Recall For 324,000+ General Motors Trucks, Fire Risk!

If there’s one quality that we absolutely love about our rides, it’s that they don’t catch on fire. Right? Well, if they start doing that for no apparent reason, maybe it’s time to issue a recall. GM recalled a collection of 2017-2017 HD trucks recently due to a fire hazard. It surrounds issues with the engine block heater.

Via The Car Connection “Both the 2017-2019 Chevrolet Silverado 2500HD and 3500HD and GMC Sierra 2500HD and 3500HD heavy-duty pickups with the optional engine-block heater could be at risk of a short circuit. Only trucks with the 6.6-liter Duramax turbodiesel V-8 engine are part of the recall. GM said in documents released by the NHTSA documents last week that the short circuit could damage engine components, and in rare cases, start a fire in the engine compartment. Per the automaker, 205,812 Silverado 2500 and 3500 trucks are affected and another 117,078 Sierra 2500 and 3500 are affected.”

Recalls are kind of a sticky situation as companies like GM are forced with a balancing act. They need to put themselves in between what might be a freak accident and a factory defect that could put more of their customers in danger. At this point, it seems like they certainly have some major fixing to do.

What is essentially happening is the engine block heater could cause a coolant leak. This leak then has a way of creating a short circuit which leads to a fire. The short comes with the coolant comes in contact with the heater’s terminals. GM also says that this could happen if the plug for the heater itself has a chaffed wire. It’s certainly a case of better safe than sorry for those who own trucks that fall into this category.

Dealers were alerted of the recall on April 26 but it’s still not clear when owners of the trucks affected will be notified.