Other lighting problem on the 2011 GMC Acadia
2 fires 2 of the 15 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 lighting problem gets reported
Owners of the 2011 GMC Acadia report other lighting problem at a median of 60,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 35,000 miles and a quarter after 85,000 miles, from 11 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 86,000 miles. It is the 8th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 20,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 115,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 93,000 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.
27% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 22,000 miles | 35,000 miles | 58,800 miles | 83,500 miles | 115,000 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, 2 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 $120–$1,200 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 9 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2019, at a median of 46 miles, and latest on the 2010 at 130,000 miles.
By volume the 2017 carries the most reports, with 17; the 2011 has 15. 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.
Passenger side daytime running light stopped working. Took to dealer and bulb was replaced. Within a few months, bulb was out again. Returned to dealer in june 2013 and discovered part of the fixture wiring had melted. Dealer repaired under extended warranty. The same day we picked it up, the driver side daytime running light went out. Returned to dealer on june 21, 2013 and discovered melted wiring again. We have gone through three bulbs and had to replace the melted wiring components on both daytime running lights. Also have an unsolved issue of high beams working off and on. There is definitely a serious wiring/electrical problem that needs to be investigated. This could pose a potentially serious fire hazard. There is no way this is not some type of manufacturing defect! *tr
Tl* the contact owns a 2011 gmc acadia. The contact stated that the day time running lights had failed. The vehicle was taken to the dealer for inspection and they stated that the bulb had gotten too hot and melted the casing, light bulb, and housing unit. The components needed to be replaced for both head lights. The vehicle was repaired but the failure recurred. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The failure mileage was 20,000.
Daytime running light housing and wiring melted. Dealer refuses to fix and wants $1000 to repair what is now a known issue with the design. This is a fire hazard and will reoccur after replacement. *tr
Also reported on the 2011 GMC Acadia
Other engine problem
Other electrical problem
Other steering problem
Other powertrain problem
Headlight failure or clouding
Steering rack, gear or tie rod failure
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 15 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 lighting problem happen on the 2011 GMC Acadia?
Across 11 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 60,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 35,000 miles and a quarter after 85,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other lighting problem on the 2011 GMC Acadia?
15 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.3 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