GM Recalls 306,511 SUVs After 33,000 Rearview Camera Complaints

• General Motors is recalling 306,511 Chevrolet Trax, Chevrolet Trailblazer, Buick Envista and Buick Encore GX models over rearview cameras that can show a distorted image or go blank.
• The recall follows more than 33,000 owner complaints tied to a plasma-cleaning step in manufacturing that weakened the adhesive holding the camera housing together.
• Owners can check their VIN at NHTSA’s recall lookup tool now, and dealers will inspect and replace affected cameras free of charge.

Your backup camera might be lying to you

General Motors has issued one of its largest recalls of 2026, pulling in 306,511 compact SUVs and crossovers over a rearview camera defect that can leave drivers backing up blind. The recall, filed with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration under campaign number 26V539, covers the Chevrolet Trax, Chevrolet Trailblazer, Buick Envista and Buick Encore GX, four of GM’s best-selling small SUVs. Owners are being told to fall back on their physical mirrors until a dealer confirms the camera has been replaced.

The defect shows up as a rearview image that is distorted, flickering or simply blank the moment a driver shifts into reverse, cutting off a safety feature that federal law has required on every new car sold in the US starting in 2018. GM says it is not aware of any crashes or injuries tied to the problem so far, but the sheer volume of complaints, more than 33,000 tied to vehicles built in the affected window, shows how widespread the fault has become.

Which vehicles are affected

The recall breaks down across five separate production groups, based on GM’s filing with NHTSA. The 2025 Chevrolet Trax accounts for the largest share at 159,821 units, followed by the 2025 Chevrolet Trailblazer at 73,665 units. The 2024 and 2025 Buick Envista adds another 41,323 vehicles, the 2024 through 2026 Buick Encore GX covers 30,852 vehicles, and a smaller batch of 850 additional 2024 and early 2026 Chevrolet Trailblazer units rounds out the total. Every affected vehicle was built between April and December 2024, with a limited number of early 2026 model year units also swept in.

Only vehicles with a standard rearview camera are part of this recall. Trims equipped with GM’s Surround Vision camera system, which uses a different housing and assembly process, are not affected. Owners who are unsure which camera setup their vehicle has should not rely on guesswork. Entering a 17-character VIN into NHTSA’s recall lookup tool at nhtsa.gov/recalls, or GM’s own recall site, will confirm whether a specific vehicle is included.

The Chevrolet Trax and Trailblazer have been two of GM’s strongest sellers in the small SUV segment over the past two years, drawing buyers looking for a lower price point than the compact Equinox or Encore GX line. That popularity is part of why this recall carries such a large unit count. A defect that shows up in a niche, low-volume model might affect a few thousand vehicles. A defect in a high-volume seller like the Trax, which moved close to 160,000 units in the affected production run alone, turns into a six-figure recall almost automatically.

How a cleaning step turned into a safety recall

The root cause traces back to the assembly line rather than a design flaw in the camera itself. According to GM’s recall filing, a plasma-cleaning treatment used to prepare the camera housing before final assembly weakened the adhesive bond holding the unit together. Over time, that weakened seal lets moisture and road grime work their way inside the housing, fogging the lens or shorting out the connection between the camera and the dashboard display.

GM says it first started fielding complaints about failing backup cameras last year, but without a clear pattern linking them to a single cause, the investigation stalled. As more reports rolled in through 2026, the company reopened the case and traced the failures back to the manufacturing step. That timeline, from scattered early complaints to a confirmed root cause and a formal recall, took the better part of a year, which is typical for defects that surface gradually rather than all at once.

Adhesive failures like this one are notoriously hard to catch in pre-production testing, which typically runs vehicles through a matter of weeks or months of accelerated wear rather than the years of real-world temperature swings, road spray and humidity that actually degrade a weak bond. A camera housing can pass every quality check on the line and still fail two years later once repeated freeze-thaw cycles or a wet climate work their way into a seam that was never fully sealed. That is a big part of why this recall did not surface until vehicles built in 2024 had already been on the road for a year or more.

What to do if you own one of these SUVs

Owners should check their VIN at nhtsa.gov/recalls or through the NHTSA Vehicle Safety Hotline at 1-888-327-4236 to confirm whether their specific vehicle is covered. GM has already begun notifying registered owners by mail, though the rollout is happening in stages. Some owners are receiving an immediate invitation to schedule a repair, while others are getting a notice to wait until replacement parts reach their local dealer network. Dealers will inspect both the primary rearview camera and, where applicable, related wiring, and replace the unit at no cost using parts drawn from a different, unaffected production batch.

Until a dealer confirms the repair, GM is advising owners to rely on their side and rearview mirrors when backing up rather than trusting the camera display, especially in tight parking situations where pedestrians or small children might not be visible in a mirror alone. Watch for the specific warning signs: a blurry or pixelated image, a screen that flickers on and off, or a display that stays completely dark after shifting into reverse. Any of those symptoms warrant a call to a dealer even before an official notification letter arrives. GM’s mailing schedule can lag behind when a defect actually starts affecting a given vehicle.

Part of a bigger pattern in 2026

Rearview camera failures have become one of the most common triggers for recalls across the industry this year, not just at GM. Ford issued a separate camera-related recall covering 20 models earlier in 2026, and Jeep, Dodge, Ram and Chrysler have all faced their own camera recalls within the past year. The pattern points to a broader supply chain issue: as more vehicles pack in additional cameras, sensors and driver-assist hardware, the manufacturing tolerances for keeping all of it sealed and functioning reliably have gotten tighter, and small process changes, like the plasma-cleaning step behind this recall, can ripple into six-figure recalls once they reach full-scale production.

More than 300 vehicle safety recalls have already been logged with NHTSA in 2026 across the industry, a pace that puts this year on track to rival some of the highest recall volumes on record. For GM specifically, this recall lands alongside a separate, smaller campaign covering steel wheel cracking on Silverado EV and Sierra EV trucks, and a Jeep Grand Wagoneer recall over roof crossbar bolts, both filed within the same week. Owners of any GM, Buick, Chevrolet, GMC or Cadillac vehicle can check for open recalls at any time by entering their VIN at NHTSA’s site, regardless of whether a mailed notice has arrived yet.

What happens next

GM’s remedy is already in place, which sets this recall apart from ones where a fix is still being engineered. The company is prioritizing owners who reported the defect first and those in regions with harsher weather, where moisture intrusion tends to accelerate the failure. Dealers nationwide have been briefed on the repair procedure, and parts availability is expected to catch up with demand over the coming weeks. Anyone who owns an affected Trax, Trailblazer, Envista or Encore GX built in 2024 should treat a VIN check as a five-minute task worth doing today rather than waiting for a letter that could take weeks to arrive.

Sources:

• Kelley Blue Book: GM Recalls Over 300,000 Vehicles for Rearview Camera Defect
• Autoblog: 306,000 Chevy and Buick SUVs Recalled After 33,000 Camera Complaints
• NHTSA: Recall Report 26V539
• NHTSA: Check for Recalls