WASHINGTON -- General Motors Corp. is recalling more than 3.5 million pickups, sport utility vehicles and vans to fix anti-lock braking systems that consumers say led to thousands of crashes, a federal safety agency said Wednesday.
The recall concludes one of the longest defect investigations ever conducted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, agency officials said. All the vehicles will be fixed for free.GM will ask owners of 1.1 million small pickups and sport utility vehicles from model years 1991-1996 to take them to mechanics so an anti-lock brake sensor switch can be replaced. The vehicles are four-wheel drive Chevrolet Blazer and GMC Jimmy SUVs and Chevrolet S-10 and GMC Sonoma pickups, along with some Cyclone and Typhoon pickups, GM officials said.
If the vehicle is operating in two-wheel drive, the anti-lock brake system can erroneously behave as if the vehicle is in four-wheel drive, a condition that could result in extended stopping distances, NHTSA officials said.
Bob Lange, GM's engineering director for product safety, said the stopping distance could be as much as 10 percent to 30 percent longer. He said 30 percent "could be too long" for a stop.
GM is recalling about 2.5 million additional pickups, sport utilities and vans with two-wheel drive to change the computer software on the anti-lock braking systems.
When the vehicles move from a surface with good traction to a surface with poor traction, such as ice or packed snow, then back to a surface with good traction, there might not be enough brake pressure to the wheels, Lange said.
Those vehicles, all two-wheel drive, are: 1993-1996 Chevrolet Blazer and GMC Jimmy SUVs, 1994-1996 Chevrolet S-10 and GMC Sonoma pickups, 1992-1995 Chevrolet Astro and GMC Safari vans and 1993-1996 G-vans, which are full-size GMC and Chevrolet vans, Lange said.
GM was not calling the software fix for the 2.5 million vehicles a recall, but rather a "special policy" campaign, since the company says there is no safety defect in those vehicles.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration described the switch replacements as a "safety recall" and the software changes as a "service recall."