5.3

fairly significant
Crashes / Fires:
0 / 0
Injuries / Deaths:
0 / 0
Average Mileage:
17,514 miles

About These NHTSA Complaints:

This data is from the NHTSA — the US gov't agency tasked with vehicle safety. Complaints are spread across multiple & redundant categories, & are not organized by problem.

So how do you find out what problems are occurring? For this NHTSA complaint data, the only way is to read through the comments below. Any duplicates or errors? It's not us.

2017 GMC Canyon engine problems

engine problem

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2017 GMC Canyon Owner Comments

problem #14

Oct 042023

Canyon

  • miles

A D V E R T I S E M E N T S

Catastrophic engine failure. Piston #1 damage after a fuel injector issue. The truck just hit 100k miles. This left my husband stranded over an hour away. No check engine light or warning other than a loud pop and smoke. No warranty on the truck, I-??ve been quoted $12k for a new engine. I have read MULTIPLE forums (one thread of 77 posts) of the same thing/similar thing happening.

- Dahlonega, GA, USA

problem #13

Apr 062023

Canyon

  • miles
The transmission shudders terribly. It is available for inspection. It is unsafe because while in traffic situations, it doesn't get up to speed correctly. It is as if it can't find the gear, it feels like it is about to stall. It is not dependable to stay at a speed, or increase speed. The dealership said that changing the transmission fluid would help, and it did for a while. The problem came back, we had the fluid changed again. The problem came right back again.

- Freeport, TX, USA

problem #12

Jul 312021

Canyon

  • miles
This is the 2nd time this has happened. The 1st time making a left onto route 23 from route 296 in Windham NY. Almost got T-Boned. Stalled wouldn't start. Waited 5 minutes and it started again. Ran rough then died again thankfully in a more opportune spot. MY car randomly & without warning loses all power and electric and shuts down. The 1st time I had it towed to Matthews GMC (where I purchased 4 pick ups) and they stated it was a NOX sensor and repaired it. Saturday this happened again while driving at 55 MPH and stalled on a blind curve (very scary). I left a complaint on this website to hopefully prevent a fatality. I thought I would recieve a response from you the NTSB but didn't. I went online and noticed there a a number of folks that had the same problem. Do you wait for fatalities before action is taken??

- Brooklyn , NY, USA

problem #11

Jul 302021

Canyon

  • miles

A D V E R T I S E M E N T S

Truck turned just over 62000 miles and appears to have engine oil cooler line failure. No oil on engine just dripping in protective plastic between radiator and engine. Spraying back underneath when moving. Checked on lone and blogs are showing many others with same problem with near catastrophic failure. I have dealer appointment for Wednesday August 4th 2021 to have it checked.

- Slippery Rock , PA, USA

problem #10

May 122021

Canyon

  • 54,000 miles
Vehicle stalled when I was making a left turn onto route 23 from route 296 in windham NY. Car shuttered and stalled. Almost got T-boned by a semi. Extremely lucky that I was able to roll backwards onto the bridge behind me. I did go online and saw that were other owners with the duramax diesel that experienced similar problems. This could have been a fatal issue. I'm actually worried about driving this pick up. Contacted the dealer and they told me without the error code they couldn't help me. Disconnected the battery to clear the check engine light. Any suggestions?

- Windham, NY, USA

problem #9

Jan 012021

Canyon

  • 41,000 miles
Oil leaking from a high pressure oil line. It was a pin hole in middle of line, rubber part located between radiator and engine. It was discovered after being parked for an hour in driveway, after a 100 mile drive. It happened while driving because the oil was everywhere around engine and on inside of tires.this was a very significant leak. Lost pints of oil. When I started car to check for leak it could be clearly seen pushing out with pressure. The placement of this hole makes it hard to beleive that anything could of punctured it. From some searching it seems this is not an uncommon problem. There are claims that the burst is due to starts in cold weather. The day it happened was 1/1/21, it was cold but not extreme I would say low 30's F I am filing this after truck was brought to shop, I did not take pictures or video, regrettable. Of course this was (is) a major inconvenience, a mess in driveway etc.but I consider myself lucky that my engine did not go on fire. Feel free to contact me for additional info

- Hampton Bays, NY, USA

problem #8

Nov 202019

Canyon

  • 18,367 miles

A D V E R T I S E M E N T S

GM had a recall on the 3.6 lgz equipped in trucks in Canada. Cold weather caused oil pump to over pressurizing of oil and damage to oil cooler and lines. Leaking oil in to engine compartment and on roadway. This has happened to me twice now once in March of 2018 and now again in November 2019. Doing research this is a common complaint. I would like national highway traffic safety department to look into this an do similar recall as Canada. Here in Minnesota it gets as cold or colder than Canada.

- Blaine, MN, USA

problem #7

Mar 012018

Canyon

  • 3,072 miles
GM had a recall on the 3.6 lgz equipped in trucks in Canada. Cold weather caused oil pump to over pressurizing of oil and damage to oil cooler and lines. Leaking oil in to engine compartment and on roadway. This has happened to me twice now once in March of 2018 and now again in November 2019. Doing research this is a common complaint. I would like national highway traffic safety department to look into this an do similar recall as Canada. Here in Minnesota it gets as cold or colder than Canada.

