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GM Recalls Nearly 340,000 Vehicles Over DRLs That Don't Deactivate

On August 30th, a General Motors employee used the Speak Up For Safety platform to inform the biggest automaker of the Big Three in Detroit of a problem affecting the daytime running lights fitted to full-size utility vehicles produced for the 2021 model year. An investigation was opened on September 16th to identify the root cause and potential noncompliance.
Chevrolet Tahoe 7 photos
Photo: Chevrolet
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As it happens, the software in the body control module wasn’t written with utmost attention to detail. “Under a combination of certain pre-conditions, it may fail to deactivate the DRLs when the headlamps are on.” The report attached below also mentions a regulatory assessment that concluded with a noncompliance. More specifically, daytime running lights that don’t deactivate as intended do not comply with section 7.10.5 of FMVSS 108.

Given these findings, the Safety Field Action Decision Authority within General Motors decided that a recall is necessary. The body control modules that feature iffy software bear part numbers 13546033 and 13546036 as per the document below. The remedy, as expected, comes in the guise of a software update that shouldn’t take too long in terms of labor time. Dealers have been informed that verifying the software should take 0.2 hours, and reprogramming shouldn’t take more than half an hour.

Affected owners, and there are lots of them, will be notified of this recall from December 19th onward. As implied by the headline, almost 340,000 vehicles are called back. The estimated percentage affected by said issue is 100 percent. Of the 338,735 vehicles that need fixing, the GMC Yukon numbers 68,921 examples, while the Yukon XL accounts for 37,469 units.

The Cadillac Escalade and Escalade ESV are listed with 27,455 and 15,955 copies, the Chevrolet Tahoe numbers 134,673 examples, and the slightly longer Chevy Suburban is called back to the tune of 54,262 units.

All of these vehicles were produced for the 2021 model year, the first year of production of the current generations. All are based on the T1XX body-on-frame platform that replaced the K2XX. Half-ton pickup trucks based on the T1XX platform are not affected by the condition described earlier.
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 Download: GM SUV DRL software recall (PDF)

About the author: Mircea Panait
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After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well.
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