2018 Chevrolet Express problems, complaints & recalls
Most-reported problem areas: Service Brakes (2) · Electrical System (2) · Visibility (1)
🧭 Reliability snapshot
Compared against other Chevrolet Express model years — complaint volume vs the model's median year, recalls and severity. How we score →
Safety recalls (6)
Tires 2021-02-25 · campaign 21V115000 · 33,838 vehicles
Defect: General Motors LLC (GM) is recalling certain 2020 Buick Enclave, Cadillac XT4, XT5, Escalade, Escalade ESV, Chevrolet Suburban, Tahoe, Traverse, GMC Yukon, Yukon XL, 2018-2021 Chevrolet Express, GMC Savana, 2019-2020 Chevrolet Blazer, Silverado 1500, GMC Acadia, Sierra 1500, and certain Continental tires sold to the aftermarket for various model year 2018-2021 vehicles. The affected tires were cured for too long during production.
Risk: Over cured tires may develop a break in the sidewall resulting in sudden air loss or a belt edge separation which could lead to a tread/belt loss. Either condition can cause a loss of vehicle control, increasing the risk of a crash.
Fix: GM will notify owners, and dealers will inspect the tires, replacing them as necessary, free of charge. The recall began March 22, 2021. Owners may contact GMC customer service at 1-888-988-7267, Buick customer service at 1-866-608-8080, Chevrolet customer service at 1-800-222-1020 or Cadillac customer service at 1-800-458-8006. GM's number for this recall is N212329050.
Equipment 2019-06-11 · campaign 19V428000 · 325 vehicles
Defect: Unicell Body Company Inc. (Unicell) is recalling certain 2017-2019 Chevrolet Express and GMC Savanna, 2018-2019 Hino 155, Ford Econoline and Transit and Isuzu NPR, and 2018 Ram ProMaster-based vehicles equipped with ASA Electronics Voyager monitors used to display the back-up camera image. The affected monitors may revert back to the factory default settings which may cause the camera image to be reversed.
Risk: The driver may inadvertently turn the wrong direction to avoid an object behind the vehicle, increasing the risk of a crash.
Fix: Unicell will work with ASA Electronics to notify owners and offer a remedy, free of charge. The recall began May 9, 2019. Owners may contact ASA Electronics customer service 1-800-384-4400 or Unicell at 1-716-853-8628.
Visibility:glass, Side/Rear 2019-05-23 · campaign 19V387000 · 1,159 vehicles
Defect: General Motors LLC (GM) is recalling certain 2016-2019 Chevrolet Express and GMC Savana vehicles. One or both of the rear-quarter windows may be tempered glass instead of laminated glass. As such, these vehicles fail to comply with the requirements of Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) number 226, "Ejection Mitigation."
Risk: Tempered glass increases the risk of injury in the event of a side impact or rollover crash.
Fix: GM will notify owners, and dealers will replace the tempered glass windows with laminated glass windows, as necessary, free of charge. The recall began July 5, 2019. Owners may contact GM customer service at 1-586-596-1733. GM's number for this recall is N192218960.
Electrical System 2018-09-21 · campaign 18V655000 · 30,448 vehicles
Defect: General Motors LLC (GM) is recalling certain 2016-2018 Chevrolet Express and GMC Sierra vehicles equipped with a single, manual, rear climate control module (CCM). If the temperature is set to maximum heat or the mode knob is set to maximum floor vent and an electrical short occurs, components within the CCM may overheat.
Risk: If the CCM overheats, there is an increased risk of a fire in the vehicle's headliner.
Fix: GM will notify owners, and dealers will remove the electrical insulation from a wiring connector within the CCM to remove the fire risk, free of charge. The recall began November 6, 2018. Owners may contact Chevrolet customer service at 1-800-222-1020 or GMC customer service at 1-800-462-8782. GM's number for this recall is 18299.
Tires:pressure Monitoring And Regulating Systems 2018-08-02 · campaign 18V509000 · 94 vehicles
Defect: General Motors LLC (GM) is recalling certain 2018 Chevrolet Express and GMC Savana vehicles with certain combinations of front-tire and gross-vehicle-weight option codes. The Tire Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS) may be incorrectly calibrated, causing the TPMS warning lamp to illuminate when tire pressure reaches 37 PSI, not 41 PSI. As such, these vehicles fail to comply with the requirements of Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) number 138, "Tire Pressure Monitoring Systems."
Risk: If the low tire pressure telltale is not illuminated at the correct tire pressure, the driver may have less time to react to a low-tire-pressure situation, which could affect the driver's ability to control the vehicle in certain situations and could increase the risk of a crash.
Fix: GM will notify owners, and dealers will check the PSI information on the remote control door lock receiver (RCDLR) and tire placard match, and if the information is different the RCDLR will be reprogrammed. This repair will be done free of charge. The recall began August 27, 2018. Owners may contact Chevrolet customer service at 1-800-222-1020, or GMC customer service at 1-800-462-8782. GM's number for this recall is 18255.
Equipment 2018-04-26 · campaign 18V267000 · 6,154 vehicles
Defect: General Motors LLC (GM) is recalling certain 2009-2014 Chevrolet Silverado HD and GMC Sierra HD, 2009 GMC Topkick 5000, 6000, 7000 and 8000 Series and Isuzu F Series, and 2009-2018 Chevrolet Express, and GMC Savana vehicles, equipped with certain Plastic-Handle Fire Extinguishers or Push Button 'Pindicator' Fire Extinguishers. These extinguishers may become clogged, preventing the extinguisher from discharging as expected or requiring excessive force to activate the extinguisher. Additionally,
Risk: In the event of a fire, if the fire extinguisher does not function properly, it can increase the risk of injury.
