engine to turbo charger. This is a defect in engineering, need NHTSA to step up, order GM to fix this properly. No longer trust this vehicle. Still summer here, will be very unsettled during the winter when temps can stay below 20 degrees for weeks or colder how a plastic tube will react to the cold in a hot engine compartment. NHTSA needs to act now before this causes accidents with injuries or death because of negligence on the part of GM and those engineers that designed this weak system. This what a government Agency is supposed to do, protect the consumers. We purchased a new vehicle to drive not be worried if it will get us safely to where we need to go!
Purchased 2019 Equinox had 957 miles on it when "check engine" light appeared. Took it into dealership and they said code was P0442 evap small leak. They found purge tube not seated fully. Prior to driving it into dealership we smelt gas fumes in the interior cabin. 23 days later "check engine" light appeared at 1426 miles. Heard loud pop coming from rear of car. Again gas fumes can be smelt in the interior cabin. Dealership said code P0442 again but it was from the evap canister "O" ring failure. This emission system seems faulty as it is a sealed unit but smelling gas fumes in the interior is not safe at all.
While driving at freeway speeds, there was a loud pop sound and then the engine went into reduced power mode & the check engine light came on. Dealer states that it is the charge cooler air tube that becomes detached from throttle body. Multiple service writers have stated there is no official fix from GM. Two dealers have claimed to "fix" my issue, but it went into the shop again today for the fourth time for the same issue. First occurrence was at 149 miles. Next three were between 7500-8200 miles. The car has been at the dealerships three times the last 6 days.
While on vacation traveling on 81S in va & doing 70 mph on the 3-lane hwy., without a warning a power reduction message appeared on the dash; then the check engine light came on. Our vehicle went from 70 mph (posted speed) to 40 mph. In a matter of seconds. We had a tractor trailer pushing us & a car passing us on the left. Had it not been for the fast reactions of my husband and help from the man above, we would now be 6' under. After shaking & gaining our wits, we consulted the vehicle handbook to check on a possible reason for the power reduction & how to proceed. This accident would have been logged as driver error, when actually it was vehicle malfunction. We left the vehicle in va at a chev dealership on Monday & they advise it would be 4 days until they could work on the unit. We agreed to pick it up Friday on our return trip to pa. The dealership called thurs. Morning to advise it was ready. We had to request paperwork showing that it was worked on & that they found no issues with it, but that the check engine light went out. Upon arriving home, we took the unit to our local dealership and while the unit did not register a code in the computer a mechanic did find---5242 vehicle has a U0100 lost communication with the ECU--checked communication with the PCM, tcm & BCM---no poor connections found at this time. The dealership drove the vehicle for two weeks, but could not duplicate the issue. It is with much trepidation that we must now drive this vehicle for 3 yrs. Until our lease is up and will not be able to allow passengers in it for fear of this happening again and taking their lives too. We have read five reasons for the 2019 Equinox to experience a power reduction, but none of them fit what we experienced. We would like to suggest further testing & investigation into this matter. Our unit had 4,785 miles on it when this incident happened.
Bought the car with 3 miles on it. Has less than 80 miles on it now. It's in the shop parts are backordered to fix a turbo hose connector problem. We have owned this car less than 24 hours before returning to the dealer for repairs. The car was going roughly 35mph. When check engine light appeared and power alert came on onstar also sent an alert that the car had the check engine light and advised to take to the dealer within 24 hours.
The contact owns a 2019 Chevrolet Equinox. While driving 30 mph, the vehicle stalled and restarted after forty minutes. Afterwards, the speed would not exceed 5 mph and the check engine warning indicator illuminated. The vehicle was taken to Chevrolet of homewood (18033 halsted St, homewood, il 60430, (708) 251-4692) where it was diagnosed that an unknown wire was burned out. The vehicle was repaired. The manufacturer was not contacted. The failure mileage was 5,938.
