Last week, we learned General Motors was recalling the majority of their Hummer H3 and H3T models due to a fire risk from a melting blower motor resistor and harness. We also learned GM didn’t issue the recall until they were threatened by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
A few days ago, Jalopnik’s Michael Ballaban pointed out the Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon were also at risk due to similar components. These trucks may not be the last of the affected models as the Pontiac Solstice and Saturn Sky also shared many HVAC components with the Hummer H3.
Searching through the NHTSA complaints database and user forums yielded many examples of melted and burnt blower motor resistors and harnesses for the GM roadster twins.
The Solstice and Sky actually have more parts in common with the H3 than even the Colorado and Canyon. While the trucks use a similar resistor with four pins, the Solstice and Sky use the same 5-pin resistor as the H3. Curiously enough, the roadsters and H3/H3T share a host of HVAC components, including the blower motor, blend door actuators and even the heater core.
Searching Solstice and Sky forums also produced case after case of melted harnesses and resistors. Many of the owners were buying the parts and replacing them on their own.
The problem may stem from a harness that is either too short or too loose, causing arcing on the connection and resulting in melted components. The initial part number for the harness is 25797383, but it is no longer available under that number. The initial part was succeeded and released as part number 25867517 — then again as 25949869, the part that is currently available for purchase.
Part numbers can change for many reasons, including vendor changes, but I speculate in this case that GM may have changed the part to try and remedy its issues.
Based on NHTSA records, the earliest complaints for the roadsters started showing up in 2008.
While the number of complaints for the Solstice and Sky is much lower than the H3, lower production numbers must also be taken into account when comparing total complaint counts to the H3. Despite fairly widespread issues with similar parts found on the H3,owners of Kappa-platform cars haven’t reported problems at the same rate.
The H3 recall states dealers should replace the harness and resistor module, both of which are shared parts. The 2006 Chevrolet Equinox and Pontiac Torrent use the same part number for the resistor as the H3, Sky and Solstice. There are cases of multiple failures and, as noted in the complaint below, they also show GM was directly notified of the issue. The Equinox and Torrent moved to a different resistor design after 2006 and the issues seem to have been mitigated after that point.
GM has not issued any recalls or bulletins for these other vehicles, even though complaints and pictures of damage appear to match the H3 issues. The part number changes could be an attempt by GM to remedy the issue before a recall was required, but as we have seen before, GM can take up to a decade to actually acknowledge issues and will keep silent and order parts to try and quietly repair vehicles.
The proof is out there and the right thing for GM to do is recall all of the related models.
[Image Source: hammy221/solsticeforum.com]
The post Pontiac Solstice, Saturn Sky Share Same Fire-Risk Parts with Hummer H3 appeared first on The Truth About Cars.
Best Deals today in www.freepromotoday.com