Other engine problem on the 2013 GMC Terrain
1 crash 1 injury 2 of the 69 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 2013 GMC Terrain report other engine problem at a median of 90,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 60,000 miles and a quarter after 102,500 miles, from 50 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 37,500 miles at the tenth percentile to 130,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 91,888 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.
10% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 38,435 miles | 59,875 miles | 90,000 miles | 102,083 miles | 130,323 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 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 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 2013 has 69. 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 2013 gmc terrain. The contact stated while driving 65 MPH, the front collision alert sensor illuminated and the vehicle decreased in speed. The manufacturer was contacted. The vehicle was taken to a private mechanic who stated that the vehicle was working properly. The failure recurred on several occasions. The failure mileage was 500 and the current mileage was 8,033. Updated 8/22/14*cn
I was driving the vehicle under normal circumstances when I tried to accelerate I felt the engine hesitate and then completely shut down. Message on my display said "engine power reduced" and I basically had a few seconds to merge over to the right lane and get out of traffic. Had the vehicle towed to local gmc dealer. *tr
I had just purchased the 2013 gmc terrain denali and noticed that it has a bogging sensation in the steering at idle when turning. It feels like the steering is going to cut out - almost like not fully engaging the clutch on a manual transmission when the engine is about to die. Very noisy and annoying in the tight parking garage when you have to turn the steering at a standstill during idle. There is a ticking noise coming from under the dash that sounds like a construction worker jackhammering about 1 block away with the windows up. It can also be described as a helicopter hovering overhead at around 200-300 feet. You can only hear it from inside the cab. I should have noticed this during the test drive, except that the radio was on and there were no tight steering situations. I was told that both of these items are normal by the gmc dealer. Be sure to test out these two scenarios when test driving. Too late for me, and unfortunately I have to live with it but would rather not. *tr
Also reported on the 2013 GMC Terrain
Excessive oil consumption
Timing chain, belt or tensioner failure
Other visibility problem
Complete engine failure or seizure
Oil leak
Other powertrain problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 69 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 2013 GMC Terrain?
Across 50 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 90,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 60,000 miles and a quarter after 102,500 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 2013 GMC Terrain?
69 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