Fix: GM will notify owners, instructing them to contact Kidde to get a replacement fire extinguisher, free of charge. The recall began June 11, 2018. Owners may contact Chevrolet customer service at 1-800-222-1020, GMC customer service at 1-800-462-8782, and Isuzu customer service at 1-866-441-9638. GM's number for this recall is 18146.
Service bulletins (999)
Technical service bulletins are repair instructions manufacturers send dealers for known issues. Unlike recalls, the fix is not automatically free — but naming the bulletin at the service desk can save diagnosis time and support goodwill repairs.
Unknown Or Other 2026-09-26 · PIT5698F · Service Bulletin/Repair Instructions
this pi provides diagnostics tips on how the lin bus works and how to diagnosis it.
Unknown Or Other 2026-09-21 · PIP5700H · Service Bulletin/Repair Instructions
this pi communicates the proper part numbers for transmission connectors and internal harness to prevent confusion when ordering
Unknown Or Other 2026-09-04 · PIP4902W · Service Bulletin/Repair Instructions
this preliminary information advises a dealer on how to email gds2 session logs into technical assistance.
Unknown Or Other 2026-07-21 · PIT5099J · Service Bulletin/Repair Instructions
pi to help diagnose a/c concern
Unknown Or Other 2026-05-04 · PIT6247B · Service Bulletin/Repair Instructions
this preliminary information communicates direction to find information at www.gmupfitter.com for police and special service vehicles.
Unknown Or Other 2026-04-01 · PIT3271Q · Service Bulletin/Repair Instructions
this preliminary information communicates information about how to determine if a wheel and tires size change is available.
Showing the 6 most recent of 999 bulletins. Search all of them free at nhtsa.gov.
What owners report
2025-01-08 · Electrical System“while travelling down the road the "service stabilitrak" and "service traction control" messages come on in the driver information center and the lights for each component are lit in the dashboard. on occasion, the emergency brake light comes when i know the emergency brake is off. my safety is at risk because i'm not sure if the lights are indica…”
2024-07-24 · Power Train“the transmission started to fail at around 65k miles. there were no warning signs, it just began shifting hard and then began slipping. it was taken to a transmission shop and the fluids were replaced, but this did not change anything. it was at this time we were told the transmission would need to be replaced, but they had no means to obtain a rep…”
2024-06-18 · Unknown Or Other“when the vehicle approaches 45-50 mph on the highway, the car begins to shake violently, where it feels like the body/frame of the vehicle is going to separate from the car. the only way to resolve/reset this is to bring the vehicle to an almost complete stop and then re-accelerate. when this happens on the highway everyone violently shakes in th…”
2023-04-09 · Unknown Or Other“since purchasing this vehicle in 2018 we have had an ongoing issue of the car randomly going into a violent shaking when exceeding speeds of about 60mph, it happens without warning, and other than coming to an almost standstill, it is impossible to recover the vehicle. this is extremely dangerous on the freeway. have taken the vehicle to chevrole…”
2022-01-14 · Visibility · 60,000 mi“the contact owns a 2018 chevrolet express. the contact stated that the defroster would intermittently fail to operate as needed. the contact mentioned that the defroster might start working when driving over a pothole or an obstruction in the road. upon investigation, the contact linked the failure to nhtsa campaign number: 18v655000 (electrical sy…”
2021-10-07 · Power Train:automatic Transmission:lever And Linkage:column Shift · 70,000 mi“the contact owns a 2018 chevrolet express. the contact stated that the gear shifter would shake when shifting gears. over time, the shifter cable fractured without warning. due to the failure, the contact had the vehicle towed to a dealer where he was informed that the steering column needed to be replaced. the contact disputed the diagnosis and no…”
2021-05-26 · Electrical System · 🔥 fire“unknown, electrical fire from inside passenger door, no external heat source, and heat source seems to be from inside the door. vehicle was parked while fire occurred.…”
2019-11-22 · Service Brakes · 7,200 mi“tl* the contact owns a 2018 chevrolet express cargo van 2500. while driving various speeds, the braking system erroneously activated and caused the vehicle to stop abruptly. also, while driving, the rear brake lights remained illuminated when the brake pedal was not being depressed. the vehicle was taken to purafoy chevrolet (601 denver ave, fort l…”
2019-08-16 · Service Brakes · 7,283 mi“tl* the contact owns a 2018 chevrolet express. while driving approximately 35 mph, the brakes applied automatically. to keep the vehicle from stopping abruptly, the contact depressed the accelerator pedal to continue driving. in addition, the brake indicator illuminated during the failure. the failure recurred and the vehicle was taken to three dif…”
2019-08-15 · Suspension · 468 mi“tl* the contact owns a 2018 chevrolet express 4500. while driving 60 mph, the contact heard several banging sounds underneath the vehicle. the contact examined underneath the camper and discovered that the springs were not strong enough to carry the load of the camper.the 2018 chev 4500 is the problem the springs are not heavy enough and it lays on…”
Excerpts of consumer complaints filed with NHTSA, lightly truncated. They are owner statements, not verified findings.