As GM Authority has covered extensively in the past, General Motors has issued a massive recall affecting a range of models equipped with the naturally aspirated 6.2L V8 L87 gasoline engine. Affected vehicles may be equipped with a defective engine that could fail, leading to a loss of propulsion and posing a potential safety hazard. According to recall documents, GM estimates that roughly three percent of the L87 engines impacted by this recall will need to be replaced.
According to recall documents published by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the L87 recall affects roughly 597,630 vehicles produced between the 2021 and 2024 model years (and not the 2019, 2020, or 2025 model years). The documents estimate that three percent of these vehicles are equipped with a defective engine, or roughly 17,929 units in the U.S. The recall also affects L87-powered vehicles abroad, including 49,848 units in Canada and 721,000 units worldwide. Applying the three-percent estimate to these figures, we find that roughly 1,495 engines will need replacement in Canada, and about 21,630 engines will need replacement worldwide.
As for the total units recalled in the U.S., the document breaks it down as follows:
- Cadillac Escalade (79,747 vehicles)
- Cadillac Escalade ESV (46,280 vehicles)
- Chevy Silverado 1500 (107,244 vehicles)
- Chevy Suburban (22,162 vehicles)
- Chevy Tahoe (44,802 vehicles)
- GMC Sierra 1500 (153,630 vehicles)
- GMC Yukon (82,832 vehicles)
- GMC Yukon XL (60,933 vehicles)
The issue stems from two potential defects in the L87 engine affecting the connecting rods and crankshaft. More specifically, the problem is linked to manufacturing flaws that may lead to rod-bearing damage caused by sediment on the connecting rods and in the crankshaft oil galleries, as well as issues related to the crankshaft specs and finish.
Owners of affected vehicles may notice a few warning signs prior to complete engine failure, such as unusual engine noises (knocking or banging), a check engine light, or performance issues like hesitation, high RPMs, or difficulty starting. A GM analysis of more than 28,000 field complaints identified 14,332 incidents involving a loss of propulsion and 12 potentially related crashes.
To remedy the issue, a GM technician will inspect the engine and, if the related defects are identified, replace the engine. If the engine is unaffected by the defects, the dealer will replace the engine oil with a higher viscosity oil and update the oil fill cap, oil filter, and owner’s manual.
Vehicle owners not included in the recall should not switch to the new engine oil viscosity.
The GM Tonawanda plant in New York is currently working overtime to produce additional L87 engines.
Comments
That’s gotta hurt.
Sure will make them pay….
Toyota is still replacing motors….and dates beyond the ones which require replacement have also failed.
We as customers pay the price for terrible QC manufacturers put out nowadays…
Rest assured, this job will take probably 5-7 years plus an extra year or two accounting for backorders…..
So if another auto manufacturer in this case you mentioned Toyota if they have problems so it’s okay for your GM to have problems but today’s technology and that’s the best GM came up with was that engine obviously I would trade that thing in asp I’ve been burned by the rust on GM vehicles the engines and Transmissions some people want to go buy something the first thing in your head is go to Walmart and buy it just because GM spends millions and millions of dollars on Advertising it’s almost like their brainwashing to people
I don’t know how many of you folks have ever experienced having a late model vehicle that the engine had to be changed, but I know someone that GM had to replace the engine in his Camaro because it blew up. IT WAS A PIECE OF “JUNK” WHEN HE GOT IT BACK! That is a job for skilled mechanics not dealership hires.
3% of a motor that’s 1/4th their full size truck/SUV sales is less than 1% overall. It hurts as it’s an expensive item, but compared to other recalls (Toyota having to replace every single engine, takata airbags being very single car) this is very mild. Everyone else I know still considers this the engine to get even over the Ford coyote.
I have a coyote and a 6.2. with Ford peddling a 12.0/1 compression engine in a truck and telling customers to run 87 in it, you can bet those are going to be major oil burners. Mine has 125k on it and eats a quart every 1000 miles. I got it with 117k and noticed right away major pre-ignition on 87 and 89 octane. Pretty sure knocking has trashed the rings.
They may end up with the same rep as the 5.4.
Ford should have recommended premium….
91 is recommended for all 6.2l L87 motors. Say’s it in the manual and on the gas door of my 24 Tahoe and a few of my friends Silverado’s. Where did you hear 87?
My 2021 Tahoe 6.2 gas door only says to use 93 octane. The owner manual says that 93 should be used but also says that 87 can be used; confusing. Further, it says to change to 93 if you hear knocking with 87. Well, the knock sensor must be sensing something even if you can’t hear it. I wonder how many of the failed engines were burning 87.
