Spare Tire Problems of GMC Envoy

Spare tire hoist jammed could not lower tire to change flat had to wait in 20 degree weather for a tow.

See all problems of the 2002 GMC Envoy 🔎.

I am the original owner of a 2002 GMC Envoy. I live in new jersey and I recently came out of my house and found I had a flat front tire. This is the first time since we purchased our Envoy that we attempted to change a flat tire on the Envoy ourselves. I wanted to switch the flat with my full size spare. When my husband tried to remove the spare the hoist that holds the spare tire would not budge. He eventually jacked up the vehicle and removed the flat tire and took it to be repaired. Later that day I brought my Envoy to a tire store to replace all my tires. The service attendant told me he could not lower the hoist to remove the spare either and suggested I take it to my GMC dealer. I brought my Envoy back to the dealer I purchased it from and they also could not lower the hoist. I spoke to the service manager and he told me it was a design flaw on the part of GMC. He also told me that the same thing happened to his GMC vehicle only in his case the hoist and spare fell out off his while he was driving it and he did not even realize it until he looked underneath one day and it was gone. He then told me it would cost me $285 to replace mine. I called GMC customer service and was told that because my car had 89,000 miles and it was out of its warranty that they would not reimburse me for the repair. GMC said it was normal ware and tare and was caused by bad weather and road salt. Why on earth would GMC design a spare tire hoist that could not withstand the elements for the life of the vehicle? there is nothing written in the owners manual about how to care and maintain for the spare tire hoist on the 2002 Envoy. I was lucky the flat occurred in front of my house and not on a highway in the middle of nowhere.

Spare tire hoist secondary latch frozen, 2002 GMC Envoy. Spare tire could not be removed from hoist when a road hazard blowout occurred. Tow truck operator could not remove spare. After a tow to tire vendor, they could not get the spare down. Upon visiting a dealership they could not remove the spare tire and said the mechanism was frozen and had to be replaced for $250, but they didn't have the part in stock. After a trip to another dealership, they cut the hoist cable, removed the spare and replaced the hoist part. One can only imagine the trauma if the family had been on us highway 50 in the middle of nowhere when this incident occurred. This must be a prima-facie violation of the fmvss code that requires a spare tire. Yes, the spare tire is present, but it cant be installed on the vehicle. One would hope that automotive engineers know that the underside of a vehicle is subject to corrosion and design accordingly. Researching this issue, many enthusiast forums and other blogs reflect the frustrations of owners with the same situation. The common grassroots solution is to cut/grind off the secondary latch. Thus defeating the safety system intent. One can only hope they are not behind a moving vehicle with such a modification when the spare tire drops. GMC customer service, while polite, informed that they could not reimburse the cost of the hoist replacement because there was not a service bulletin covering the problem. Yes, the vehicle is long out of warranty, but this is a serious customer safety issue. From the forums and blogs, it is obvious that this is a pervasive problem, and the fix might be more dangerous than the initial issue.

The vehicle had a flat tire. When trying to lower the spare according to the instructions the spare would not drop down. The car needed to be brought to a Chevrolet dealership, who charged $350 to replace the spare tire mechanism because it was broke due to road water, dirt, salt deteriorating it over time.

The spare tire release does not work. You are supposed to raise the jack up to the spare tire and it will push the spare up and release I the release bent as well as the jack. We will now have to cut the wire if we ever want to use the spare tire. This should have a normal release or metal plate holding the spare onto the bottom of the truck.

See all problems of the 2004 GMC Envoy 🔎.

My front tire had a leak and was down to the rim. I was on a level service and an ideal spot for one to change a tire. I read the service instructions several times and followed them exactly, but could not get the spare tire off of the SUV. The secondary lock would not come off. I ended up calling aaa to come out and try and help. The technician said that he had seen this on other Envoys/trailblazers, but not to this extent. He worked on it for about 30 minutes with no luck. Finally, he had to fill it up with air and I had to drive to the next gas station to fill it up more. I had to keep doing that until I found a place that could jack up my car and fix the tire on the spot (without using the spare). I still cannot get the spare off of my truck. I am very upset with this.