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.
Breaks would not work going in slow speeds, backing out of parking spaces, or pulling into traffic slowly. Pressing on breaks and car not stopping, very scary!
On multiple occasions after I put car into motion and started to depress brake pedal, it was extraordinarily difficult to depress and was barely able to stop the vehicle. I was on a hill so this caused my car to slide forward before barely stopping. On another occasion this same thing happened when I put the car in reverse and pressed the brake pedal. This situation has occurred at least 7 times over the past year we have had this vehicle and it seems to occurs randomly.
Brakes fail to operate at slow speeds. This happens when I'm pulling into a parking spot at very slow speeds while in motion. This is a severe safety hazard as I can't press the brake pedal to stop.
While driving in stop and go traffic brakes stopped working. Eventually was able to come to a stop but felt like I had to fight the pedal to press it down hard enough. Kids were in the car and we were almost T boned at an intersection. Drove to a parking lot and went to park and had the same problem, couldn't stop and almost hit the parking block. Have 45000 miles on the car. At 40,000 the ac stopped working and had to put 1500 dollars into a new ac - now will have to put 1500 dollars into the brakes as this is not covered under warranty. When will Chevy issue a recall for the problems with the 2015 brakes (and ac)?
- Mt Laurel, NJ, USA
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Vacuum pump failed (according to dealership) at approx 56,000 miles. Almost caused a wreck due to loss of brakes (within inches of hitting someone). There were no warning lights/signs/indications of failure, sudden and complete loss of brake power. Driver had to press brake pedal completely to the floor, only then did the vehicle eventually stop after several feet. Pumped brakes to check for air in line, pedal became hard as a rock. Luckily this occurred at a low speed (pulling up to a drive thru line). If on the street at higher speed, issue would of cause a serious wreck. We were forced to abandon the vehicle, park it overnight and tow it to the local Chevrolet dealer the next morning. Brakes appeared to work for tech at first, but upon further inspection and after a call to us for more info, the vacuum pump was said to be failing, losing break power after a couple presses of the pedal (hints why this failure occurred in stop-go traffic). Vacuum pump is being replaced as we speak, but we still do not feel safe driving a vehicle that can have this many safety issues at this price point and at this age; brakes, vibration at highway speeds a.K.a the "Chevy shake" that has not been fixed or acknowledged by Chevrolet after several trips to dealer, tire recalls, an extended warranty on the A/C due to failures (and it did fail at 36,000), and now a power steering recall, just to name a few.
I was dropping off my children at school and had my foot on the brake while they unloaded. As I was driving away at a very low speed (3 or 4 mph) I went to brake around a curve in the parking lot and I could not depress my brake. I tried several times before throwing the car into park and slamming on the parking brake to get the car to stop. This occurred in a parking lot full of kids walking by. I was very lucky not to have hit someone. I then released the parking brake and with my foot on the brake tried to put the car in drive and again the brake would not work so I again used the parking brake to stop the car from rolling. At that point I thought I would try to guide the car out of the the way of the buses and children with the emergency brake so I turned it off completely and upon restarting the car the brake was functional again. I am taking the car to Chevy today but they say there is no recall on the issue however, in researching what could have happened I have found many similar accounts of brake failure at low speed in 2015 Suburban. I could have easily killed someone if I hadn't thought quickly to throw the car into park and use the emergency brake.
When idling in motion the brakes do not work as with a normal tap and you have to stomp on the brakes really hard almost going to the floor in order to get the car to stop. This has almost caused a lot of accidents. No one seems to know what is causing this. Otherwise the brakes work perfectly fine. It is just in this situation. This has been a constant problem on and off since I purchased the vehicle.
Our 2015 Chevy Suburban had a sudden break loss and it is continuing to happen at slow speeds. The first occurrence happened on the highway traveling at about 60 mph. Pedal became very hard to depress
I noticed the break light came on and within 10 mins I lost my breaks and was unable to press break pedal down to stop. This seems to be very common with this vehicle at 50K miles which mine was as well.
Driving on freeway and we lost the breaks. Barley made it off the freeway without crashing. Chevy says its the vacuum pump, right around 50,000 miles. I have read many complaints online with the same issue and same mileage. Will it take someone being killed before this is recalled? very scary for our family!
Brakes fail to stop at low speed. Vehicle is in motion. It happens after the pedal is depressed a few times and on the third or fourth time the pedal is hard and is very difficult to stop th vehicle.
There are numerous reports of 2015 Chevrolet Suburban's suffering brake lose. The reports are vacuum pump failure which leads to a stiff or unmovable brake pedal while driving. The brakes are completely inoperable and can obviously lead to a collision. While my vehicle has not experienced this yet, we have a friend who suffered the brake failure described above. In doing some research online, we've discovered this to be a common problem. The complainants describe the problem of a stiff or unmovable brake pedal and total brake lose. Our friend has a 2015 Suburban and was nearly involved in a collision on 6/27/2018. Our research has also shown there are numerous complaints regarding this issue and that GM is aware of the problem. If true, we believe, in the interest of safety, GM should recall these vehicles and rectify the problem immediately.