I think it is ironic that the plant that screwed up the engines in the first place is being rewarded with overtime to make the replacement engines.
The plant assembles the engines with parts sourced from suppliers all over the place. I have heard the bad L87 cranks were sourced from a supplier in Mexico that was not polishing them correctly. Not sure you can blame the plant.
The story I saw yesterday was a plant in Mexico that was making the crankshafts and it was an issue with the rod journal speciation.
A 3% failure rate so far. Expect these numbers to double in the coming years as more engines continue to fail. The only saving grace is if a new engine is not required GM will extend your warranty for 10 years or 1500,000 miles. However this still does not address the potential loss of resale value for current owners of recalled vehicles. Nobody wants to purchase a used vehicle that previously had an engine recall or replacement.
Did you read the article? The article said GM expects 3% of the recalled vehicles to have the defect, not a 3% failure rate so far.
To quote the article ” …… GM estimates that roughly three percent of the L87 engines impacted by this recall will need to be replaced.”
And GM built hundreds of thousands of these engines for years with them failing all along and did nothing until the NHTSA got involved. You honestly expect them to tell the truth about anything related to this recall? And you honestly think that a change in oil viscosity is going to cure a crankshaft that manufactured out of spec or sediment in the block castings that’s causing crank and rod journal failure? This is a systemic lack of QA and they are trying to bandaid their way to the next decade with the least amount of hit to their bottom line. They forgot about the customer long before Mary got there, she’s just made it worse.
Numbers not adding up: 28,000 complaints, 14,000 loss of power so far, another 770,848 Times 3%=23,125 more bad engines. That is 6.6% of failed and to be replaced motors. Also does not include valve issues?
GM better include a 10 year 150 miles additional warrantee. This should include a vehicle of similar build during the warrantee work and the option to replace or buy back the vehicle at a reasonable price if repair last longer than 60 days. Blue book or Black book plus 10% increase. No telling the affected owner his vehicle is in fair to poor condition. Owner gets top trade in.
If GM fails this approach no more GM products. GM is advertising the most dependable trucks. We will see shortly. For now dealers and GM aren’t talking. Say they have no solution. They only told me to keep using 0w-20 oil. Just seen a fairly new Chevrolet 1500 sitting dead in the road blocking traffic.
I checked with the dealer I bought my 2024 Silverado 1500 from with the L87. Will not take a trade in at this time. Wow.
I just traded my 2024 TB 6.2 3700 km at the same dealership it was purchased in Canada. There was no issue other that the 13k cash difference for the 2025 TB duramax 3.0. Now I have a remedy for the issue. Trade one problem for another. lol
Mine was replaced TWICE. What’s 3% of 3% odds? (1111.11 to 1 odds) Somebody’s lying.
If that means 5 years down the road an engine fails at 150K, that’ll be hard to guess if it’s the related bearing issue or maintenance or just when the engine gives up the ghost. 150K isn’t great, but not bad either. Only 2% of vehicles make it to 200K, so 150K wouldn’t make me happy as the owner, but wouldn’t make me mad either. It’s the engines failing at 40, 50, or even 60K that are the problem.
Anyone know if GM has issued engine serial number ranges of affected motors? My dealer still has no idea and “is waiting to hear from factory” .
The bulletin does not give a production date range or a vin range. It stresses that the only way to know if a vehicle is covered is to check Investigate Vehicle History (IVH).
Newer bulletins explain how to find the build date of the engine itself and also provides the begin and end dates.
L87’s made after May, 2024 not affected is what I have read. The problems were corrected.
if made before 183rd week of 2024, you could be part of this.
That’s incorrect. It’s before the 183 day of 2024.
uh, isn’t that what I said?!? Do you read what is written or what you want to think is written?
Paul, no disrespect but you said 183 week, not day.
i checked my 2024 6.2 engine serial numbers and the dealship in canada had all the numbers and mine was 1 of them.They did not inspect my engine to see if i my engine was bad or not.
No issues with my ’22 with 16K on it and I’m fine with a change to the 0W40 Supercar M1 oil and 10 years/150K of engine warranty. My dealer offers free oil changes for life when I bought it so I’ll be pushing for them to continue that with new oil. There is still no other 1/2 engine I would rather have than a 6.2
I have a 22 with 50K miles, no engine codes and no issues so far. I completely agree with what you said, and I’ll gladly take their 10-year, 150,000 mile warranty extension.
No quick-change oil place I know carries the Mobil one approved oil. Valvoline has 0w-40 but I do not think it is approved by GM. And the filter????
Another hassle.
