Other engine problem on the 2009 GMC Acadia
1 crash 2 fires 1 injury 4 of the 25 reports for this failure mention a crash, a fire, an injury or a death. Those are the owner's words on the complaint form, not a verified finding, and one report can mention more than one.
When other engine problem gets reported
Owners of the 2009 GMC Acadia report other engine problem at a median of 80,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 55,000 miles and a quarter after 125,000 miles, from 21 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 95,000 miles. It is the 5th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 50,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 145,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 96,000 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
A spread this wide points at use rather than design. Towing, climate, service history and city mileage all move a failure like this, so the median is a weak guide to any individual car.
10% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 50,000 miles | 57,000 miles | 80,000 miles | 124,816 miles | 146,000 miles |
Read the 10th percentile as “one report in ten arrived this early”. Exact figures are shown in this table because it is the table of record; everywhere else on the site they are rounded to the precision the sample can carry.
What a percentile can and cannot tell you here
These five numbers describe the readings owners gave, in order. The median is the middle one: half the reports arrived below it. The 10th and 90th are the edges of the bulk of the distribution, and the distance between them is the part worth reading. A tight spread — say 70,000 to 95,000 miles — points at something that wears out on a schedule, and the schedule is knowable. A wide one, 20,000 to 190,000, points at a fault that hits some cars and never troubles others, which means the mileage on the listing in front of you tells you very little about your odds.
What these figures are not is a survival curve. Every reading here comes from a car whose owner filed a complaint, so the sample contains only failures: it cannot say what share of the fleet made it past 150,000 miles untouched, because those owners had nothing to report. Nor is the mileage the moment of failure — it is the odometer reading as recalled at the time of filing, which may be weeks later and is sometimes rounded to the nearest ten thousand by the person typing it.
Percentiles are shown at all only once 8 readings exist for the vehicle and mode. Below that the middle of a handful of numbers is noise wearing a decimal point, so the figures are withheld rather than dressed up.
What happens, and what it costs
Of these reports, 1 a crash, 2 a fire and 1 an injury are mentioned. Owners write their own complaints and the agency does not verify them, so read this as what the reports say happened rather than as a confirmed count.
Putting it right typically runs $300–$4,000 at an independent US shop. That range is an editorial estimate held in this site's failure-mode catalogue, not a figure from NHTSA, and it is a repair cost rather than a diagnosis cost.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 17 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2022, at a median of 10,000 miles, and latest on the 2010 at 110,000 miles.
By volume the 2008 carries the most reports, with 73; the 2009 has 25. A mode that appears across most years of a model is usually a design choice rather than a bad batch.
If one year stands out to the left, that is the year to avoid; if the whole line sits at a similar mileage, this is wear rather than a defect in one production run.
Tick median reported mileage Solid middle half of reports Faint 10th to 90th percentile Colour how bad the failure is when it happens
What owners wrote
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint narratives, trimmed for length. The mileage is the one the owner gave.
While at wyatt johnson dealership to buy car, salesperson, [xxx], states there is a problem with the plastic pieces attached to floor mats. States he needs to order them and bring car back in. Less than week later, check engine light comes on. They kept car for a few weeks because they state they needed to order a part that they did not have in. Finally picked up car to realize there was so many miles on it that I thought it was not the acadia we bought, or they set it up on a dolly to let tires rotate to hike the miles. They knew we were moving soon, military, and did not have time to do something about it. Within a 100 miles the check engine light came on again. Long story short, this happened time and time again where dealership would have car for weeks with us to drive around a $5000 loaner vehicle while making payments on a $40,000 vehicle. Because we were not stationed as same state as where we bought it, no gmc dealership would take the vehicle back as a lemon. Twice we ran from the vehicle fearing for our life because it stalled, smoked, and had the smell of gas in the cabin area. No dealership at new duty station would…
When accelerating, my car seems to 'slip' or 'stutter' before clicking into gear. This happened in the first year of ownership. The dealership never acknowledged it when I would bring it in to get checked. After a few years of owning it I now know that it is a transmission issue very common with the gmc acadia. I have read that it is a faulty wave plate. Not sure what that is but now with only 50,000 on my car it is really bad. It barely made it home last night. Transmission is totally slipping and even when just driving along at the same speed it went into limp mode. The gas revved like I was in neutral. This is extremely dangerous as I had a carload of girls on a trip to the mountains. What is it going to take until this causes an accident and casualties! Gmc needs to step up and get this part recalled. It is a faulty part and they need to pay for the replacement!!! *tr
Initially noticed when shifting from park to another gear shifting was hard. About a week later noticed hesitation in shifting gears while driving at various rates of speed then the engine would rev once it shifted into gear. Eventually parked the car in drive then went to back out to take to dealership and it would not go into reverse. Vehicle towed to dealership where they replaced the wave plate and other parts that were contaminated. Since this incident the vehicle has not drove smoothly or shifted gears smoothly. It also gets less than 15 miles to the gallon during my daily commute now where prior to the transmission fix I would get 19-20. Vehicle hesitates and revs continually while driving and accelerating. When I returned the vehicle to the dealership stating there was still an issue I received "we could not replicate the issue" and sent on my way. After research on this site and other and reading the systemic issues others have had just like it I am concerned for my family and those around me safety if the transmission decides to stop while traveling high speed in traffic or when crossing traffic. *tr
Also reported on the 2009 GMC Acadia
Other steering problem
Timing chain, belt or tensioner failure
Steering rack, gear or tie rod failure
Other powertrain problem
Headlight failure or clouding
Liftgate, tailgate or trunk failure
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 25 is a floor and not a count of affected cars. Mileages are typed in by owners and cluster on round numbers. And the mode itself is assigned by software reading the complaint text, which is reliable in bulk and fallible one report at a time.
Questions this page answers
At what mileage does other engine problem happen on the 2009 GMC Acadia?
Across 21 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 80,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 55,000 miles and a quarter after 125,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other engine problem on the 2009 GMC Acadia?
25 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.5 per 1,000 vehicles. Complaints are voluntary, so this is a floor rather than a count of affected cars.
What this is and is not. These are the mileages at which owners chose to complain to a federal agency, which is not the same as the mileage at which the part fails on every car. It skews toward failures that happened outside warranty, cost real money, or frightened someone. It is still the only public dataset that carries failure mileage at all, and the shape of a few hundred readings is informative even when a single one is not. Methodology · JSON · this failure on other cars
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