Mechanical Parking Brake problems of the 2001 GMC Yukon

2001 Yukon parking brake was pre-maturely worn. My own rudimentary research shows that this is becoming a pervasive problem for many late model gm SUV/truck owners. Brake shoe was gone, scraping metal to metal with rotor. Parking brake was not functional and potential hazardous if relied upon for parking on an incline. Defect in the brake shoe alone was $250 to repair + $200 to replace the rotor damaged by the faulty brake shoe. Gm has acknowledged this problem with a service bulletin, but refuses to replace voluntarily.

Parking brake failure: results from one time driving off with the parking brake on or simply towing a trailer and parking it on a hill and setting the parking brake. The parking brake on these 1999-2002 GMC trucks and suvs are a dangerous. They gives no indication that the parking brake is working because the pedal feels the same, no resistance, when working and when not. Our friends own a 2002 denali and we were at a boat ramp, he backed the denali with the boat on the trailer on the boat ramp, parked it and loaded the boat. Climbed back in to launch it and the truck's transmission had torque locked because the parking brake failed. We had to get our car to tow him slightly forward to get the transmission to release. If the parking pin in the transmission failed due to over exersion from lack of a function parking brake, it could cause serious injury and major property damage. When we tried to fix our parking brake in our denali, we discovered that we would have to replace the hub as well because the pads had destroyed the inside of the hub to the point that it would not work even if the pads were replaced. This is the case in everyone that we know who owns a gm truck.

My 2001 GMC Yukon with 4-wheel disc brakes failed state inspection due to worn out (non-functioning) emergency brakes. I have only used them for parking about 10 times & never for emergency stopping. The dealer who repaired them, told me that due to a clip design problem, they typically wore out without use, right after the truck was purchased. The linings would not remain straight & would wear prematurely. They charged me for some of the repair ($100) but it seems that it should be covered as a recall.