A little over two years ago, General Motors had to recall an estimated 367,808 GMC Terrain and Chevy Equinox crossovers in the United States due to a problem with their windshield wipers.
According to the recall notice, the issue was with the ball joints in the windshield wiper module, which could rust and wear, thus potentially leaving you with inoperative wipers, which in difficult weather conditions could have increased the risk of a crash.
Now, the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is investigating whether GM should recall an additional 1.7 million Terrain and Equinox models (2010-2016 model years), after receiving 249 new complaints about the wipers, reports Autonews.
The automaker stated that it is cooperating with the NHTSA review, while also noting that no crashes or injuries related to this issue have been reported.
According to a regulatory filing from March, 2019, GM already recalled 15,611 vehicles (2010-2017 model year) in Canada. The filing said that “in certain vehicles, water may drain from the windshield cowl area onto the windshield wiper transmission link joints. Over time, this could result in corrosion and/or wear to the joint, which could result in the separation of the wiper link ball from its corresponding socket.”
“If separation were to occur, the windshield wipers could become inoperative, which could limit the driver’s visibility under certain operation conditions and increase the risk of a crash causing injury and/or damage to property.”
The filing also says that the fix should include relocating drain holes in the windshield cowl and installing a wiper module with updated joints.