- Blaine, MN, USA

problem #6

Mar 282019

Canyon

  • 6,660 miles
Vehicle has 6600 miles- while normal driving around town, noticed a gasoline/oil smell. After being parked for 5 minutes recieved a warning message to turn off the engine due to low oil pressure, then noticed a large pool of oil spreading under the engine bay of the truck. This is the second time oil has leaked from the engine, first repair performed by the dealer was to replace an oil cooler hose. Contacted dealer service department, they said they had never seen this issue before. Contacted dealer where truck was purchased and they have repaired this issue multiple times by swapping the oil pump for one with lower flow rates (similar to/same as GM recall #N1821800260, which doesn't yet apply to this model somehow).

- Great Falls, MT, USA

problem #5

Jan 312019

Canyon

  • 14,500 miles
2017 GMC Canyon equipped with diesel engine will sporadically shut-off while operating when driving with a tank that is less than 1/4 full. On 1/31/19 (odometer ~14200 miles) vehicle was driving fine with an ambient air temperature of roughly 0F, fuel tank at 1/3, when all of sudden the engine died in traffic with no warning. Vehicle then needed to be towed to the dealership for service at which point they couldn't find anything wrong with it. Again on 3/4/19 (odometer ~15100 miles) vehicle was driving fine when the dash lit up with multiple codes and truck went into reduced power mode, ambient air temperature 10F gas tank at 1/8th. Got out of truck and it smelled like it was on fire. Called to have vehicle towed to dealership. Vehicle kept for multiple days at dealership, dealer worked with GM to identify an issue and no fix was found. Dealer called to instruct me to not drive the vehicle with less than 1/4 tank during winter and also mentioned that this has been an issue with a few other Canyon and terrain diesel models. GM needs to find a fix for this! it is totally unsafe and unacceptable to have a truck that will unexpectedly loose total power when driving due to a design flaw in their systems.

- Shorewood, WI, USA

problem #4

Jun 042018

Canyon

  • 16,000 miles

A D V E R T I S E M E N T S

Torque converter fails at 12000 miles for many. There is a GMC notice out since 2016. Mine failed at 16000 miles and the one they replaced will likely fail again in another 16K miles. This is bad. I noticed it when I pressed on the accelerator and as I increased speed up to 45 mph. It rattled and rocked badly. The GMC repairman said, "yeap.....ever since 2016 all these [xxx] torque converters have been failing in the Canyons and colorados because GM and Chevy changed the size and strength of the metal used in order to reduce the weight of trhe vehicle. We will replace it, but I can assure you it will fail again and you'll have to bring it back to use for change out again." Wow....what a bunch of crap. Parts of this document have been redacted to protect personally identifiable information pursuant to the Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6).

- Vero Beach, FL, USA

problem #3

Sep 072018

Canyon

  • 71,800 miles
Duramax 2.8 engine suffered gcatastrophic engine failureh at less than 72,000 miles. Documentation available to show engine has received proper maintenance. This occurred in center lane of I-95 in heavy traffic. This occurred on 07sep18 in stafford va.

- Baltimore, MD, USA

problem #2

Aug 312018

Canyon

  • 5,000 miles
Owned this 2017 GMC Canyon for 1 year and 1 month with 5000 miles when it developed an oil leak. Brought to dealer who found the oil leak coming from a "pinhole" in the oil coolant hose. When I researched this specific oil leak online a found a forum post with many other people who have had this same issue since the 2015 model year. Other people did not notice the leak until all of their oil had drained and had to be towed to service. I noticed it early enough that I still had oil when I arrived at the dealership to get it checked out. It looks like this is still an ongoing issue with the 2018 models too, but not much is being done by GM to proactively fix the bad hoses.

- Great Falls, MT, USA

problem #1

Apr 062018

Canyon

  • 14,800 miles
Nox sensor position 2 failed, second occurrence, diesel vehicle entered limp mode. Limp mode is dangerous and indicated def fluid issue. This is a false positive (as described in many places on the internet and by the dealer) as a result of the sensor failure. First dealer did not stock the part, dealer 178 miles away had the part in stock. Limp mode is a continued decrease in vehicle max speed. While a failure of the exhaust system is critical, it should not be allowed to place an owner at risk. By the time I reached the second dealer, I had 4 miles until the vehicle would degrade to 4mph. I was asked to leave without execution of a critical step, because GM documents did not recommend that step as part of the repair. 2 scenarios exist, sensor failure without limp mode and failure with limp mode. In limp mode the vehicle cannot be driven long enough to reset the failure and GM should include this in the remediation. Incrementally, the dealer should have a process to reset limp mode to allow travel without this mode until the next ignition cycle. Also this would be a preferable service from onstar. The limp mode is great for the casual issue but creates a risk to life and limb for travelers and should have limited over ride capability. Being the failure happened on a major highway, in a construction area with concrete barriers on each side this created great stress. No american should own a vehicle costing $41000 that leaves you at risk or stranded. This is irresponsible.

- Mansfield, TX, USA

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