2008 Cadillac Escalade Esv: what breaks, and at what mileage
What breaks on the 2008 Cadillac Escalade Esv
On the 2008 Cadillac Escalade Esv, the failure owners report most often is airbag inflator rupture, with 11 reports on file. Across every failure mode on this year, half the dated reports were filed before 15,000 miles. Overall it scores 69 out of 100, high risk for a 2008.
High risk for a 2008 — 160th riskiest of the 356 2008 vehicles we can rate. 19 owner reports; fleet size estimated from this year's own recall paperwork.
What owners report breaking
Owners have reported 5 named failure modes on the 2008 Cadillac Escalade Esv, and the three most-reported carry 79% of everything filed, so the trouble here is concentrated rather than scattered.
Airbag inflator rupture leads with 11 reports and about 0.4 per 1,000 vehicles.
Other electrical problem follows with 2 reports, median 75,000 miles.
Other speed control problem follows with 2 reports, median 10,000 miles.
By system, the reports fall mostly into airbag (11), electrical (2) and adas (2).
At what mileage it happens
8 of the reports on the 2008 Cadillac Escalade Esv came with an odometer reading, and half of those were filed before 15,000 miles.
Cumulatively, 63% by 50,000 miles and 88% by 100,000 miles of the dated reports had been filed.
The busiest stretch is between 0 and 10,000 miles, which alone holds 38% of the dated reports.
63% of the dated reports were filed below 36,000 miles, which is early enough that a fair number of these cars were still under a factory warranty when the owner complained.
Tick median reported mileage Solid middle half of reports Faint 10th to 90th percentile Colour how bad the failure is when it happens
How reports accumulate
Every report with an odometer reading, cumulative, from 0 to 200,000 miles. A curve that climbs early is a car with early problems, whatever its total.
- Line share of reports filed by that mileage
- Dashed the median reported mileage
How bad it is when it goes
Across the named modes, 1 mentions a crash. Those are the words owners used in their own complaints, and NHTSA does not verify them, but they are the closest thing in this data to a measure of what a failure actually did.
The average severity weight across every report on this year is 5.84, where a stalled engine or a failed airbag weighs many times more than a rattling trim panel, and a figure this high means the reports are dominated by failures with safety consequences rather than annoyances. The weighting is set out in full on the methodology page.
What the top failures cost to put right, as editorial estimates for an independent US shop rather than figures from NHTSA: airbag inflator rupture at $0–$0, other electrical problem at $250–$2,000, other speed control problem at $250–$2,000 and CV axle or driveshaft failure at $450–$2,200. Dealer labour, a seized bolt or a part that is no longer made can push any of these past the top of its range.
11% of the reports on this year sit in the engine, transmission, drivetrain or cooling systems — the four where a repair bill is usually four figures.
Every reported failure mode
| Failure mode | System | Reports | With reading | 25th | Median | 75th | Per 1,000 | Typical repair | Severity |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Airbag inflator rupture | airbag | 11 | 1 | — | 83k | — | 0.4 | $0–$0 | Critical |
| Other electrical problem | electrical | 2 | 2 | — | 76k | — | 0.1 | $250–$2,000 | Moderate |
| Other speed control problem | adas | 2 | 2 | — | 11k | — | 0.1 | $250–$2,000 | Critical |
| CV axle or driveshaft failure | drivetrain | 1 | 1 | — | 91k | — | 0.0 | $450–$2,200 | High |
| Other powertrain problem | transmission | 1 | 1 | — | 60 | — | 0.0 | $400–$4,500 | High |
| Unclassified problem | other | 2 | 1 | — | 60 | — | 0.1 | — | Moderate |
Rate per 1,000 uses a fleet-size estimate derived from recall paperwork for this exact model year. It is a lower bound. Repair costs are typical independent-shop ranges for the failure, not figures from these reports.
