GM’s Cracked Dashboards and the Danger Lurking Beneath Them

by Kevin Fitzgerald on September 21, 2018

General Motors is facing class action lawsuits in the U.S. and Canada for cracking dashboards in the MY 2009-2014 GMT900 trucks and SUVs listed below.

• Cadillac Escalade
• GMC Yukon
• GMC Sierra
• Chevrolet Silverado
• Chevrolet Tahoe
• Chevrolet Suburban
• Chevrolet Avalanche

Plaintiffs are claiming the splintering dashboards create a safety hazard because cracks are occurring around the passenger airbag cover and with the cost to repair the defect in the thousands of dollars, the lawsuit also argues a loss of vehicle value. Despite this, GM says it has no plan to recall any of the impacted vehicles, insisting the defect is purely cosmetic and not covered under warranty.

What has become of GM? It’s hard to find another company with such disdain for its customer’s safety or satisfaction. Their indifference to this defect is particularly galling because lurking beneath almost all of those cracked dashboards are potentially deadly Takata airbags. GM says we shouldn’t be concerned about either. We say you should be concerned about both.

GM is dead wrong about the dangers of Takata’s airbag inflators and we make that case here. As time marches on, they are all deteriorating to varying degrees. Some will explode, but most will be called on before that and depending on the severity of degradation, many will deploy in an aggressive and unsafe manner. The hard-hitting forces associated with that will shatter the weakened dashboards and launch plastic shards into the occupant compartment, compounding an already dangerous situation. The two defects are inseparable.

Let’s take a look at the cracked dashboards GM says are not at issue, or better put, they won’t pay to fix. Figure 1 depicts a few examples.

Note the cracks are all impinging on the passenger airbag compartment, the reason why the lawsuits allege even a normal airbag deployment could propel plastic shards at the occupants. GM disputes this, but what would happen to a splintered dashboard in the event of an overly aggressive airbag deployment? Figure 2 graphs the runaway internal pressure of a degraded Takata passenger inflator pulled from a 2007 Chevrolet Silverado against normal operating pressure. The aggressive inflator did not explode but was teetering on the edge and the rate of gas flow exiting it, would have certainly shredded the airbag cushion and wreaked havoc on the dashboard, cracked or not (but dont worry about those Takata inflators).

During development, some automakers require the airbag supplier to build +3 sigma, high output inflators that will intentionally overstress the dashboard to demonstrate margin. The raging internal pressure of the GMT-900 field return is an umpteen sigma output and if it had been triggered in an accident, flying plastic would have been the least of the occupants’ worry. But as Takata’s inflators age, and their outputs begin to elevate from nominal, there will be incidents where cracked and weakened dashboards become a safety issue. If GM insists this is not the case, provide the data.

The layers of irony are many. One of the more ridiculous arguments GM advances to avoid the deadly Takata airbag recall is that GMT-900 inflators are installed in the vehicle in a way that minimizes their exposure to moisture. Even if we are foolish enough to believe this, cracked dashboards negate the argument and call for immediate replacement of the airbag.

Let’s set aside the safety arguments for a moment and focus solely on the aesthetically displeasing cracks. How can GM refuse to fix this? Do they think the owners just decided to take a hammer to their dashboards for the fun of it? GM states their dashboards are not guaranteed under warranty. What reputable company does this? Why should GMT-900 owners be responsible for such an obvious defect? The Canadian lawsuit states:

GM dashboards are systematically manufactured and designed in a manner that makes them prone to crack. These are not the type of cosmetic blemishes that may be caused by a car left in the sun for many years. Instead, these cracks are deeper, more substantial, occur to vehicles stored in all manners and in all environments, occur during a shorter time period, and occur with a relatively uniform location and presentation. In short, the dashboards are defective in that they are certain to exhibit a large, discernible crack to the dashboard panel.

And in a final layer of irony, GM can’t argue their dashboards are cracking because vehicles are being left out in the hot sun too long. All three petitions they’ve submitted to NHTSA to avoid the Takata airbag recall claim the huge cabins and solar-absorbing glass of their trucks and SUVs keep interior temperatures down, protecting the deadly inflators and the defective dashboards covering them. GM can’t have their cake and eat it too. Or can they NHTSA?

Sources

GM Cracked Dash Lawsuit Includes SUVs and Trucks

GM Cracked Dashboard Class Action Lawsuit

GM Says It May Recall 4.3 Million Vehicles Over Takata Air Bags