Bulletins
| Bulletin | Bulletin date | Replacement Bulletin | Item no. | Summary | Added |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL | |||||
| 01470 | 01/01/2004 | 01470A | 10004413 | Erratic idle, idle surge, rough run, or near stall. *tt | 12/05/2003 |
| VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL - CRUISE CONTROL | |||||
| 3329 | 10017201 | Surge, chuggle or buck while driving downhill (approximately 1500 - 3000 feet above sea level) at highway speeds with the cruise control on. *tt | 10/27/2005 | ||
| 3198 | 10010653 | No cruise control and diagnostic trouble code p0741. *eh | 12/03/2004 | ||
| 3042 | 01/01/2004 | 10009642 | Cruise control disengages after accelerating. *tt | 10/14/2004 | |
Consumer Complaints
| Fail date | miles | occurences | Purchase date |
|---|---|---|---|
| VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL | |||
| 10/31/2012 | 112000 | ||
| After driving for a approximately one hour at 65-70 mph on the interstate the speedometer reading drops off from 70 eventually down to 0 mph. upon stopping and restarting the engine at a rest stop the speedometer returns to an accurate reading for a short while. i relied on my garmin gps to give me a speed approximation when the speedometer went out completely. relying on a accurate speedometer is a critical safety issue especially at night. without the gps giving me a speed reading it would be next to impossible to judge a safe speed in the darkness on a road illuminated only by my headlights. this defect must be similar to other models in the gm family, trailblazer and envoy. if one person were to rely on this faulty speedometer they might think they were driving 40 when in actuality they could be driving in excess of 70. | |||
| 05/31/2012 | 72153 | ||
| Going down the roaf speedodometer stuck at 120 | |||
| 03/09/2011 | 136840 | ||
| I bought this car monday and the dealer stated it had all scheduled service, including the 130k mile service on february 26, 2011. we drove around the neighborhood and the car seemed to drive beautifully, and appeared to be immaculately maintained. until i drove to work this morning, and the speedometer started going higher and higher, reaching 80 mph, even though i had slowed down and pulled over. i shut the car off and restarted it. it appeared normal for the first 30 mph, then stuck at 40, even though i was following traffic in a 70 mph zone. it stayed at 40 mph, even after the car was turned off. i did some research on this problem and found that the instrument panel cluster has been a known problem in gm cars, and was supposed to have been corrected as the result of a class action lawsuit. there are several tsbs related to the speedometer, gas gauges, or other instruments in this cluster. i find it unforgivable that the national highway traffic safety administration has allowed an unsafe condition exist in virtually an entire brand of cars for over 7 years and has not issued a recall on these vehicles. this allowed the dealer to sell the car, knowing about the problem, but not required by law, to disclose it. and should i be on the highway, driving along at 90 mph, when my speedometer says 60, nobody is safe. not me, not the other cars on the road, certainly not pedestrians, since the braking distance is obviously far longer than my speedometer leads me to believe it is. how many millions of defective vehicles have been placed on the road in the last 7 years? how would you feel if your 5 year-old rode a bicycle into the street as i drove by? thinking i was going 30, but really going 60? this isn't just an inconvenience, it is a fatality waiting to happen. you have the authority, and the moral responsibility, to fix it. recall these cars before somebody dies. | |||
| 12/26/2010 | 65000 | ||
| The speedometer on my 2004 buick rainier stops working intermittently. there is no pattern as to when this occurs, it has happened in all types of weather and all temperatures. sometimes it says i'm going faster than i am, sometimes it says i'm going slower. sometimes it stops working all together. i have researched and this is a common problem with raniers. i'm wondering why this hasn't been recalled? the vehicle has about 100,000 miles on it now, but the speedometer stopping has been an issue for a few years. | |||
| 05/07/2010 | |||
| Odometer freezed | |||
| 07/14/2008 | 33000 | 1 | |
