Complaint volume
425 consumer-submitted complaints are matched to this model year. Treat the count as a research signal, then read the actual summaries for repeated symptoms.
Complaint records
2020 GMC Sierra Complaints
425 consumer-submitted complaints on record for the 2020 GMC Sierra, grouped by component category.
425 Total complaints
11 Crash reports
4 Fire reports
6 Injury reports
Complaint data reflects consumer-submitted reports. A complaint is not proof
of a defect, recall, or manufacturer fault. Enriched severity fields come
from official bulk records when the complaint can be matched by ODI number.
Buyer interpretation
How to use these complaints before buying
Complaint records are most useful when they turn into inspection points, seller questions, and comparison checks against nearby model years.
Pattern to inspect
The most common categories are engine, power train, electrical system. Use those categories as a test-drive checklist instead of judging the vehicle from the total count alone.
Severity flags
Enriched records include 11 crash reports, 4 fire reports, 6 injury reports, and 0 fatality reports. These fields come from complaint records and should be read in context.
Mileage clue
Mileage is available on 118 complaints, with an average reported failure mileage of 44,233 miles. Compare that with the mileage on the listing.
Questions to ask the seller
- Have you had any problems related to engine, power train, electrical system?
- Can I see recent maintenance and repair records?
- Has the vehicle ever been towed, involved in a crash, or repaired for the same issue twice?
- Can we also check the recall record for this 2020 GMC Sierra?
Used-car checklist
Use these complaints before the test drive.
Build a buyer checklist to turn these issues into questions and inspection points.
2020 GMC Sierra
Build buyer checklist Compare with other years Sends year, make, and model to pre-fill your checklist.
How severe are the 2020 GMC Sierra complaints?
11 Crash
4 Fire
6 Injury
0 Fatality
28 Towed
4 Medical attention
What are the most common 2020 GMC Sierra complaint categories?
ENGINE 125
POWER TRAIN 36
ELECTRICAL SYSTEM 21
POWER TRAIN,ENGINE 17
SERVICE BRAKES 16
STEERING 14
UNKNOWN OR OTHER 14
ENGINE AND ENGINE COOLING 9
SUSPENSION 9
ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,ENGINE 8
425 total complaints on record
Latest complaints
| Date | Component | Summary | Severity | Mileage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 2025 | POWER TRAIN | Transmission valve control malfunctioned, causing rear wheels to temporarily lock, skidding the tires. This almost caused me to loose control, endangering myself and others around me. This is the second time this problem has happened. A recall related to this was addressed on this truck, though it has clearly done nothing to prevent it from happening. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| May 2025 | POWER TRAIN,ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,ENGINE | Vehicle Stuck in gear. Dealership was delivering the car back to myself when about a mile out from my house when the vehicles made a sudden downshift and was stuck back in gear. Driver called and notified me that it was on its way back to the shop for further work | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| May 2025 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM | While driving my vehicle it began down shifting harder than normal (at various speeds and road (highway, city and dirt road)); along with a noticeable burning smell after every trip. GM Maintenance personnel discovered that the wire was chafed and arching / catching on fire underneath passenger side resulting in the burning smell and the wiring issue aligned to the transmission. Personnel took a video and provided to me as evidence of the fire / smell; however, that was on their official GM app so i was unable to download | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| May 2025 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM | After repair got a few miles down the road and noticed the volt meter jumping back and forth between the white lines. Line would slowly go up to max line and then slowly drop back down to lower limit and continue to go back and forth. This was very concerning to myself and i was waiting for something to fail while driving. Got about 10 miles away and was to concerned / returned the vehicle Informed by GM Maintenance tech that this is what / how the vehicle is designed and that it is the operating within its parameters. I expressed that only time i noticed something like this was prior to an engine light / electrical failure; however, maintenance team expressed GMs stance that it is operating within tolerance. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| May 2025 | UNKNOWN OR OTHER | Engine light came on while driving / aligned to transmission temp sensor error and brake sensor GM Maintenance was able to diagnosis that the Temperature Loop Coolant Pump had failed and needed to be replaced. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| May 2025 | UNKNOWN OR OTHER,ENGINE | No warning; picking up child from daycare. went to depart daycare when my dash lit up like a Christmas tree with various errors, alerts, warnings; along with, not being able to start. had to be picked up by spouse and get the truck towed to the dealership for maintenance. Maintenance tech discovered that the grounding straps for the truck needed to be replaced / resulting in a complete electrical failure of the vehicle. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| May 2025 | POWER TRAIN,ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,ENGINE | Engine light would come on for a few days and than turn itself off. this occurred for about 8/9 months; however, instructed by the GM Maintenance department that if the vehicle came in and the light turned off before they got to it i would be charged for the diagnosis and no work would be performed. Engine light came on and i was able to park the vehicle / they picked it up and read it prior to putting in their lot until a tech became available. GM Maintenance was able to diagnosis that there was an issue with the EGR sensor and NOx catalytic converter without filter failed / both items replaced | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| May 2025 | POWER TRAIN,UNKNOWN OR OTHER,ENGINE | Vehicle drop in gear / down shift while driving on the highway. went from 75MPH down to 55MPH due to high RPM revs. