Carquestions - Ottawa - In late February GM Canada started to send out recall notices for 190,310 Chevrolet and GMC full size pickups such as the Silverado and Sierra. Transport Canada issued a recall notice February 21 covering both models and their sister vehicles from 2003 to 2007. It seems GM Canada thinks the cold climate and road salt has caused the defroster blower motor resistor module located under the dash to malfunction. Owners are told the blower motor may stop working, stay working with the key off or start smoking. They go on to say you can reduce the risk of a vehicle fire if you don't leave your vehicle unattended. To top off the good safety news they tell you that you can expect a second letter telling you when to bring your vehicle in since they don't have the parts on hand to fix it - you see they have contacted their parts supplier and are making arrangements, how very reassuring.
The three most ridiculous things about this recall are that there has been complaints about this online for some time at carcomplaints.com since at least September 2010 and on NHTSA since July last year.
The second ridiculous thing is that GM could put in a temporary fix right away to keep you and your family safe by simply putting in a fused wire and have the fan run at full speed - at least you'd be safe and have a working fan motor. GM has decided just to inform you of this fire hazard for now thus limiting their liability. In the mean time you are expected to make sure your Silverado doesn't burn down your house before they can find the parts to fix it.
The most ridiculous thing of all is that NHTSA received from GM a foreign recall notice telling them about the Canadian recall the same day they had a recall in Canada. The letter also tells NHTSA that on January 27, 2010 GM executives agreed to offer US truck owners a special warranty of 10 years or 150,00 miles and if they had any further questions to please give them a call - Ridiculous - NHTSA to date has not issued any recall regarding this issue. Carquestions will be posting this on US Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood's Facebook page. Maybe he can kick this into gear like he did to Toyota, it should be a no-brainer for him since this problem is real and not imagined like the Toyota problem was. It's beginning to appear that NHTSA can't get GM or Ford to recall anything unless they say so. Just look at the recent Ford pickup airbag recall drama where they gave NHTSA the finger for a few months. NHTSA's claim last year to get tough on the manufacturers seems to be xenophobic or just old fashioned garden variety racism when it comes to putting words to practice.
In the interim Carquestions is advising owners to disconnect all connections to the blower motor and resistor and to take every precaution parking your vehicle away from all buildings until you have your vehicle fixed.
Special thanks to Brian Ross of ABC News and David Shepardson of the Detroit News for not taking the time to cover this story.
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