My 1999 c1500 suburban caught fire while parked and completely off. It had been parked fro 9 hours when we were awakened at 2am by neighbors and police trying to evacuate our home. The car burned to the ground and was the most frightening experience. I have a 9 and 6 year old that are traumatized by the incident. I reported the matter to the gmc customer care and they replied saying that they would contact me in 2 days. This is unforgiveable.
GMC Suburban fire or smoke problems
16 of the 1,768 owner complaints about the GMC Suburban describe fire, smoke or burning smell, most of them for the 1999 model year.
- owner complaints
- 16
- worst model year
- 1999
Is there a fix? No recall or service bulletin covers this area of the car yet.
By model year
- 19996
- 19981
- 19973
- 19962
- 19941
- 19931
- 19922
Often reported together
Trouble codes mentioned
C1500 1
What owners say
1996 gmc suburban, caught on fire. Bf ohio traffic crash report #10-0580-91 updated 05/03/10
Transmission caught fire underneath my 1992 gmc k2500 suburban it burned tranny up if I didn't have a fire extinguisher vehicle would have been fully engulfed 1 person received a non sutured laceration on for head fell when trying to get out of vehicle to get away from fire and smoke coming from underneath vehicle nothing yet has been done on tranny problem the only thing that got damaged was my suburban transmission I don't know what else it did to the underneath I have to check.
While driving up the interstate, the headlights went out. Moved the tilt steering wheel a notch or two and the lights came back on. We drove a few more miles and they went out again, this time accompanied by a burning smell. Took it to gm garage (who wanted $90 an hour) to look at it. I checked it out myself and found wires corroded in the harness (located in steering column) and two burned through. Cleaned the wires and soldered them back. Contacted gm about problem, received no help. Checked with insurance company and filed a statement with them. Wiring harness will have to be replaced.
Consumer states that the other day, he had parked and was attempting to get out of his vehicle. He says that nothing he tried would unlock the driver side from the inside. He said he finally had to crawl to the passenger side and opened the door from the outside. He said this was very frightening because what if the vehicle was on fire, he said he would have burned up. He took the vehicle to the shop and had it repaired. Please help because this should not have happened. *nm
Fire then smoke coming from wire harness.
When starting the vehicle consumer noticed black smoke coming from the dashboard.consumer turned the vehicle off, and called the fire department. The fire department was able to put the fire out.
The vehicle caught on fire. The fire chief stated it was possible there was a short in the steering column. *ak
While the vehicle was parked and the igniton was off the switch on the drivers door for the side view mirrors suddenly ignited . The keys were not in the car and in fact the car had not been in use for over five hours. Luckily our son went out into the garage and reported back that the car was full of smoke. When I went out the flames were already coming up through the melted holes in the door trim panel.
Front wiper motor stalled during rainstorm, travelling 55mph on major highway. Wiper and wiper fluid motor quit unexpectedly while in operation or while stopped. Sometimes a buzzing sound occurs with the failure. I discovered that I can tap the wiper motor module and the wiper motor may begin again, but its work will be shortlived. Another problem I encountered with this vehicle was a meltdown and small fire under the driverside dash. The rocker switch that controls the dome light has an "auto" and an "off" position. While in "auto" for about 1 hour with the doors open, I noticed smoke coming from underneath the dash and the rocker switch had melted down due to excessive heat building up in the contact. I contacted the local dealer when I purchased a replacement switch who commented that these switches were a problem.
Related recalls
No recalls on record for this model year.
Questions about the GMC Suburban fire or smoke
Which GMC Suburban years have fire, smoke or burning smell problems?
The model years with the most reports are 1999 (6 complaints), 1997 (3 complaints) and 1992 (2 complaints).
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