Okay beware because you’re changing your oil to a different velocity and changing an oil filter that picks up more metal shavings you’re just extending the life of the engine until it fails changing the oil velocity does not correct the internal problems with this engine so when it fails it’ll be out of GM’s hands and then you will be paying for the new engine
Our ‘09 Rondo runs great. Same engine as original and sometimes I forget to charge or add oil.
I want to know how they going inspect the engine
OIL SAMPLES , or a sludge sample from the pan to see how much “ground up engine” is there. That sampling GG is at least real world. Glad I waited for the gas 6.6!
computer code. P0016 i believe it is. They will scan the ECU
P0016 is apparently the code for cam and crank alignment. If it trips it indicates the oil pressure dropped enough at some point in the past to mess with the vvt. I imagine any of these trucks with that code are on borrowed time and have a bottom end that’s blue from heat.
If it codes P0016 the motor won’t start. Doesn’t make sense.
look for code P0016.. if you got it, you get new engine.
Expect at least a 10% decrease in MPG’s when you switch to a higher viscosity oil.
And don’t expect the motor to not still fail anyways. It’s like that used car scam, bad engine knock hidden by putting 90 weight gear oil in it.
Sad world where the only good new truck you can buy today is a Ford.
10%? No way.
I’ve only seen a 1mpg drop when I did a heavy oil treatment on my older cars. 3-5% max. That was going from 5w30 to 15w40. 0w40 is still significantly light, and has a similar curve to 5w30, just a little flatter.
IT’S THE 0W/20!…It’s too thin unless you live in the Artic. 5W/30 minimum or higher would surely help against failure..
I use Full synthetic 5w/40 in my 5.7s and 15w/50 in my air cooled and diesel.
Signed, YouTube’s @RedneckChannel
The LT1 6.2 motors I am told use 0w40 for Camaro and corvette .Why not the truck motors 5.3 and 6.2.
The 6..6 GM gas motor gets 05w-30.
I bought GMs all my life. My 2019 Denalis 6.2 engine failed and it cost me 10,400. I will not be buying another GM product.
My lifters in my 2015 Silverado with the 5.3 V8 a long with the camshaft. I meticulously maintained all of the required maintenance and it still failed shortly after 113,000 miles. $7,500 dollar repair. I am done with GM products.
3% seems like a PR number. How could they possibly know that 97% of the bearings were of the good variety. Crossing fingers and hoping for the best is more like it.
They are using data on what they have seen so far and extrapolating. It is an estimate, but probably a good one based on statistical analysis. The final number 10 years from now will likely be within a few thousand engines +/- their current estimate depending on the confidence interval of their projection.
Just had my 6.2 fail on my 2023 sierra 1500 on highway lucky was able to glide to breakdown lane towed to dealership engine replaced in 2-1/2 days rental truck supplied it’s been a fairly painless ordeal could have been a nightmare love my truck hope it works out ,problem started when I noticed truck needing a few extra cranks to start
I am done with GM. The second time they got us. When they reorganize several years ago, they forgot their old stockholders and offered new stock with no compensation for the old stockholders. We have not purchased a GM until this time since then. Back to imports.
I watched a YouTube video just last week of the teardown of a failed 6.2 with less than 50,000 miles that was not covered under this recall. He ran the VIN. Guess what the root cause of the failure was?
This issue is a lot larger than what GM is admitting to currently.
I saw that video also. That engine had already been dug into at least once. If you had read the comments, several GM techs pointed out head gaskets on backwards and other telltale signs. Hard to say whether that engine failed due to the problem identified in the recall.
There is no question that Capitalism requires/creates product failure. It certainly does not lend to quality or longevity. After over 100 years of making V8s, GM knows exactly how to make one that lasts. It’s far, far trickier to make one that purposefully fails shortly after warranty expiration; that’s both an art and a science. But get it wrong, and customers get to make warranty claims and the whole gamble turns up a loser both financially and to reputation.
What does this failure have to do with capitalism? The crank that was machined incorrectly was outsourced to a company in Mexico. A direct result of us government policy. The 0W-20 oil specified is solely to raise mpg .1 in the city cycle for CAFE.
Least they end up giving you a warranty. Communism showed with the trambat, here’s a car that’s spews smoke new and only goes 30mph, and it’s the only car you will get your whole life and no warranty! Good luck!
When will theyGM start contacting individuals about inspection and oil change, if engine needs to be replaced?
Around 9 June.
I saw the letter from GM and June 9th is when letters are getting mailed out
I just received my notification on MY Chev app, to take arrange for service appt Just at the same time I traded it in. Crazy I know.
It will take some time to get the trucks in for inspection and oil change . I can I use 0w-40 form Valvoline ???????? or I think they have a 05w40 racing oil. I guess I need to stay with the 0w-20 Dexos 1 so they don’t point fingers at me.
