general problems of the 2018 Chevrolet Equinox - part 1

Vehicle is leaking coolant excessively. Faulty 55513550 water pump (acdelco/gm oe) commonly causes engine overheating, coolant leaks (often from the weep hole), and unusual noise (squeaking/rumbling) in 1. 6l diesel engines for Chevrolet cruze, Equinox, and GMC terrain. It may cause cabin heating issues and trigger engine codes. Major problem #2: electrical described by tony dubois at midas (cinco ranch location) - electrical pulse are being received through the wiring causing lights to go on and off. No other manufacturer or repair shop can fix this issue because of the inability to access the coding. This is an dealership software issue.

The contact owns a 2018 Chevrolet Equinox. The contact stated that the vehicle was taken to three separate smog local state inspections; however, the vehicle failed to communicate with the system. The vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic, where it was diagnosed and it was determined that an unstated module needed to be replaced. The local dealer was contacted; however, product emission recall: n202298780; repair was available. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 75,000.

Engine power low.

The contact owns a 2018 Chevrolet Equinox. The contact stated that after having a software update to the ecm following the notice of an unknown recall, on several occasions while in reverse, the vehicle failed to reverse as intended. The contact stated that the vehicle seemed like it would accelerate forward. The contact had to push the vehicle for the vehicle to reverse. The contact that while pressing the ignition button on several occasions, the vehicle failed to start. The contact continued to press the ignition button, and the vehicle eventually started. Additionally, when the vehicle was started, the "parking brake release" message was displayed even though the parking brake was not engaged. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 101,000.

1st incident: code p2138 - accelerator pedal sensor in March of 2024 - driving on highway dashboard warning lights illuminated(traction control & reduced engine power) vehicle went into limp mode putting my family & I in danger due to traffic volume and speed on highway. Had to drive on berm at speeds below 25mph to exit freeway safely. Removed battery cable to reset computer. Taken to serra bartlett Chevrolet in memphis- couldn't get vehicle to repeat error. 2nd incident: code - p2138 June 2024 - while traveling on highway same dashboard warning signals & car went into limp mode. Had to maneuver to the berm to exit the highway safely once again putting my family in danger at speeds below 25 mph exit. Vehicle was towed to serpentini Chevrolet the accelerator pedal position sensor was replaced under the extended warranty. 3rd incident - code p2138 June 2025- while traveling on highway, same dashboard warning signals & car went into limp mode again. Had to maneuver to the berm to exit the highway putting my family in danger again at speeds below 25mph. Removed the battery cable to reset computer - was unsuccessful. Contacted jeff schmitt Chevrolet - had to drive the vehicle over 35 miles on the berm of the highway at speeds lower than 25 mph to get to dealership. Upon arriving they ran the codes and annotated the p2138 code. The next morning when the technician checked the vehicle the computer had reset itself and everything was checking out fine, the code was still in the vehicle history . The sensor was under warranty and we inquired about replacement because the code showed failure, the dealership stated gm would not replace the part because it tested good. But I could pay to have it replaced if I paid for it. Gm service bulletin no:074-06-04-019f clearly states they are aware of issues with this vehicle, yet I cannot get it repaired to my satisfaction it puts myself and my family under extreme danger while driving this vehicle on the freeway.

My car alerts shift to park when it is already parked and will not shut off. The battery has to be disconnected to turn the car off. It won't start and the dash displays multiple lights park, check engine lights, tire lights and more.

The contact owns a 2018 Chevrolet Equinox. The contact stated that while driving approximately 50–60 mph, the brake pedal was firm while depressed, and the vehicle failed to stop immediately. The contact stated that the infotainment screen was blank. The contact made a right turn and coasted the vehicle to the residence. The vehicle was towed to an independent mechanic; however, the vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The contact related the failure to the electrical system. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure and a case was opened. The failure mileage was approximately 64,000.

Driver side mirror sets itself to non useable position even when auto mirror option is not turned on. Everytime I shift gears the mirror positions itself to an unuasable position making it impossible to safely pull out from a parked position. It happens wether pulling forward or backing out. I can not seem to find any information on how to correct the issue. Other owners have reported the same issue but Chevrolet refuses to address the issue. . Read more...

The speedometer does not operate. The gas gauge does not operate. The odometer does not operate and is not tracking miles driven. The blinkers work but no blinker sound occurs. Head lights must be turned on and off manually. The radio must be turned off manually. I ran out of gas on the freeway and highway patrol had to close the freeway to remove me safely under quite dangerous conditions. There is no way to monitor my speed. The milage is not being reported to reflect the miles put on the engine.

There's a leak by the rear fuse box. Moisture and water gets on the fuses. My sunroof and sunshade have stopped working. I noticed the julian date on my sunroof motor falls with in the date range that it needs to be replaced cause it could be a faulty one.