How often, against how many were built
Scaled by an estimate of how many of these cars exist, the 2008 Cadillac Escalade Esv draws about 0.6 per 1,000 vehicles, which puts it in the 71st percentile of complaint rates among 2008 vehicles we can rate.
That denominator is the weakest number on the page and it is fair to say so plainly. Rate per 1,000 uses a fleet-size estimate derived from recall paperwork for this exact model year. It is a lower bound.
The working figure is 30,014 vehicles. If the true number is twice that, every rate on this page is half what it says; the ranking against other 2008 vehicles, which is what the risk score uses, is far more robust than the rate itself.
What owners wrote
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint narratives, trimmed for length. The odometer reading is the one the owner gave.
Airbag inflator rupture
Takata recall. My vehicle has been recalled due to takata airbags beginning in may 2016. There has been no resolution to the airbag issue and it is now december 10, 2016. My car is not safe to drive with these defective airbags. I was involved in an accident recently and the airbags did not even deploy.
Other electrical problem
Driving down the road, light rain, about 50 degrees, the engine shuts off, navigation/radio off, lights off. My wife was driving, lost and regained control of vehicle. Happened with deputy sheriff directly behind her. This was the second time the car has shut off unintentionally. The first time was in a parking lot and cadillac came out and changed battery. This time was towed to dealer who could not find anything wrong. The dealer refused to check tsb's. Said there were too many. *tr
Tl* the contact owns a 2008 cadillac escalade esv. While driving at 60 MPH, the speed reduced to 25 MPH and the accelerator pedal failed to respond. The contact applied force to the accelerator pedal in order to increase speed. Unknown warning indicators illuminated each time the failure recurred. The vehicle was taken to the dealer where the failure was unable to be duplicated. The vehicle was not included in NHTSA campaign numbers: 10v240000 (electrical system) and 08v441000 (electrical system). The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 140,000.
Other speed control problem
Tl* the contact owns a 2008 cadillac escalade esv. The contact stated while driving at 70 MPH, the vehicle suddenly accelerated up to 80 MPH independently. The contact was unable to stop the unintended acceleration and shut off the engine. The vehicle began to decrease in speed. The contact restarted the engine and moved from the roadway where he shut off and restarted the engine a second time. The vehicle resumed normal operation. The vehicle was towed to a local dealer where he was advised that the manufacturer was aware of the failure in older model vehicle but not the 2008 model. The dealer contributed the failure to the throttle body. The contact believed the vehicle was unsafe to drive. The vehicle was not repaired. The failure mileage was 22,000 and the current was unknown.
Service stabilitrak that proceed into reduced engine power. Normally while steering the problem will drop up. I have gone twice into gm/cadillac dealers and they incapable of fixing it.
Recalls on the 2008 model year
NHTSA has issued 4 recall campaigns covering the 2008 Cadillac Escalade Esv, affecting an estimated 82,722 vehicles. A recall is a different kind of evidence from a complaint: it is the regulator and the manufacturer agreeing that something has to be fixed, and the fix is free for as long as the car exists.
The campaigns cover air bags:frontal:passenger side:inflator module and electrical system. Whether the work was actually done on the car in front of you is a question only the VIN can answer, and the manufacturer or NHTSA will answer it free.
Recalls also distort complaint counts. Publicity about a campaign reminds owners that complaining is possible, so reports for a recalled component often spike after the recall rather than before it.
AIR BAGS:FRONTAL:PASSENGER SIDE:INFLATOR MODULE
557,023 vehicles 2021-02-05- Defect
- General Motors, LLC (GM) is recalling certain 2009 Cadillac Escalade, Escalade ESV, Escalade EXT, Chevrolet Avalanche, Silverado 1500, Silverado 2500, Silverado 3500, Suburban, Tahoe, GMC Sierra 1500, Sierra 2500, Sierra 3500, Yukon, and Yukon XL vehicles originally sold, or ever registered, in the states of Arizona, Arkansas, Delaware, District of Columbia, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia or "Zone B." Additionally, GM is…
- Consequence
- An inflator explosion may result in sharp metal fragments striking the driver or other occupants, resulting in serious injury or death.
