While driving the vehicle, the door locks began to cycle, nav system and radio on and off. After stopped, remote car lock inoperative, tried to start vehicle and there was no indication of any electrical power with the key on....I thought is was a dead battery. After cycling the ignition key several times, electrical power came back to 'normal' and I was able to drive the car home with my wife and granddaughter. The svc air bag light was on and I took it straight to the gmc dealer for diagnosis and repair. The service adviser immediately knew of the problem.....bad battery cables that either have internal corrosion or break. $594 repair bill to fix the problem. He said he sees about one vehicle per week with this problem and the issue is well presented on youtube by many videos describing the problem. Substandard battery cables are being used on these vehicles and after a short period of time they either begin the break or have internal corrosion and begin to short the vehicles controlling computers. This is a safety issue as it can occur at anytime while operating the vehicle and should be addressed accordingly. For more information or questions, you can contact me [xxx]. Information redacted pursuant to the freedom of information act (foia), 5 u.s.c. 552(b)(6).
GMC Yukon Denali XL door locks problems
27 of the 490 owner complaints about the GMC Yukon Denali XL describe doors won't lock, open or latch, most of them for the 2007 model year.
- owner complaints
- 27
- worst model year
- 2007
- typical repair cost reported
- $487
- typical mileage
- 61,832
By model year
Often reported together
What owners say
Will follow up with more info, I live in the north east and have spoken with tech's at gm dealers and they have stated that its just a cold weather issue so gm wont fix the issue, my vehicle has had 8 or 9 door handles replaced the fasteners inside of door are plastic and water gets in there freezes and cracks plastic then door handle basically comes off in you hand, gm refuses to stand behind it and soon wants to charge me approx. 180 every time this happens again they have replace 8 or 9 already and its a 2012, I feel this is both a safety issue and a basic faulty product, design on gm's part that they will not fix.
I have replaced two door handles on this vehicle. One under warranty and one I had to pay to $180.00 to have replaced and in both case my 6 year old had them come unattached from the frame while he was trying to get in. I have owned three of these vehicles and in the first model year 2010 the door handle fell off, in the 2012 model year the door handle fell off as well. You would think gm would have addressed it in the second model year but they did not the dealers, where it has been repaired say it is a design defect, the fasteners are undersized to hold the handle onto the frame. One would think that gm would have addressed that once it appeared to be frequent event. The dealers now stock it as a replacement part. Upon contacting gm they told me if the federal safety agency does not think it is a problem we are not going to address it. They finally changed the fasteners in the 2017 model year. You would think that a door handle coming off might be dangerous but my contact with a gm customer assistance employee did not seem to think it was serious enough for gm to address as a recall or a policy exception.. I think any child who pulls on a door handle and it comes off is a safety issue and I am appalled that gm has such a cavalier attitude toward safety. They do not wish to call it a design flaw while all the dealers that have repaired the handle for me say it is.. I am hoping you will investigate this before some child pulls on the handle and falls into the road injuring themselves. Door handles are not suppose to fall off a car at any age. I can provide you with receipts and names of dealerships.- in fact I can give you the VIN numbers of the vehicles an you will see the repair to door handles .
The interior door handle chrome is peeling off, and it cut my wife's hand today. There are 3 of the 4 doors that have it peeling, and I am worried one of my children will cut there fingers also.
Tl* the contact owns a 2007 gmc yukon denali xl. The contact stated that the engine mount on the driver's side of the vehicle became detached. The chrome on the doors was also peeling, which caused the contact to get cuts on the hands. The vehicle was taken to a certified mechanic who diagnosed that the engine mount needed to be replaced. The vehicle was repaired; however, the failure recurred. The peeling chrome on the door handles was never repaired. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failures. The approximate failure mileage was 230,000.
Both the driver side and front passenger side exterior door handles separated from the door panel, compromising the protection of the vehicle and the ability to enter and exit the vehicle properly.
We have had this vehicle for three years. Roughly every 3 months it will have erratic electrical shorts and most commonly the car will not start because the battery is dead. Sometime the shorts happen while we are driving. When this happens the radio/navigation system turns off and on, the dashboard display flashes off and on, the power door locks go up and down. On a few occasions the air conditioning has switched over to heat only while the blower continued as before. On a few occasions this has happened while driving and the electrical system turned off and the engine turned off,only to then turn back on. The last time this happened while we were driving on the interstate and the car shut down and then turned back on. The vehicle rapidly decelerated and then turned back on and lunged forward. We consider the vehicle unsafe at this point. We have not driven it any more, other than to get it to another repair person where it has been for the last two weeks. We have replaced the battery three times and the battery terminal cables have been replaced twice. We have had the vehicle checked three times at two seperate gm dealers. We have also contacted their phone support. Their only suggestion is to bring it into the dealer every time it happens. This has not been successful. I feel the vehicle is not safe and I have informed gm of this.
Interior door handle chrome flaked and cut open hand causing bleeding.update 9/15/15*cw updated 11/06/2017
Door lock actuators not operating. 2 of our doors fail to lock or unlock with the power door lock button or key fob. We must manually push or pull the door locks to get them to fully lock or unlock causing a safety issue. Our young kids could open the rear doors at any time if we don't manually lock them. Also doors will not lock leaving the vehicle with the key fob. This issue is all over the internet and there's even a youtube video on how to replace them! This should be a recall.
Left rear door handle failed. Door was not usable from outside. Replaced by gmc dealer with part # 1 22738725 for $67.27. Body shop reported this was a common failure on this model due to door design using plastic rather than medal to secure the door handle to the body.
Related recalls
No recalls on record for this model year.
Questions about the GMC Yukon Denali XL door locks
Which GMC Yukon Denali XL years have doors won't lock, open or latch problems?
The model years with the most reports are 2007 (12 complaints), 2008 (7 complaints) and 2009 (4 complaints).
How much does it cost to fix doors won't lock, open or latch on the GMC Yukon Denali XL?
Owners who mentioned a price put the repair at about $487 (median of 6 complaints that include a dollar amount). Costs vary with mileage, warranty and where the work is done.
VIN decoder
See the problems and recalls for an exact car
Buying a used GMC Yukon Denali XL?
Check the exact car before you pay: accidents, salvage or flood titles, odometer readings and previous owners.
Check its history