Zig10

It's pretty much dumb luck. We bought our first 2015 GMC Yukon XL (with trailering package, so no, it doesn't make a difference) in October of '15. Within 3 days the buffetting presented itself. The dealer worked with GM for a buy-back and replacement. I test drove 5 others, including a Denali, and all of them (to me) had it to one level or another, but none were anywhere near as bad as our original. If I had bought any of those, I likely wouldn't have ever brought it back to the dealer and just assumed it was something wrong with me. We got a '16 that is 95% better, but on cold mornings and rough pavement it still has the pressure issue. Our neighbors across the street bought a 2016 LT Suburban 6 months ago and have had no issues whatsoever. Same with a co-worker that bought a 2016 Tahoe LTZ 9 months ago. Take the vehicle for a long test drive. Get it onto the highway, side roads, as many different conditions as you can find. It may be perfectly fine, and you may be someone who doesn't notice it either way. If you can find a good one, these vehicles really are great to own. We tow a 6000 lb boat with 6 people and all of our gear, and it handles it all with ease. Good luck.

Yeah, unfortunately it didn't seem to fix the issue. I think it was back around page 50-60. Cotton balls and tape over the mics helped at least one person to some extent, but the results weren't consistent. When the fuse was pulled it had no effect on the pressure sensation, if I recall.

Congratulations, Fog. I know that was a long-time coming for you. Now, GM needs to have that field engineer to train the rest of them and start putting a bigger dent in this issue. With all of this going on, I wonder what the changes will be going into the next generation. Obviously you can't rely on tire and wheel suppliers to hold the tolerances that are needed for a frame this rigid, so do they change frame mounts and dampers, or design more flex into the body to absorb some of this? I'd love to have a serious conversation with the engineering team on this, just out of morbid curiosity.

If it is the V4 mode that is causing the major issues on yours, have you ever considered testing the Range AFM defeat module? I ran one on my old Tahoe for over 3 years without issue, but that was because of the dreaded piston-slap problem that would develop on the older 5.3s. Might be worth a shot. https://www.rangetechnology.com/pages/v8

I've got 1100 miles on it now. So far so-so...

Across broken pavement, yes. Some minor booming on potholes as well. However, under normal driving on average roads, no, it doesn't buffet. If I had bought this one first I likely would've never even found this website.

My dealer explained the same situation to me. Fortunately, the one they found to replace mine was from a "cooperating dealer" that they work with often, so the swap went straight through. I definitely got lucky.

I contacted the dealer with around 200 miles on my car to let them know something was wrong. By the time they finished all of the "fixes", jumped through all the hoops, and convinced GM that it could not be repaired the vehicle had close to 1500 miles on it. The swap to the 2016 model was straight up, no money out of my pocket whatsoever. Even if they did try for a mileage penalty it would have only been charged to the initial 200 miles, which would have hardly been worth the aggravation.

Did anyone else hear back from the NHTSA from their complaint? I got an email back today (submitted back in November) indicating that they are contacting GM with my info. Don't know if that means anything, but at least they responded.

The orange arrows at the top would make more sense based on what others have written regarding the glass pulsating. With the common hinge for both the gate and glass, maybe that is tightening up the whole assembly when you put pressure there. Have you tried putting down self-adhesive weather stripping on the glass itself where it meets the rubber gasket? I bought a roll from the hardware store to test it, but I never got my car back to try it out.

Most of the ones I work with are around $250/hour, but I doubt they would be set up to work on a rolling chassis like this. Those guys usually focus on larger interior spaces like buildings, aircraft, ships, etc. The principal would be the same, but the modeling software would not be set up the same way. As an update on my new one, we took it on our holiday travels and racked up around 800 miles on it. Uneven/broken pavement still results in the booming and buffetting, but it is now transient instead of being there constantly. The 35-50 MPH range is still the worst when it occurs. Highway speeds are, by and large, pretty smooth. Not perfect, but better than the previous car by a long shot. One thing I found interesting is that on my work order from the repair attempts on my last vehicle there is a comment about "calibrating the ANC, found to be in spec." I had thought that only the Denali/LTZ/Escalade has that option, but there must be some lower-end system on the lower trims to try to help the situation.

If I walked into one of my clients offices after engineering a system that didn't work and left them with the line that "they got what they got" I am not sure I would make it out of the building with my ass still attached to my body. And I am pretty sure I would be unemployed shortly after. In fact, I would now LOVE to do one of GMs new assembly lines for them. Maybe in the installation when the car is halfway down the assembly line the jig that hold it in the air releases and drops the car on to the ground...upside down. When one of the commissioning engineers complains, I would simply shrug my shoulders and refer them to the current generation large SUV platform for reference.

I guess it depends on your dealer and how old your vehicle was when you brought it to their attention. Mine was 2 days old when I notified them of the problem. Took 6 weeks to go through all the hassle, but mine thus far is heading towards a straight up replacement. No money changing hands or anything. Keeping my fingers crossed that is stays that way.

Well, I picked up my 2016 replacement Yukon XL today, and after putting about 30 miles on it, thus far it is like driving a completely different vehicle. There is still an occasional boom across messed up pavement, and I still wish the V4 mode sounded better, but no ear pressure to speak of. Keeping my fingers crossed. We'll be racking up miles over the Christmas season, so I hope to be able to give a positive report when we return.

Absolutely. Thanks again for pushing this through. Wonder if another mag would pick up the story now that it is in print?