Headlight failure or clouding on the 2011 GMC Acadia
1 fire 1 of the 20 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 headlight failure or clouding gets reported
Owners of the 2011 GMC Acadia report headlight failure or clouding at a median of 65,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 55,000 miles and a quarter after 100,000 miles, from 18 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 88,000 miles. It is the 5th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 45,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 110,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 69,000 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
When the reports scatter this far, the mileage is telling you about how these cars were driven more than about the part itself.
11% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 43,200 miles | 53,250 miles | 62,500 miles | 98,000 miles | 112,200 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 fire is 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 $150–$1,800 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 11 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2017, at a median of 900 miles, and latest on the 2015 at 195,000 miles.
By volume the 2008 carries the most reports, with 28; the 2011 has 20. 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.
Head light mounts have melted due to heat from the daytime headlight bulbs. Now I cannot maintain functioning daytime running lights. Bulbs burn out in just a few days use. Gm claims this is not a safety issue and therefore will not replace the headlight units. *tr
I own a 2011 gmc acadia denali. I placed my order for this vehicle before they were in production which make this one of the first to roll off the assembly line. The driver's side daytime running light bulb needed replacing. I took my vehicle to the local dealer for repair. I was told that the daytime running light bulb socket had melted and the whole headlight assembly needed to be replaced. When you look through the lens of the daytime running lights you can see about a three inch area of chrome coating cracked and peeling off the interior of the light housing on the driver?s side and about an inch and a half area on the passenger side. It is just a matter of time before the passenger side socket melts. This is definitely a manufacturer?s design problem or inappropriate parts problem. Either the bulb is too high wattage, which give off too much heat, or the chrome coating is not heat resistant enough to withstand the heat. I say this because I have a background in electronics. I was told that I would have to pay $1144.00 for the headlight assembly plus labor. I do not think I should have to pay for something that was caused by…
Tl* the contact owns a 2011 gmc acadia. The contact stated that the passenger side running lights malfunctioned and the vehicle was taken to the dealer. The contact was informed that the headlight assembly melted and cracked, which causing the running light to malfunction. The light bulbs were replaced but the same failure recurred on the driver side light assembly. While driving in the rain, the vehicle suddenly began to hydroplane and the traction control light and check engine light illuminated. The vehicle was taken to the dealer who diagnosed that water was present inside the engine and the number five coil was damaged. The vehicle was repaired. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The failure mileage was 32,000. ...updated 05/14/15 *bf
Also reported on the 2011 GMC Acadia
Other engine problem
Other electrical problem
Other steering problem
Other powertrain problem
Steering rack, gear or tie rod failure
Timing chain, belt or tensioner failure
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 20 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 headlight failure or clouding happen on the 2011 GMC Acadia?
Across 18 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 65,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 55,000 miles and a quarter after 100,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is headlight failure or clouding on the 2011 GMC Acadia?
20 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.4 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