Two problems related to battery cable have been reported for the 2016 GMC Yukon. The most recently reported issues are listed below. Please also check out the statistics and reliability analysis of the 2016 GMC Yukon based on all problems reported for the 2016 Yukon.
We were traveling in our Yukon when all power was lost to the vehicle. The steering wheel lock function enabled before we were stopped. Since there was no power and it is push button start, there was no way to control the vehicle. Our dealer said to their knowledge there is no way to unlock the wheel. Luckily our children were not in the vehicle and no one was injured. The dealer said the negative battery cable is fully intact, but had failed internally. What is more concerning is the fact there is no way to unlock the wheel to steer if this happens. Even at 65 mph.
Started the vehicle after it had been sitting for about 1 hour and the gauges did their regular check sweep from left-to-right, then the following warnings appeared on the driver information display screen: 1) service air bag; 2) service trailer brake, and; 3) service front camera. Afterwards, there were no gauges except the voltmeter (tachometer, fuel, temperature, oil pressure and speedometer were all at resting positions). The driver information screen would not show the gear selector, the mileage or the speed and the warning lights for the airbag, emergency brake, traction control and tpms stayed on. I drove the vehicle a short distance and shut it off, restarted, and it did not make any difference. There was no option to take the vehicle to a dealership for service immediately, because we had a train to catch, so we had to drive it about 20 miles with no speedometer, but we called our GMC dealer and made a service appointment for April 22, 2019 once we parked at the train station. The vehicle was parked until April 21, 2019, and, when started at that time, the instrument panel and driver information screen worked correctly. On April 22, 2019, our GMC dealer (woodbridge Buick-GMC) performed a diagnostics and discovered a b3980 (no environment identifier received) in the history. According to the service adviser I spoke to, this code will involve the relays for the trailer braking and the instrument panel. Also; they told me that the battery cable was loose, so they tightened that as well. Our extended warranty did not cover this and we had to pay for the diagnostics due to our manufacture warranty expiring 2 months beforehand. As of now, this problem has not happened again, but it is worth reporting due to possibly being a safety issue.