U1345- code for shutter malfunction in front of vehicle. Says water intrusion and has a fix of splicing the wires. Chevy will not cover although it has a fix.

2/20/24 while coming to a stop at a stop light in a busy intersection, the car completely died/shut down. Hazard lights could not be turned on. No lights in car, no error message. No lights at all. Rpm gauges remained in the same position as when the vehicle died. I was able to put it in park. After about 5 minutes the car was able to be restarted. It was not clear why it finally restarted. I tried to push break, push start button and push hazards. There have been similar incidents in the past but this incident took much longer to be able to restart the car. Those incidents the rpm gauge dropped into the off position in those other situations. The hazard lights were at least able to be turned on and I still had lights in my dash. This is a dangerous engine error that can not be replicated for service personnel to demonstrate the problem.

I have a 2018 chevy Equinox. Was driving one day when the lights for service brake assist, park brake released, and traction control came on. The brake petal went extremely hard and was almost impossible to stop. Had the vaccum pump replaced. Drove for two-three weeks, same lights, brakes go hard off and on, vaccum pipe with sensor changed, only one week later same issues, another vacuum pump put on and oil changed due to metal from faulty pump in oil. We are now 900 dollars in repairs and no fix. Same issues over and over. Gm is well aware of the issue with their faulty pumps and system but refuse to fix the issues and continue to put them in the vehicles which will lead to fatalities.

A message has begun appearing in my 2018 chevy Equinox lt that states "parking brake released". This message did not previously appear and seems to be a potential issue to fix. After doing some online research, I found 3 technical service bulletins for parking brake issues/messages for the 2018 Equinox on an automotive repair website. However, when I contacted the chevy dealership and did a VIN search, there were no open recalls or any recalls for my car. I am not clear why other 2018 Equinox models have recall notices but my VIN number is not impacted by those notices, even though it was manufactured during the same year. Please help investigate if my car should be included in those tsbs and dealer repairs. The TSB numbers are: 20na094, 19na213, and pi1410b.

Auto stop caused service brake assist warning to pop up on dash. Resolved on its own. A week later, steering assist disabled message pops up while driving and car didn't start after coming to a stop. Service esc, traction off, service brake assist messages, all pop up. Car did not restart. Vehicle is currently at cooley Chevrolet in irving, TX awaiting results of tests. Obviously, this is a common issue judging from the number of complaints on the internet about it.

The sun roof shade is inoperable. The sunshade retracts, but does not go back into the roof so the whole shade hangs down. This completely blocks the view of the driver out the back window and is a severe safety risk. Even when the sunshade is "closed" the material hangs down, continuing to block the drivers view out of the back window. The shade has come off the tracks and unglued. The issue has been confirmed as inoperable and an internal fault in the roof shade assembly by a Chevrolet dealership and needing to be replaced completely. I have taken it to several other shops around my city, and have been informed that this is a common problem that is being referred back to dealerships for fixing. There was no prior warning sign, and my car has been experiencing this issue since July 2023.

Service brake assist.

Shift to park service bulletin 19-na-206 currently Equinox is not listed under affected models but it has the same components as similar models. Looking around this is a common issue.

I purchased my 2018 Chevrolet Equinox on july3rd, 2018 with 2 miles on it. Current mileage 67,900 stop/start system design defect. I have had to have my vehicle battery replaced 4 times in 4 years of ownership. The battery has failed again at 67,900 miles on 12/13/2022 which will be the 5th battery in its lifetime. My dealership said that due to the climate and road conditions where I live my stop/start system has been killing my battery cell every 16,975 miles causing my battery to fail. Chevrolet originally extended my warranty for 6months/ or 60k miles. They said they can no longer extend my warranty and that I’d be responsible for the next battery and future battery’s.

I have purchased a 2018 chevy Equinox. It was damaged on the back bumper (rebuilt title). The backup camera works fine but there is a side detection error that comes on everytime I start the vehicle. The shop replaced the entire harness however that did not fix the issue. I have read 1000's of complaints on this. My vehicle has 45000 miles. This is effecting my gas mileage as well as other safety features. I see this has been an issue in many gm models and it has been taken care ( special warranty) but not on a 2018 Equinox as of yet. I want to report this problem and see if someone can look into all the other forums etc to see how widespread this really is. The light has came on a few times lately but only when I am parked and not going anywhere??? thanks in advance.

