General Motors is recalling more than 484,000 three-row SUVs in the United States to fix an issue that can cause third-row seat belts to malfunction.
The recall includes the 2021 and 2022 Cadillac Escalade and Escalade ESV, Chevrolet Tahoe and Suburban, and GMC Yukon and Yukon XL SUVs.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) detailed that the third-row seat belt buckles may have been installed incorrectly at the factory and could come off. As a result, they may not adequately restrain third row occupants.
The NHTSA report details that the defective seat belts were produced by manufacturer ZF at a plant located in Durango . GM says it is aware of eight cases in which seat belt buckle assemblies separated, none of which resulted in crashes or injuries.
The first case was reported on May 14, 2022, when a GM dealer in the United States received a customer report of a seat belt buckle that separated from the third row of seats in a 2021 Chevrolet Suburban.
After receiving the report, GM opened a formal investigation on May 31 and concluded that the supplier’s manufacturing plant may have “failed to follow the manufacturing processes correctly and inadvertently skipped the rivet-forming operation.”
After the failures were reported, the seat belt supplier changed its manufacturing processes and added an additional inspection step to ensure new parts were not affected by the same problem.
Dealers will inspect and, if necessary, replace defective parts with upgraded ones, free of charge.
Retired Vehicles
Cadillac Escalade manufactured from March 16, 2020 to May 27, 2022
Cadillac Escalade ESV manufactured from June 24, 2020 to May 27, 2022
Chevrolet Suburban manufactured from January 6, 2020 to May 27, 2022
Chevrolet Tahoe manufactured from November 11, 2019 to May 27, 2022
GMC Yukon manufactured from November 12, 2019 to May 27, 2022
GMC Yukon XL manufactured from January 6, 2020 through May 27, 2022