GM has quite a few issues with certain cars.my Chevrolet Equinox (2012) Ls awd as an oil leakage problem.i was supposed to get a oil consumption test but was to told I have to pay for repairs plus oil change.i had just had the oil changed.almost $200 in oil changes.i was told there was a class action suit on this car but I was to late.
My motor went out in my 2023 gmc serra two time less them six month i had rider six month straght sent i has my truck
From a lifelong GM owner. The 0w20 criteria was specified for increasing fuel saving at the expense of engine life. Eninge oil viscosity should be specified based upon the clearance between the crankshaft journals and the main or connecting rod Inserts.
Case in point the same engines designs manufactured by GM have different viscosity specified. 0w20 in the USA and 5w30 shipped to other locations. My 2005 Sierra 5.3 has had 10w30 the first 100k miles and 5w30 the last 45k miles. It does not use oil and hold the same 45PSI oil pressure as it has when it was new. Only use Quaker State oil.
You can cite all the articles on the internet and percentages there in. The bottom line is pretty clear to me. Gm has been in business and making engines since the 20s.. even after a “bailout in the billions”. They keep flip flopping on what we as a consumer should do to care for the products. 5w-30 on the cap! Oops we meant 0w-40. They’ve lied to the dealerships to push lies onto us. It’s compounded now into such a compacted pardon my language but dense s*** sandwich. I am no longer want a peice if anything gm makes. The vehicle I own 80thou kms lifter failure… , injector problems when nothing but recommended top tier fuel has ever touched my cylinders. Over and above that a transmission they refused to address for years plagued with issues. Ticking timebomb. They expect me and us to eat these costs as if that’s the way it should be, why is that? I maintained my truck as per their schedule, i put recommended fluids at intervals or even sooner then recommended. The service techs told me oh you can do oil changed every 10,000kms now… i knew better i stuck to my gut as taught by my old man. Didnt matter in the slightest because its a garbage product from the start.. I’m not saying Toyota or Ford or whom is better or worst. It’s my opinion that all of them got together and agreed to make trash products so they can all cash in.
the name goes on before the quality goes in. Answer me this–why in the past 20 years has there been so many recalls from GM?? When I was in the business up to the late 90’s there was hardly any. Time to fault either the engineers or the builders (unions) or Sr Mgt !!! (Where does the buck stop?)
Our ‘23 YukonXL Denali failed over the weekend with 30k miles on it, only 5 hours away from home on a trip. I was told yesterday it needs a replacement engine with no timetable for repair at the moment. My local dealer said the engines are on back order and expect 60-90 days. Would love for GM to buy back these failed vehicles, I’m worried about what else is now damaged from the engine failing at 75 mph on the highway.
Imagine your beautiful Escalade rotting in the back lot baking in the sun waiting for an engine!
6.2 L87 – The flagship premium priced ICE engine of GM. What a disgrace. It’s completely unacceptable and borders on criminal that it takes a class action lawsuit with thousands of owners and approx. 4 years for GM management to pull their heads out of the sand and admit to this very serious problem and initiate a corrective action.
Folks spending $75k or more for a new vehicle, order the L87 and the engine fails in less than 5k miles. The engine is replaced at the local dealer once the replacement finally arrives then the replacement engine experiences the same exact failure. Seen it happen. Unfortunate replacement engine vehicles will never be the same.
Failed engines, automatic transmissions, corvette wheels, etc. Obvious that GM has a real serious quality problem that needs serious corrective action instead of ignoring the problems or changing oil viscosity with high hopes. What a honking mess!
Focusing on new vehicle models and ignoring all the past vehicle quality failures will not end positively.
Hello? Mary? Mark? Anyone listening to us out here?
Well my 2021 RST 53k miles on shot craps, dealership can’t give me a lead time for the new engine arrival, I may challenge them with replacement of the whole truck under the lemon law claims
Just had our ’21 Escalade break down 100 miles into a 600 mile move. Complete loss of power, waited 5 hours for a tow and battery died with hazards on. No way to put in neutral or open trunk. Jump did not work. Dragged up flatbed with skates to nearest dealership. Had to shake flatbed back and forth with soap and water to slide vehicle off. They said it needs a new engine. Got loaner no timeline yet.
Bought a used 2024 Yukon Denali in Dec of 24, realized it is too big for just the wife and I, found a new 2025 Lexus gx550 that will be here around June 28, what should I expect to get trade in.? Paid over 75 for the Denali that we bought at a gmc dealership that was sold to us as a “Certified Pre- Owned” vehicle. Should they have to buy it back, less for 4,000 mi. we put on?