NHTSA Complaint #11539682 — 2018 GMC YUKON XL

Engine Valve Lifter for cylinder 3 had failed and Camshaft lobes damaged. Error codes of P0300 and P0303. Vehicle had 67,049 miles when I brought it in to be repaired at Park GMC in Greenville, SC on 12/28/2022. GMC has the lifters (they replaced all 8) and the camshaft. Failure happened while on I40 in the Smokey mountains at night while driving back from Dollywood with my family. Engine produced a gassey sputtering sound and I lost some power but only noticeable under acceleration. Had another lifter failed due to the worn camshaft lobes, we could have easily been rear ended. A year prior to the failure (September 2021), I had taken the vehicle to a Wakefield Buick GMC and Parks Buick GMC to be inspected due to a shake at idle. Both dealerships said there were no codes and they didn't know what was wrong but they could feel the shake/vibration intermittently at idle. In November of 2022, I got the P0303 error code and took this vehicle to a private mechanic (since dealerships previously said nothing was wrong) who diagnosed an issue with the fuel injector for cylinder 3. I had mechanic replace all 8 injectors and he cleared the code. About 150 miles later (while on I40), the code came back. I took this vehicle back to the private mechanic and after several weeks with my vehicle, he refunded me the labor and said it was probably an issue with the lifter but he didn't have time to take apart the engine. I then took this vehicle to Parks GMC in Greenville, SC where they diagnosed a lifter and camshaft failure. Lifters and camshafts should not be failing in vehicles with under 100k miles.