Same issue as most of the other complaints. While driving on the highway about 60 mph we heard a loud pop. We thought we hit something in the middle of the road. The check engine light came on and the warning that we were losing power. We didn't see anything leaking and the manual said it was okay to drive with the warning light. Since it was late at night there were no open Chevy dealers we nursed it home. The next morning we took it to the dealer we bought the car from and they knew what it was right away because they had someone come in the day before with the same issue, the clip that connects a hose to the throttle body popped off. They put the hose back on and but kept the vehicle so they could put a new clip on it. It's been two weeks and we are still waiting for the part to come in. The car is brand new, it has 2000 miles on it.
Hose clip that goes to turbocharger has popped off twice now. I currently have 3400 miles on it. I bought brand new in April 2019. The first time it happened was when I was on street traffic and I accelerated and heard a loud clunk noise. At first, I thought I got rear-ended. They had my car at the dealer for three weeks due to the part being back ordered. Got back and within the first 100 miles of driving, the same problem happened again, but this time I was on the freeway, which could have ended badly. I was also told at the dealer that this is a common problem. The problem is though, that a serious accident can occur over a $25 dollar clip that is obviously an engineering flaw.
The tube connecting the exhaust to the turbo has become disconnected not once, not twice, but three separate times while driving. The second time fixed was with a newly designed GM part specifically to eliminate the issue. Which clearly did not occur. Owned the vehicle a total of three months with 2260 miles all driven by myself and the vehicle has spent a month and more at the dealership for repairs.
I have a 2019 Equinox that I bought with only 29 miles when purchased 5/22/19. Within the second week of driving the vehicle on the freeway I heard a popping noise and I then the a message came a cross the screen saying lising power from the engine! I was so scared on the freeway ! I have a new car, what could be the problem! the car reduced speed! I took it to george matick Chevrolet. My car was in the shop for 2 days and they discovered it was the air tube had came off! my car was returned back to me after service. 2 weeks later while driving to indianapolis the tube popped 9ff again! I called on star they navigated me to the nearest dealership. The dealer connected the tube back and told me it was okay to drive, and showed me how to reconnect the tube if it came off again! this was so scary to be on the highway with a new car and things like this is happening! I no longer wants this vehicle! I get back to Michigan takes it to the dealership now they have to order the part it will take a couple of days to get the part in. Ok the car is fixed again! 3 weeks later the same problem after a new tube was placed on the car 6/ 26 /19, the car is back at the dealership same problem plus now they have to change the throttle! I feel like I bought a nightmare!😡😭
Traveling South on 81 in the far right lane, a triple lane highway. With heavy morning work traffic going 70 mph with an 18-wheeler pushing our vehicle & a car passing us on the left, our 2019 Equinox dropped to 40 mph and a power reduction message appeared on the dash. The check engine light came on at the same time the speed dropped down 30 mph. It was by the grace of god that the 18-wheeler missed our vehicle and we were able to pull to the side of the road. My husband put the engine in park and revved the engine checking to see if the vehicle would take fuel. The power reduction light cleared off the screen, but the check engine light stayed on. We slowly traveled to a gas/comfort area (in woodstock, va) and read our vehicle handbook for possible reasons of power reduction---there were quite a few, but none that we could relate to. We stayed over night at a motel and Monday (6/3/19) took our vehicle to the local Chevrolet dealership. After being told they couldn't work on our vehicle until Thursday, we had to continue our trip in a rental unit. We were contacted by the dealership on Thursday (6/6/19) that our vehicle was ready for pickup. The unit threw no codes, but the check engine light did go out after their diagnostic check. We arranged to pick up our vehicle Friday morning and drove it home with much trepidation. The unit was taken to our local Chevrolet dealership, where it was purchased and they have been driving it to make the same mechanical defect occur; but to no avail. To face death once and survive, does not make one comfortable to drive the same vehicle. Had we died after being hit by the 18-wheeler, the fault would have gone to driver's error as one reads in many accidents in the news.
Same as others charge intake tube issue. They tried to repair it with clips and that did not work. My car has been at the dealer since 6/1/19 with no eta on repair as the part is on back order. This happened while I was driving on the highway
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- Rochester, NY, USA