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| May 2025 | POWER TRAIN,ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,ENGINE | Engine Light came on, performance rough at various speeds / conditions, and smelled like burning and strong urea smell. GM Maintenance identified a failed DEF injector / replaced | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| May 2025 | POWER TRAIN,UNKNOWN OR OTHER,ENGINE | Vehicle was going in for warranty recall; however, i requested they look at the DEF system as my DEF gauge would bounce between full and empty; along with, alert me of going into LIMP mode. GM Maintenance updated the recall and noticed that the DEF tank sensor failed and required to be replaced. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| May 2025 | POWER TRAIN,ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,ENGINE | Engine light came on and real bad urine smell / burning coming from the vehicle / rough performance. This issue occurred at various speeds / trips / drive types with the only variation being speed from 25MPH to 75MPH. Vehicle went in to discover that the reductant control module software (RCM) out of date, and two NOx sensor failures | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| May 2025 | ENGINE | The contact owns a 2020 GMC Sierra 1500. The contact stated that while driving at an undisclosed speed, the vehicle jerked while accelerating and while coming to a stop. The check engine warning light was illuminated. The vehicle was taken to the dealer, but no cause of failure was found. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 65,000. | Crash: No Fire: No | 65,000 |
| May 2025 | UNKNOWN OR OTHER | Rear window is leaking top coners from seal or plastic creating black mold inside of truck | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| May 2025 | ENGINE | Engine started rough idle, reduced power, poor acceleration, ticking and knocking noises, and a check engine light and a few other lights came on the dash. Safety was not a risk at time of incident. Problem has NOT been diagnosed yet BUT have done a ton of research and it’s all leading towards lifter failure/misfire issues. No warning lights or symptoms prior to sudden problems. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| May 2025 | POWER TRAIN,ENGINE | This car had lifter motor failure at 135K miles and Transmission failure at 145k miles, the torque converter of this truck is the culprit of many issues as the lifter issues. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| May 2025 | ENGINE | The contact owns a 2020 GMC Sierra 1500. The contact stated that while attempting to start the vehicle, the vehicle vibrated abnormally. The engine warning light was illuminated. The contact stated that on another occasion, while driving at an undisclosed speed, there was an abnormal knocking sound coming from the engine. There was no warning light illuminated. The vehicle was towed to the dealer; however, a cause for the failure was not found. The vehicle was not repaired. The failure recurred and the contact stopped driving the vehicle. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 110,000. | Crash: No Fire: No Towed | 110,000 |
| May 2025 | UNKNOWN OR OTHER | I purchased a 2020 GMC Denali Sierra 1500. My oil light has came on twice and I have taken it into the dealer and dealer has said that that's normal. That car loses oil. I'm retired so I do not utilize the vehicle every day I think since I've had the vehicle I've put on several thousand miles very very low mileage put on. And I'm being told that I need to check the oil basically before I take the vehicle anywhere. During the first time when I bought the vehicle in when the light came on the mechanic said in the paperwork from GMC service that my engine oil was extremely low. This last time that I did take it in, I have some type of mechanical background, so I pulled the dipstick out and it was halfway full with oil. I took a picture of that dated the picture and said I took it in before service while when I took it into the service department of course when I came home, they said that everything's fine and so on and so on and that didn't sit well with me. So I went ahead and let the car settle. Let the car cool down several hours later. I went ahead and checked the dipstick and the dipstick was full. They went ahead and put oil into my vehicle and told me that everything's fine. And I have noticed that there are lawsuits out in regards to oil consumption issues on these vehicles. When somebody spends the amount of money they spend for these vehicles we should not have to be checking the oil almost every time we drive it. I've had multiple vehicles on 50 years old and I've never had to check the Oil like it was 1914 before you go on a trip or even drive your vehicle. I am not trying to blame the Dealership only being told that everything's fine but GMC the company needs to rectify this problem because there is going to be a time that people are going to forget about the oil and burn up an engine and then you're putting them out thousands of thousands of dollars because of a mistake GMC made they're trying to cover it up as you see with the current recall in regards t | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| May 2025 | POWER TRAIN | The contact owns a 2020 GMC Sierra 1500. The contact stated that while driving at an undisclosed speed, the transmission unexpectedly downshifted. There was no warning light illuminated. The vehicle was able to restart. The vehicle was taken to the dealer, where it was diagnosed and determined that the transmission had failed and needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure and referred the contact to the NHTSA Hotline for assistance. The failure mileage was approximately 70,000. | Crash: No Fire: No | 70,000 |