| My husband and i purchased a used 2004 buick rainier with 33,000 miles last may 2008. one evening during the summer we were making a 20 minute trip and the speedometer just stopped working while en route. since then the speedometer gets stuck while making 20+ minute trips and will only go down 5 mph each time you shut off the suv and restart. so you have to shut off and restart several times before it reaches back down to zero and it will then operate okay for a little while until you make that 20+ minute trip again. sometimes while just driving around town running errands it will get stuck. so i would say at least once a week it gets stuck. it's very frustrating when you have to watch your speed especially around the school zones. i often take my eyes off the roads to watch my rpm's and try to calculate how fast i'm going. i'm currently saving to have the problem fixed as i've heard of it being a very pricing item (instrument cluster) to have replaced. i've been doing some research on a possible recall for this item and i've found there have been many complaints and even a class action suit against gm for other suv's similar to the rainier but the buick rainier was not listed in this class action suit and no recalls have been made for this item on buick rainiers. any help you can give would be greatly appreciated. thank you. *tr | |||
| 08/15/2007 | 35000 | ||
| Tl*the contact owns a 2004 buick rainier. while driving 70 mph, the speedometer will display speeds between 20-120 mph. while driving various speeds on the freeway, the speed will decrease on its own. the contact must literally stand on the accelerator pedal to maintain a steady speed. while idling at a stop sign or light, the engine continues to rev. the contact scheduled an appointment with the dealer for june 23, 2008 to diagnose the failures. the current mileage was 41,000 and failure mileage was 35,000. | |||
| 02/01/2007 | 2 | ||
| 2004 buick rainier speedometer & gas gauge went haywire at 43,000 miles. the needles pointed randomly and the gas gauge showed 180 degrees off the markings, pointing straight down. complained to the dealership, who stated this was a known defect and replaced the entire unit for a $100 deductible even though the car was out of warranty. *ak | |||
| 12/19/2006 | 42000 | 5 | 03/24/2004 |
| I was in the midst of a 10 hour road trip over the holidays when the speedometer originally quit working. i was traveling at a rate of 70 mph. the speedometer started inching up and buried itself at 120 mph. i pulled off the road in an attempt to get the speedometer to go back down but it settled on 60 mph while in park. i continued on w/my trip and took the car to the dealership upon arrival in abilene, ks. they were not able to identify the problem in the cluster and checked bulletins for past problems w/speedometers. over the course of 3 months the speedometer continued to repeat this action. i had it into a dealership in austin, tx on three separate occasions w/the same response from the dealership until the speedometer finally quite working altogether. the dealer told me he had seen this in a few other models by gm. i called and filed a complaint with gm and was told there was nothing they would do. i then had to pay to have the cluster replaced in february 2007. three weeks later the car was back in b/c the entire system shut down and the speedometer quit working. the service department saw the problem upon arrival but was unable to prolong. *jb | |||
| 10/20/2006 | 47000 | 1 | 10/07/2003 |
| Tl*- the contact owns a 2004 buick rainier with a failure mileage of 47,000 and a current mileage of 57,000 miles. the contact stated that the speedometer displayed the incorrect speed. when she put the vehicle in park the speedometer showed that the speed was above zero. the registered speed varied. when she started the vehicle it would automatically display a speed which was above zero. when the contact started to drive the speedometer would keep going higher until it reached 120. the contact has not taken the vehicle to the dealer or spoken to the manufacturer. *ak | |||
| 10/04/2004 | 2600 | 1 | |
| At dawn or early evening the digital display speedometer disappears, and makes it impossible to see how fast consumer is traveling. manufacturer states the vehicle is doing what it is designed to do.*ak...also, does it during day if it gets very cloudy like it is gaong to snow, etc. in michigan, wher econsumer lives, there were several such days. *ak | |||
| 12/20/2004 | 1991 | 1 | |
| Car is 2004 buick rainier with awd. less than 2000 miles at time of incident. temp 0 f, 4 fresh snow. returning home at 5:00 p.m., turned into 100' long driveway and proceeded toward garage. because of snow in driveway, had to accelerate to reach front of garage when normally i just coast because it is a slightly downhill approach. car would not stop by pushing brakes and hit garage door. car seemed to be accelerating as it pushed garage door into snow blower and snow blower into stored vehicle inside garage causing damage to both. speed was less than 5 miles per hour. air bags did not deploy. incident reported to insurance company next morning and insurance company set up an appointment with dealer. dealer provided estimate for repairs but did not investigate for mechanical failure. returned vehicle to investigate after christmas but nothing found to have caused incident. *jb | |||
| 12/20/2004 | 1 | ||
| Numbers on speedometer disappear in early morning and just before dark. *ak | |||