Brake system failure, when pressure is applied to brake pedal the system fails and will not stop vehicle. Usually happens at low rate of speed. The first time this happened to us we were reversing our vehicle down a boat ramp. The vehicle wouldn't stop and almost went into the lake. The vehicle had to put in drive to prevent being submerged in water. Took the vehicle to a Chevy dealer and the whole braking system had to be replaced. We were told this is a known problem with 2015 Suburban and Tahoe vehicles.
My vehicle has exhibited a knocking noise on the left driver side tire, problems with vibration at high speeds, engine light coming on if driving highway speeds, brake issues, brakes become stiff and will not stop vehicle whatsoever! at both this happened twice while my car was in motion nearly killing me and my kids!!! air conditioning issues as well. Blows hot air until you play with bottoms.
In October 2017 we experienced brief periods where brake pedal became rigid and impossible to depress. The vehicle was taken to our local Chevrolet dealer. We described in detail the rigid brake pedal. The dealer wanted to do put new brake pads and turn the rotors. I thought it was strange that a vehicle with just over 40 thousand miles would need new brakes, but we had the work done. The dealer also wanted to replace the vacuum hose which powers the brake system. This work was also done. Next, on Friday March 23, 2018 we were traveling on an interstate at a high speed when the brake pedal became impossible to depress. We were very fortunate not to cause a serious accident. I had to have it towed to a dealer and rent a car. The following week we were contacted by the dealer doing the repairs. Our Suburban had a vacuum pump failure. This caused total brake failure. After some research I discovered that this vehicle's engine does not produce enough vacuum to power the brakes (unlike every other vehicle on the road). In any other car the only way you lose suction for your brakes is if the engine stops. In our Suburban the engine can be running fine and you may or may not have brakes. The warning system is totally useless as it isn't triggered until you experience total brake failure without any warning. While the vehicle was in the service department having vacuum pump replaced the dealer also explained that all four magnetic ride shocks/struts were locked in place and not functioning at all. This is another serious safety issue. I have never heard of shocks "locking up". after some more research, I found this is a huge problem for GM vehicles. A problem that GM has failed to address. I have also had 3 major repairs on ac. Including ne ac lines and new compressor.
Placing car in reverse or drive at slow speeds and pressing brakes all the way to the floor with the vehicle not stopping. Brake system warning light would come on. Issue comes and goes when it pleases. Taking the Suburban to dealership today. Started happening around 59000 miles
Issue regarding braking system and internal failure. Cost to repair is $1500 on a 3 year old car. GM has been aware of this issue since 2015. They are also defendants in a class action lawsuit regarding the brakes and the catastrophic failure that will eventually result in death.
As we were driving from atlanta to miami, when we were getting off the highway the brakes on our 2015 Chevrolet Suburban failed to stop at 60 miles per hour, we almost reared-ended an eighteen-wheeler; with our family of five and our two dogs on board! all fluids had been checked on the car and the brake pads were recently changed. We just called and notified Chevrolet about this safety issue. We asked if there were any issues and/or recalls on our vehicle and the agent said that there were no issues or recalls regarding this type of vehicle. We made an appointment to have our car diagnosed as soon as possible. After researching online we found numerous posts on several sites from other Suburban owners reporting the same issue with their braking system not responding. What will it take for Chevrolet to acknowledge this brake failure system issue"!?! someone to get killed?!"! please look into this brake failure issue and address it promptly!!!
While traveling straight at 70 mph on the highway in my 2015 Chevy Suburban (62K miles) the vehicle experienced a sudden and undetected complete brake system failure. As I approached slowing traffic with the cruise control on, I tapped the brakes to disengage the cruise control, only to find that the brake pedal was rigid and could not be depressed. To avoid a collision at a high rate of speed I swerved onto the right shoulder while using two legs to aggressively push the brake pedal down - all the while feeling very little braking action. The car came to a stop after about 75 meters. At no time before or during the event did the car signal a braking system problem. In fact it still showed no system indicator of a brake problem 3 days later when it was delivered to the dealer for diagnosis. The car has been well maintained, having just undergone a 60K mile service at the dealership. The lack of the vehicle's recognition that a critical failure in the braking system had occurred posed a serious and immediate threat to passengers and surrounding traffic. As a physician I can attest that a collision at that speed would have severely injured or even killed those involved. This problem with the 2015 Chevy sub has reported to NHTSA before - this is not an isolated event. The service center reported to me that a vacuum pump failure was to blame - I believe this is a more complex engineering problem in that the vehicle did not detect a problem despite the failure creating a life threatening scenario. Although I plan to immediately dispose of this car, failure to address this problem by the manufacturer will put others at risk in the future. GM appears to have issued a service bulletin that refers to this problem (attached). I sincerely believe this defect will result in lives lost if left unaddressed. Information redacted pursuant to the Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6).
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- Dallas, TX, USA