Since I bought this car I have had to replace sensors like they’re going out of style. However I would like to report on 3 sensors that went out simultaneously on my vehicle in heavy traffic. I had the vacuum boost sensor for my master cylinder, my cam shaft sensor and my crank shaft sensor go out simultaneously. As a result my vehicle engine cut off completely (battery components still working) and I had zero control over my breaks. I had to use my full body weight on my break pedal to get the vehicle to stop. I was fortune to have been able to pull off into a parking lot. I have had to replace several O2 sensors on this vehicle. I didn’t think anything of having any electrical issues until this happened. My check engine light has stayed on for over a year despite clearing codes and replacing O2 sensors. We check periodically and the only code is usually for the O2 sensor. We can save the sensors we have replaced for inspection if necessary. I had a low engine power signal flash across the infotainment system just before this happened. I was in heavy traffic and I’m just fortunate I was able to get out of the way quickly enough before I hurt myself or someone else. The break issue and loss of power was actually terrifying.

Rear liftgate will only open most of the time it will not close when using the buttons on vehicle or on key fob, ongoing issue since.

I see that this isn't a recall but is affecting many models of chevy from year models 2016-2019 with the gear selector assembly. The issue is the harness, solenoid, or sensor in the gear selector assembly is faulty and when trying to put the vehicle in park, the vehicle thinks it is not in park when it is. Then, when you leave the vehicle, the interior beeps at you and electricals stay on as well as headlights/tail lights and will drain the battery unless you disconnect the battery. I don't see why this hasn't been recalled? I see soooo many people with the same issue and I've read that some dealerships are reluctant to fix because they can't "duplicate the problem" the problem is, you can't just buy the gear selector harness assembly wiring harness since it only comes with the whole assembly itself. So this should indeed be a recall because the average person isn't going to be able to figure this out and they shouldn't have to pay since it is happening in what looks like thousands if not tens of thousands or more vehicles.

After auto stop/ start system engages messages on dash appear “ service brake assist”, “service steering assist”, “service parking brake”, “service stibilitrac”, failure at 55,400 miles dealership found a loss communication error to the muddles due to low battery voltage. Fix: replaced battery at 55,436 miles battery has been replaced 3 times in 4 years starting at 18, 500 miles, then at 32,562 miles, now at 55,436 miles due to the same issue with the auto stop start operation. Car is out of warranty as of 58,300 miles or October 2022.

We were driving at night I had turned on the overhead cabin light and when I turned on the overhead cabin light so my wife could hand food to our are sun and behind us the at the same time that I push the button the sunshade started to go and so I let it go but then it got jammed and it started to crank so I pushed the button in it started to go and reverse and then it like jim in it aint like you know the motor growing sound and like there's a big shatter we thought that it was the glass from the moon roof shuttering turned out it was just like the plastic piece it was like holding the shade in place and so and so then to get that repaired they had to take the roof off take the rails out to get to the little plastic piece to call that plastic piece an external trim fastener so if it was an internal fastener it would be covered if it was because it was a fascinary if it was because it was a fascinator if it was because it's trim I don't know what trim you have to pull a roof off and pull rails out to it to find but that is why they didn't call it cover it.

The vehicle first started having a cigarette residual smoke smell in it during the summer of 2019. It was right after a good rainfall, but we didn't know what to attribute it to. We called the local Chevrolet dealership and they weren't sure what it might be either. The odor would come and go over the last couple of years, but we couldn't figure out what it was from as none of my family members smoke. Then my husband went to run errands in my vehicle during a heavy downpour and heard water running inside of the car. He found water coming out of the fuse panel on the driver's side in the rear hatch (video available). He started removing the wet stuff in the rear hatch & when he got down to the spare tire compartment, he found it was filled with water. He also smelled the cigarette smoke-like odor like 10 times stronger than before & realized that it was due to the felt-like pad in the spare tire compartment being soaked in water. We again called the local dealership & they weren't sure what the problem might have been. My husband & stepfather did research and found out a lot of Equinox owners were experiencing the same issue & it had been determined that it was due to the sunroof water drainage system being clogged. The provided solution was to run air through the water drainage pipes, which my husband did. However, the vehicle still had some water appearing behind the driver's side seat during the lighter rainfalls afterwards. As well, the odor that smelled like cigarette smoke had now been replaced with a strong mildew/mold smell. This poses two major safety issues - water going into fuse boxes (water & electrical don't mix), as well as the mold/mildew being inhaled - especially of concern since we have two toddlers sitting in the backseat of this family vehicle. One dealership was unable to duplicate water inside the vehicle, but found the water drain pipes partially clogged. Other dealership noted mold/mildew smell and did an ozone detailing.

While driving the traction and stability lights came on along with the esc service light. Also my lane assist stopped working. It stayed on for at least 30 mins until I turned off the car and restarted. Stopped at the closest garage and they checked the battery and used a scan tool to identify that it had a fault code u0121 lost communication with anti-lock brake system module.

