Other engine problem on the 2012 GMC Terrain
1 fire 1 of the 54 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 2012 GMC Terrain report other engine problem at a median of 85,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 62,500 miles and a quarter after 117,500 miles, from 38 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 95,000 miles. It is the 2nd most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 47,500 miles at the tenth percentile to 132,500 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 86,500 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.
5% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 47,100 miles | 62,075 miles | 84,000 miles | 117,125 miles | 133,600 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 $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 15 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2019, at a median of 5,000 miles, and latest on the 2026 at 290,000 miles.
By volume the 2011 carries the most reports, with 86; the 2012 has 54. 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.
Tl * the contact owns a 2012 gmc terrain. The contact was driving 5 MPH when the vehicle stalled and the check engine light illuminated. The vehicle was not taken to the dealer and the manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The vehicle was not repaired. The failure and the current mileage was 3,600.
Car die (stall) at idol after warmed up drive it 10 miles stop at stop sign it die restart die again may do that 3-4 times before it will take gas and run does this intermeditly run fine for half a day stop run in store come out restart and it die (no chugging just die) auto parts store said it was a crankshaft sensor when they checked what had the check engine light on (note check engine light not come on each time it stalls)
Within two days' time, my 2012 gmc terrain stalled four different times, all at low speeds. The first time was backing out of the driveway; the other three happened the following day starting up from city street intersections. My concern is being rear-ended in those situations, or beginning to make a left hand turn in front of oncoming traffic thinking you have enough time and then having the car stall. Another concern is having the stalling issue occur at higher speeds, although that never happened to me. I took the car into the dealership on that second day, and they replaced the intake camshaft position actuator solenoid valve. The problem has not repeated itself since. Thank you.
Also reported on the 2012 GMC Terrain
Excessive oil consumption
Timing chain, belt or tensioner failure
Wiper or washer failure
Other visibility problem
Other electrical problem
Oil leak
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 54 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 2012 GMC Terrain?
Across 38 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 85,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 62,500 miles and a quarter after 117,500 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 2012 GMC Terrain?
54 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.6 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