Problems · by component
2012 Chevrolet Traverse power train problems
46 owner complaints to NHTSA about the 2012 Chevrolet Traverse cite power train, 13% of all 354 complaints for this model year.
Complaints
46
13% of all complaints
Crashes
1
Reported by owners
Fires
0
Reported by owners
Injuries
0
Reported by owners
What owners say about the power train
Verbatim from NHTSA complaints, newest first
“When driving the vehicle it will lose power and flash service stabilitrack and low engine mode enabled without warning. This has happened many times since 2016. When the conditions cannot be replicated gm/chevrolet has not been concerned but to refer to dealership. The dealership replaced ECM due to warranty conditions. Issue with emissions and electrical modules continued to cause intermittent power loss. Corrosion was found in the internal fuse box due to poor sun roof drainage emptying into glovebox and onto internal fuse box. GM and Chevrolet describes this as a known issue but insists my VIN is not affected. The issues continued to persist leading to frequent battery replacement that was ultimately due to contamination of electrical components. Fuel system parts were all assumed faulty only to find it was ultimately the fuel control module, another electronic component listed faulty but GM/ Chevrolet assumes my VIN is not affected. This car was purchased to be a family vehicle, but had proven to be an unreliable death trap. The first incident that caused concern was 2/14/2017 on the highway with speeds up to 70mph. Thankfully, that day was full of heavy…”
“The air conditioning stopped working after working amazing, Traction Control Disabled light keeps coming on, The RPM's would rev up seems like it gets stuck then drops to normal. stabilitrak messages with the ABS warning light lit up, Power steering (or power control) goes limp (at the worse times pulling out in traffic) It’s on issue after the other. Once I get one fixed another goes, then we’re back to the first one that was replaced that is now not working again. I still have a car payment so I’m without my car more than I’m driving it. I have to save up to get it fixed, and I won’t drive it until I know for sure it’s good. I was almost killed way to many times in it so to all the issues that GM knows about.”
“Traveling at 70 MPH on a highway Traction control/stabilitrac and engine turn on and acceleration stopped, car wont accelerate causing to cars behind me to start swirling around due to my car lost of acceleration, then pulled over to the shoulder thankfully with no accidents, then turn off car and turn on again and car worked normally for about 100 miles and it did it again.”
“First I already had to rebuild the transmission which is showing the beginning signs of failing again. Then around the same time I started having another issue that I find a lot scarier as the driver. It started giving me severely Reduced engine power, traction control off and stabilitrak messages with the ABS warning light lit up like a Christmas tree. This is by far the most dangerous of any issue I've ever experienced with all of my vehicles I've ever owned. It starts with a huge jump I cant stop or control to a car behind me it seems like I'm really getting on it and speeding up. But in a split second too quick for any human to process what is happening it just drops out big time. It then wont go above roughly 30 mph and the engine is revving very high to even get it to that. All the while it is heavily shuddering and jumping back and forth at a very fast rate and it does this with a high force to it. I have no control over it either. Before I could hit traction control off and it would all stop. However today it did this again for the first time in a long time and man was it 20 times worse than anything I had ever seen before. By the time I decided to turn…”
“2012 chevy traverse. Feb 20 2020. Milage 127691 My valve cover gaskets failed causing the cabin to fill with smoke. Sept 11 2020 right front axel seal failed causing ptu to lose all the transfer case fluid and bearings. Transfer case replaced. Feb 22 2021 milage 141464 transmission slipping had new one installed. Jan 5 2022 milage 153350 had timing chains replaced. Check engine light came on. Back on june 29 2012 Chevrolet issued a bulletin No. 11340B special coverage adjustment timing chain wear. It is for 2007-2009 traverse acadia outlook enclave equipped with the same 3.6L Engine as my 2012 and other years. they extended warranty coverage for 10 years 120k miles. seeing this problem existed in 07-09 models this should be looked at and to include other years as well. I am a member of 2 facebook traverse groups and there are a lot of others with the same issue. The owners manual says to change engine oil every 5000 miles I have done that. Please look into adding additional years to this recall. Timing chains should not fail stretch or need replacing as much as I have seen others needing to. A vehicle should go well over 200k miles before needing replacing.”
“UNKNOWN, I first bought my Chevy Traverse Ltz in April of 2020, and about 2 weeks of driving it, I noticed that all(4)of my wheels/brakes instantly locked up while driving in traffic, almost causing a pile-up collision. The rotors and brakes releases alot of smoke as the wheels scrub and the suv doesn't move forward nor backward. I reported it to the car lot/dealership where i purchased it from and was told to take it to a certain auto shop. I arrived there, just to be told that he doesn't fix those type of problems. The dealership where i bought it from didn't look at it either. So, from that time til now in 2021, I have been dealing with the same exact problems being terrified with my children in the car, not knowing if/when the next time the wheels lock up for no reason, if it will be fatal for me and my children or other drivers. I've contacted GM about it, taken it to Chevy dealership a few times, even a couple of auto shops, and no one seems to know what the problem is. I recently had the transmission serviced to see if that was the issue and turns out, it wasn't. I don't know what to do, I am still financing it and the warranty only covers the…”
Showing 6 of 46 reports. Read every report on NHTSA.gov.
Data from NHTSA Complaints API (owner reports, unverified) · synced Nov 4, 2026NHTSA vehicle page
Complaints are unverified owner reports to NHTSA and are not normalized for sales volume. One complaint can cite several components.