- Remedy
- GM will notify owners, and dealers will replace the front passenger air bag inflator with an alternate one, free of charge. Interim letters notifying owners of the safety risk were mailed on February 23, 2021. Second notification letters will be mailed once the remedy is available. Owner notification letters were mailed on September 20, 2021. Owners may contact Chevrolet customer service at 1-800-222-1020, Cadillac customer service at 1-800-458-8006, and GMC customer service at 1-800-462-8782. GM's number for this recall is N212328780.
AIR BAGS:FRONTAL:PASSENGER SIDE:INFLATOR MODULE
2,641,272 vehicles 2021-02-05- Defect
- General Motors, LLC (GM) is recalling certain 2007-2011 Cadillac Escalade, Escalade ESV, Escalade EXT, Chevrolet Avalanche, Silverado 1500, Suburban, Tahoe, GMC Sierra 1500, Yukon, Yukon XL, and 2009-2011 Chevrolet Silverado 2500, Silverado 3500, GMC Sierra 2500 and Sierra 3500 vehicles originally sold, or ever registered, in the states of Alabama, California, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Texas, Puerto Rico, American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands (Saipan), and the U.S. Virgin Islands or "Zone A." Additionally, GM is…
- Consequence
- An inflator explosion may result in sharp metal fragments striking the driver or other occupants, resulting in serious injury or death.
- Remedy
- GM will notify owners, and dealers will replace the front passenger air bag inflator with an alternate one, free of charge. Interim letters notifying owners of the safety risk were mailed on February 22, 2021. Second notification letters will be mailed once the remedy is available. Owner notification letters were mailed on March 1, 2021. Owners may contact Chevrolet customer service at 1-800-222-1020; Cadillac customer service at 1-800-458-8006; and GMC customer service at 1-800-462-8782. GM's number for this recall is N212328760.
ELECTRICAL SYSTEM
1,365,070 vehicles 2010-06-04- Defect
- Gm is recalling certain model year 2006-2009 buick, lucerne; cadillac dts; hummer h2; model year 2008-2009 buick enclave; cadillac cts; model year 2007-2009 cadillac escalade, escalade esv, escalade ext; chevrolet avalanche, silverado, suburban, tahoe; gmc acadia, sierra, yukon, yukon xl; saturn outlook; and model year 2009 chevrolet traverse vehicles equipped with a heated washer fluid system (hwfs). A recall was implemented in 2008 to add a fuse to the control circuit harness to address the potential consequences of a printed circuit board (pcb) electrical short…
- Consequence
- It is possible for the heated washer module to ignite and a fire may occur.
- Remedy
- Dealers will permanently disable and remove the heated washer fluid module. An updated page for the owner manual will be provided and inserted in the owner manual to document that the feature has been permanently disabled and removed from the vehicle. The safety recall began on june 11, 2010. Owners may contact buick at 1-866-608-8080, cadillac at 1-866-982-2339, chevrolet at 1-800-630-2438, saturn at 1-800-972-8876, gmc at 1-866-996-9463 and hummer at 1-800-732-5493 or at the owner center at www.gmownercenter.com.
ELECTRICAL SYSTEM
857,735 vehicles 2008-08-28- Defect
- Gm is recalling 857,735 my 2006-2008 buick lucerne; cadillac dts; hummer h2; my 2007-2008 cadillac escalade, escalade esv, escalade ext; chevrolet avalanche, silverado, suburban, tahoe; gmc acadia, sierra, yukon, yukon xl, saturn outlook; and my 2008 buick enclave vehicles equipped with a heated wiper washer fluid system. A short circuit on the printed circuit board for the washer fluid heater may overheat the control-circuit ground wire.
- Consequence
- This may cause other electrical features to malfunction, create an odor, or cause smoke increasing the risk of a fire.