| May 2025 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,SERVICE BRAKES | I was driving about 45 mph when the vehicle started to brake on its own. Message center said "Brake Failure max speed 62 mph". I had to move the vehicle, so I continued forward. It was still trying to self-brake, i decided to stop and turn ignition off so computers could re-set but I had no brakes. I had to stand on brake pedal to get it stopped. Turned ignition off and restarted. The problem was gone, but it happened again 2 weeks later. Took to dealership where purchased and they said it needed a computed recalibration. Something I didn't know about. They charged me $200 to recalibrate the computer. My issue is the danger of not having brakes, not the $200. How many similar vehicles could this happen to? | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| May 2025 | ENGINE AND ENGINE COOLING,ENGINE | The contact owns a 2020 GMC Sierra 1500. The contact stated while driving 5 MPH, the vehicle made an abnormal popping sound. The check engine and the ABS warning lights were illuminated. The messages "Parking Brake Service" and "ESC Service" were displayed. Additionally, the contact stated the vehicle experienced a reduced fuel range. The vehicle was taken to the dealer, where it was diagnosed that the lifters had fractured, causing damages to the engine. The dealer determined that the engine needed to be replaced, and the part was ordered. The vehicle was not repaired. The contact related the failure to NHTSA Action Number: PE25001 (Engine, Engine and Engine Cooling). The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 80,100. | Crash: No Fire: No | 80,100 |
| May 2025 | ENGINE | Motor failed with no warning, motor was replaced at a GM dealer for $12,000. Mechanic stated he believed it was a main bearing failure. Not under warranty. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| May 2025 | STEERING,SUSPENSION | The contact owns a 2020 GMC Sierra 1500. The contact stated that while driving at an undisclosed speed, the vehicle started pulling to the left, and the vehicle ended up in the next lane. The vehicle returned to normal functionality, but the failure became a regular occurrence. No warning lights were illuminated. The vehicle was taken to the dealer, who was unable to duplicate the failure. The vehicle was not repaired. The contact stated that the vehicle had been taken to the dealer six times because of the failure. The manufacturer was notified of the failure, a case was opened, and the contact was referred to the NHTSA Hotline for assistance. The failure mileage was 17,000. | Crash: No Fire: No | 17,000 |
| May 2025 | ENGINE | On [XXX] at around noon I was driving my 2020 GMC Sierra northbound on [XXX] 26 miles north of Moab Utah. My truck died and I attempted to coast to the next passing lane but did not make it. The shoulder was about 3 feet wide and then had a steep drop off. I pulled over as far as I could but the majority of my truck and trailer was still in the only northbound lane. The northbound traffic was forced to cross over the double yellow into the oncoming southbound traffic. The concern was getting rear-ended by northbound traffic behind me or a head-on collision with the northbound traffic veering into southbound traffic. I made several attempts to restart the truck and the dash just goes blank with no attempt from the starter. We waited for a tow-truck and about an hour into this wait Utah Highway Patrol arrived and parked behind us with his lights on warning traffic from both directions. There were no precursors to this failure or notifications. I didn’t even hear any noises. There was no physical damage or any leaking fluids. It just quietly stopped. John Elway Chevrolet informed me the bearings failed and the engine seized. I wanted to keep the core for evidence due to learning about the numerous catastrophic failures of the L87 engine I had. Keeping the seized core was going to cost me double the cost of a rebuilt one ($7000). When I asked the service Manager, Ben why its twice the cost? He said, “GM doesn't want you keeping the core and they can set whatever price they want .” I have had this truck since it was new (6 miles) and noticed unusual oil consumption early on. I would never make it to the next oil change without having to add oil, even with the very first oil change. I inquired about this with the dealer and told this extreme oil consumption was normal and given Bulletin 01-06-01-011M. I did not involve my insurance because they do not cover engine failure. I paid $12,653.97 for a remanufactured long block. Of that was $2469.93 was for parts not need INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6) | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| May 2025 | SEAT BELTS,ENGINE | Our middle seat belt has stopped working in the back seat- we have not had it replaced yet. No damage was done on it by us, but will not click into the buckle. Driving on the hi-way engine started making awful noises. We pulled over and had the truck towed to Royal Moore GMC in Hillsboro Oregon as we didn't want to cause any more harm to the engine. Royal Moore GMC informed us the engine rod bearing failed on [XXX], leading to breaching of the engine block by the rod. This caused us to replace the entire engine at the cost of over 13,000$ and no vehicle for over 3 months. (Along with engine replaced they told us we had to replace the O2 sensor as the light came on after the engine was replaced). We had to take a hardship loan to get the engine replaced, and had the truck back for 1 day before we had a o2 error l light came back on. At this time (May 5th) we are still waiting for our truck back. Royal Moore doesn't know why the engine light is on- and contacted TAC for GMC. We also contacted GMC multiple times when we were waiting for the engine. They have offered no help to us besides empty promises to call us back later. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6) | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| May 2025 | POWER TRAIN | Check engine and ECM errors. The dealer replaced one bank lifter. Shortly after, a similar issue was caused by reassembly. Approximate mileage: 30 K. A month later, the same issue, but this time the vehicle was not drivable, with very low engine power. The dealer stated lifter failure and camshaft damage, engine replaced January 2024, mileage 31 K. Currently 42K and had one instance of ECM error, which only lasted a few seconds, but the engine faltered and lost power. At the most recent oil change, the dealer said no error codes were present. GM indicated that my VIN is not covered under the most current recall. Since the engine was replaced in 2024, there is virtually no possibility that the engine replacement was not a new engine and should fall under this most current recall. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |