NHTSA Opens Engineering Analysis on Nearly 1 Million GM Trucks After L87 V8s Fail the Recall Fix

That population is an investigation count. It is not a new recall of nearly a million trucks. Until EA26005 closes, a 6.2L Silverado or Sierra is a VIN-check-first purchase.

Sources

• Jack Fitzgerald, Car and Driver, Aug. 21, 2026
• NHTSA EA26005 opening resume (dot.report)
• NHTSA recall / VIN lookup

Investigation at a glance

Do not add forum tallies, class-action headcounts, or extra complaint piles on top of those numbers. The counts on this page are the ODI / GM figures as of the Aug. 20 opening, as reported Aug. 20–21.

TruckDaily take

Until EA26005 closes, a 6.2L Silverado or Sierra is a VIN-check-first purchase. A completed 25V-274 oil change, a new cap, a new filter, or even an engine swap is not a clean bill of health. ODI’s 499 post-remedy complaints include both remedy paths.

Who it's for. Anyone shopping a 2021–2026 Silverado 1500 or Sierra 1500 with the 6.2L L87. Anyone who already owns one and went through recall 25V-274. Anyone looking at a Tahoe, Suburban, Yukon, or Escalade with the same engine, because EA26005 covers those nameplates too.

Who should skip. Skip the 6.2L used-truck aisle if you need a truck this week and cannot wait on an open federal file. Skip any listing that will not give you the 17-character VIN before you drive over. Skip the handshake that treats “recall completed” as the whole story.

What we'd actually buy. We would not buy a 6.2L Silverado 1500 or Sierra 1500 until we had the VIN, a 25V-274 result on that VIN, and a written record of which remedy path the truck took — oil/cap/filter or engine replacement. If any of those are missing, we walk. If they are all there, we are still shopping an open EA, not a closed recall.

What EA26005 is, and what it is not

NHTSA’s Office of Defects Investigation opened Engineering Analysis EA26005 on August 20, 2026. Car and Driver reported the opening the next day. The investigation population is about 997,743 vehicles. That figure is the group ODI is now examining. It is not a new recall of all of them.

An engineering analysis is the step after a recall query. It is not a dealer campaign with a labor op and a free part. There is no EA26005 owner letter, no EA26005 remedy procedure, and no published close date. The file is OPEN.

ODI’s own opening language, as carried on dot.report’s EA26005 page, is the assignment: continue investigating complaints of post-remedy engine failure, and expand the scope to engines produced after the production period cited in recall 25V-274.

The question on the table is whether the 25V-274 remedy actually stopped L87 engine failures, and whether engines built after the original production window belong in the same conversation. Until ODI writes a closing resume, or GM files a new recall, the honest status for a shopper is: check the VIN, read the open file, and do not guess.

The original campaign: 25V-274

Recall 25V-274 is the campaign that was supposed to close this. Car and Driver puts the U.S. population at about 597,630. The engines in that campaign were built March 1, 2021 through May 31, 2024.

GM’s stated problem, in C/D’s telling, was manufacturing defects in the crankshaft and connecting rods that can lead to catastrophic engine failure. ODI’s EA opening resume says GM cited a supplier manufacturing and quality issue.

The published remedy was not one part for every truck. Dealers inspect first. Engines that pass get a higher oil viscosity, a new oil fill cap, and an oil-filter replacement (C/D). Engines that fail the inspection get replaced. ODI describes the same fork: oil-viscosity change or engine replacement, based on the inspection.

That two-path remedy is why the post-remedy split matters. It is also why a service writer saying “we already did the recall” is not an answer. You need to know which path the truck took.

The numbers that opened the EA (and only those numbers)

Stick to the counts in the ODI file as reported with the August 20 opening. Do not add forum tallies or extra complaint piles on top.

• ODI post-remedy engine-failure complaints: 499
• Of those 499: 473 had the oil-viscosity path; 26 had an engine replacement (ODI and C/D)
• GM-reported post-remedy complaints: 6,953
• Failures on engines built after the original May 31, 2024 recall window: 191

The 26 replacement-engine failures are the ones that should stop a used-truck handshake. Those trucks already got the heavy remedy. They still showed up in ODI’s post-remedy pile.

The 191 after-window failures are why EA26005 is bigger than 25V-274. The original campaign stopped at engines built May 31, 2024. ODI is now looking at later L87s as well, which is how the investigation population reaches about 997,743 and includes 2025–2026 vehicles. Being in that population still does not mean your truck has a new recall. It means NHTSA is studying that group.

Car and Driver also notes a class-action suit last year alleging GM knowingly sold vehicles with bad engines, and a later recommended-oil change for the L87. Those are C/D facts. They are not extra complaint counts, and this page does not invent a headcount for either.

RQ26001 came first

This did not jump from a quiet recall to a million-truck headline. ODI opened Recall Query RQ26001 on January 16, 2026 to assess whether the 25V-274 remedy was working. The EA is the escalation. RQ26001 preceded EA26005. EA26005 is the open file now.

If a dealer, a listing, or a forum post talks only about 25V-274 and never mentions EA26005, they are behind the federal paper.

Nameplates in the investigation

EA26005, as locked for this page, covers about 997,743 vehicles from the 2021–2026 model years with the 6.2L L87:

• Chevrolet Silverado 1500
• Chevrolet Tahoe
• Chevrolet Suburban
• GMC Sierra 1500
• GMC Yukon
• Cadillac Escalade

Not every truck in those nameplates is an L87, and not every L87 in those years was in 25V-274. A 5.3L, a 2.7 TurboMax, or a 3.0 Duramax is a different engine. A 6.2L built outside the original March 1, 2021–May 31, 2024 window was outside 25V-274 and is now inside the EA conversation because of the 191 after-window failures. The only way to sort a specific vehicle is the VIN.

How to check a VIN this week

1. 1. Get the 17-character VIN. No VIN, no deal.
2. 2. Run it at nhtsa.gov/recalls.
3. 3. Look for recall 25V-274 (or the GM bulletin number the dealer used) and whether the remedy shows complete.
4. 4. If the remedy is complete, ask the dealer which path: oil viscosity / cap / filter, or engine replacement. Get it in writing.
5. 5. Read the open investigation: EA26005. An open EA does not print as a closed recall on the VIN the way 25V-274 does. That is why the VIN check is step one, not the whole job.
6. 6. Do not buy on a report line that says “recall completed” without the remedy type.

If you already own the truck, file or keep your own paper: the repair order with the labor op, the oil spec on the invoice, the parts list for the cap and filter, or the engine-replacement documentation. If it fails again, that packet is what ODI and the dealer will ask for.

What this means on a lot

A 6.2L Silverado 1500 or Sierra 1500 still tows, still sells, and still looks like the truck a lot of buyers want. The federal file does not make every one of them a grenade. It does make the 6.2L a document deal.

Price the truck as if the next failure is the buyer’s problem until EA26005 closes. If the seller will not produce the VIN, the 25V-274 repair order, and the remedy path, walk. If they will, you are shopping with eyes open instead of shopping a headline.

SUVs in the same engine family are not a side story. A Tahoe, Suburban, Yukon, or Escalade with the L87 is in the same ODI population. The same VIN-first rule applies.

FAQ