- Remedy
- Dealers will install a wire harness with an in-line fuse free of charge. The recall began on september 12, 2008. Owners may contact buick at 1-866-608-8080; cadillac at 1-800-982-2339 or http://www.cadillac.com; chevrolet at 1-800-630-2438; saturn at 1-800-972-8876 or http://www.saturn.com, gmc at 1-866-996-9436; or hummer at 1-800-732-5493; or through their website at <a href=http://www.gmownercenter.com>http://www.gmownercenter.com</a> .
Recall work is free at a franchised dealer regardless of the car's age. Check the VIN at nhtsa.gov/recalls before assuming it was done.
How it ranks in the 2008 field
The score at the top of the page, placed among its peers. The zones are the same thresholds the scorer applies, read out of the scorer itself, so the picture and the band word cannot disagree.
Scores are ranked within the model year, never across years, because an older car has had longer to accumulate reports.
- Left fewer and less serious reports
- Right more, or worse
- Marker this vehicle
Better and worse years of the same car
High risk for a 2008 — 160th riskiest of the 356 2008 vehicles we can rate. Because the ranking is against the same model year only, age cancels out of it.
Across the 15 model years of this car that carry enough reports to score, 2016 comes out best at 66 and 2020 worst at 84, with 2008 itself at 69.
No other year of this model scores meaningfully better than 2008, so if this generation is what you want, the year is not the lever.
Within the 2006–2011 generation specifically, 2011 is the strongest year at 66 and 2007 the weakest at 70.
Scores compare each year against other cars of the same model year, so a low number on an older car is a real result and not an artefact of age.
Shorter is better. Years with too few reports to score are shown without a bar rather than as a zero, because no data is not good news.
Within the 2006-2011 generation, 2011 Cadillac Escalade Esv scores best at 66 and 2007 Cadillac Escalade Esv worst at 70.
What this page cannot tell you
19 owner reports; fleet size estimated from this year's own recall paperwork. Every count on this page is therefore a floor: it is the number of owners who went to the trouble of filing with a federal agency, which is a small and self-selected fraction of the owners who had the fault.
Of those 19 reports, 8 carried an odometer reading, so the mileages here describe 42% of the sample rather than all of it. Owners also round: readings pile up on multiples of ten thousand, which is why this site publishes "about 90,000 miles" and not "91,438".
Named failure modes come from matching phrases in the complaint text, so a badly worded complaint can land in the wrong bucket. The effect washes out across hundreds of reports and does not wash out across five.
And nothing here predicts what one car will do. These are other people's complaints, filed years apart, on cars maintained by strangers. Read the page as a map of where this model year has previously gone wrong, then have the specific car in front of you inspected.
Questions this page answers
What are the most common problems with the 2008 Cadillac Escalade Esv?
The most-reported failures are airbag inflator rupture (11 reports, median 85,000 miles), other electrical problem (2 reports, median 75,000 miles) and other speed control problem (2 reports, median 10,000 miles). Counts come from owner complaints filed with NHTSA, which are voluntary, so they show what owners bothered to report rather than every fault that occurred.
Is the 2008 Cadillac Escalade Esv reliable?
It scores 69 out of 100 on our risk index, which is high — 160th riskiest of the 356 2008 vehicles we can rate. The score is a comparison against other 2008 vehicles, not a prediction about any individual car, and it is built from complaint rates, severity and how early failures appear.
Which year of the Cadillac Escalade Esv is best?
Within the 2006–2011 generation, 2011 scores best at 66 out of 100 and 2007 worst at 70. Same body, same engines, different luck.
Where this comes from. Every figure above is computed from NHTSA owner complaints and recall records for this exact make, model and year. Complaints are voluntary and self-selected, so treat counts as a floor. The methodology page writes out each formula, and the same numbers are available as JSON.
What breaks at my mileage Compare with another car
Source Owner complaints and recall records published by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, model years 1996–2027 Figures rebuilt Published by AtWhatMileage How every figure is computed