Airbag inflator rupture on the 2010 GMC Yukon Denali
When airbag inflator rupture gets reported
Owners of the 2010 GMC Yukon Denali report airbag inflator rupture at a median of 50,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 30,000 miles and a quarter after 85,000 miles, from 9 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 80,000 miles. It is the 1st most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 25,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 85,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 59,000 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
Reports bunched into a band this tight usually mean the component has a life of its own: it goes at roughly the same mileage regardless of who owns it.
44% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 26,000 miles | 30,000 miles | 49,522 miles | 85,000 miles | 85,000 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
Putting it right typically runs $0–$0 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.
This mode is classified as critical, which means a failure can leave the car unable to stop, steer, or stay out of the way of traffic. It is weighted accordingly in the risk score.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 6 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2009, at a median of 35,000 miles, and latest on the 2007 at 110,000 miles.
By volume the 2007 carries the most reports, with 20; the 2010 has 14. 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.
I purchased a 2010 yukon denali and the dashboard started cracking. It started as a small crack that was barely noticed and is now a large crack across the dash between the air vents. I have since learned that several other consumers are dealing with the same defect in yukon models manufactured since 2010. This is potentially very dangerous if the airbags deploy and the dash comes off in several sharp pieces as shown in the takata recall issue.
The dash panels are cracking around the passenger side airbag and directly in front of the driver. The vehicle is 5 years old and has 86,000 miles and the cracks developed in the last month. Nothing has hit the dash to break it, it just cracked and the cracks are spreading. I am concerned about flying plastic shrapnel of the airbag were to deploy.
The dash panels are cracking around the passenger side airbag and directly in front of the driver. The vehicle is 5 years old and has 86,000 miles and the cracks developed in the last month. Nothing has hit the dash to break it, it just cracked and the cracks are spreading. I am concerned about flying plastic shrapnel of the airbag were to deploy.
Also reported on the 2010 GMC Yukon Denali
Other body or interior problem
Instrument cluster or gauge failure
Tire pressure monitor failure
Other engine problem
Transmission will not engage a gear
Airbag warning light or occupant sensor fault
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 14 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 airbag inflator rupture happen on the 2010 GMC Yukon Denali?
Across 9 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 50,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 30,000 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 airbag inflator rupture on the 2010 GMC Yukon Denali?
14 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 139 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