When my cats gets turned on my radio doesn’t turn on so I have to reset it until it turns on meaning I have to press and hold for 20sec to get the volume knob lite but my radio doesn’t work and on top of it the auto stop is tripping when I do auto stop the car turns off and restarts on its own and shows light on dash saying traction control on or off and then it will say brake release and than brake check my steering wheel controls don’t work meaning my auto control isn’t working to set and one day out of nowhere it will all work like nothing happen radio will turn on but I can’t turn volume on or change station and it’s a frozen screen and sometimes it goes all blank black but I can hear music with no screen.

The driver side power seat would intermittently and without warning slide suddenly forward and continue to do so even after the power seat was reversed. In some instances the seat washed pushed so far forward I could not continue safely and was forced to pull off the road. Usually after a short wait I could continue driving. The problem occurred in a number of different driving situations, highways, city streets and interstate highways. I found at least 5 bulletins issued by gm regarding the specific problem described the bulletin number is pit5608d. The bulletins were issued between 2018 and 2021.

When using the bluetooth/handsfree with my phone while driving or stationary, the radio unit with dial out a call, but when the person on the other end picks up that person can not hear me. The person will say hello several times before hanging up. This could be an issue if I had an accident and couldn't get ahold of someone to talk to immediately. The vehicle is outside of the bumper to bumper warranty 3 years/36000 miles.

Message: I own a 2018 Chevrolet Equinox, 4 cylinder with electronic steering, the vehicle has approx 27500 miles recorded. While driving I sensed a slight delay in the steering, it appears to be only a millisecond delay and does not happen all the time. In addition there are times when the vehicle seems to wonder left or right when steering wheel is not held firmly. I reported the issue to blaize alexander phillipsburg PA service mgr. And asked if there was a reported issue with the steering. Their response was no. But suggested to schedule an apt. After arriving home I searched the issues on the internet and found several reports of steering problems with 2018 Chevrolet Equinox causing near miss accidents due to the electronic control failures. After consult with independent gm certified technician it was learned that there are significant issues with electronic steering. The vehicle was inspected by the dealer this day, the results of the inspection was they could not duplicate the problem as all parameters were within spec. This condition so far has been sporadic in nature,however due to the seriousness of potential hazards deserves more attention directed to it.

I bought a demo with 7,000 miles on it in may 2018. 41,000 the sunroof and shade stopped working. 42,500 check engine light came on for electrical issues. Chevy was no help because my warranty ended at 39,000.

The vehicles electronic stability control and antilock brake systems randomly give off service signal for the stabilitrak, hill start assist, and brake assist. This causes my doors to unlock and lock while he car is in motion and gives service engine lights. This mostly happens when the vehicle has been started via remote or Chevrolet app but recently, it is happening daily when the vehicle goes to auto stop and continues as the vehicle restarts for driving on city streets.

After going through a car wash or driving in a heavy rain, the vehicle door locks periodically no longer function. Door lock/unlock function cannot be used either with the key fob or with direct press of the lock/unlock button on the interior of the vehicle. At one point had to climb out the back of the vehicle. If you are outside of the vehicle, the only way to unlock the vehicle is to remove the cover from the door lock and use the embedded key in the key fob. Issue will last anywhere from 1 hour to 24 hours after the car gets wet. Huge safety concern if there were ever to be an issue arising where you had to exit the vehicle in an emergency. Took the vehicle to the dealer and they were unable to duplicate the problem. I have video of the issue occurring.

When I lift my foot off brake the car stop/start feature engage causing lurching jerks forward or roll backwardson hill I fear the roll back on inclines praying vehicles are to close behind and rolling backwards into another vehicle, censors lights take turns coming on each time I lift my foot off the brake pedal. All of the following, service brake assist, service stabilittrak, park brake released, service hill start assist action not working, car locks unlock and relock by themselves. I have had these issues since. These issues have been occurring since around 16,000 miles and keep getting worst everyday. Gm claim not to have a fix for these issues. They offered a few thousand to buy back the vehicle claiming drastic depreciation for milage and wear. At that time owed over $25,000 balance for the vehicle. No one stood to benefit but the lemon law attorneys. They did not consider the milage when these issues started and this is my only source of transportation to use which I told the lemon law attorneys. The lemon law attorneys were going to charge their fee from me if gm refused to pay their fees. I told them I felt in my best interest I should wait for gm's recall for this vehicle as I'm sure I wasn't the only consumer that was having these same issues. My problem is my vehicle is becoming dangerous to drive due to the rolling back and, jerking of the steering wheel, engine cutting off, locks unlocking and relocking and unstable steering. These issues were hit and miss now happens every time I drive which is daily. These issues started 2020. Last correspondence with gm they still claim they did not know how to fix these issues. I question why they are making vehicles and are not able to fix these issues. I have given my family a list of these issues because they create a safety hazard and in case I, a passenger or someone in another vehicle is injured or killed due to gm's negligence, lack of concern and greed.