There are 3 owner-reported brakes complaints for the 2013 Chevrolet Captivain NHTSA's database. These are unverified consumer reports and may not reflect confirmed defects.
Reporting for my Mother in law. Confirmed by me several times. First incident occurred while she was driving, dry roads, normal traffic at approximately 65 MPH the front brakes locked up and abruptly bought the car to a stop. She was half in the traffic live lane and half on shoulder. She called me and I went immediately. I got there in about 30 minutes and there was several people trying to push the car off the road and all said it wouldn’t budge. I felt the heat of the left front brake was extremely hot. I sat in the car, started it up, attempted to get it to move, it wouldn’t. I figured it was electronic as there was no DTC/MIL lights. I thought the quickest thing I could do was remove power which I did for about 3 minutes. Started up and it drove to shoulder. We switched vehicles, I drove hers, I was traveling 65 mph when the stabilitrek service message showed on display and two minutes later the car stopped on its own again, I was barely able to get off the highway and people were honking swerving around, one yells to fix my brake lights! Still no MIL Check Engine light. This is IMO a safety issue as there is no warning! I was able to drive short bits to get it home. Only after I got home, car cooled, went to try and drive with scan tool hooked up it threw a code for ABS/TCS system pressure circuit malfunction, DTC C0131-5A! It has cleared a couple of times and each time you drive it and the brakes lock up, front left-rear right and vice versa, no brake lights, just uncommanded brake pressure! Oh and the stabilitrek service comes on after as well. It’s been to two shops and not fixed yet, one place quoted $2500 because he said it could be anything and his state of the art equipment can’t pin point the actual issue but he did confirm the locked up brakes with indicated partial pressure applied for no reason. This could definitely cause an accident!
BRACKET THAT HOLD THE E-BRAKE CABLE TO THE FRAME AND ALSO CREATES TENSION THAT ENABLES THE E-BRAKE TO ENGAGE BROKE OFF THE FRAME WHERE IT WAS ORIGINALLY WELDED. THE E-BRAKE DOES NOT ENGAGE CAUSING THE VEHICLE TO ROLL. THE DEALER LOCATED THE BRACKET BUT SAID THAT THEY DO NOT WELD. THE DEALER SAYS THAT THE BRACKET NEEDS TO BE WELDED BACK ON TO THE FRAME. THE DEALER DOES NOT DO WELDING. THIS IS A MANUFACTURING DEFECT.
THE BRAKE PEDDLE FAILS TO RETURN TO THE NORMAL OPERATING HEIGHT WHILE THE VEHICLE IS IN MOTION CAUSING THE BRAKE LIGHTS AS WELL AS THE BRAKES TO STAY ON ONLY WHEN THE HEAT IS DIRECTED AT YOUR FEET FOR LONG PERIODS OF TIME. I HAVE BEEN TO THE DEALER SEVERAL TIMES FOR THIS CONCERN AS WELL AS CONTACTING GM DIRECTLY REGARDING THIS CONCERN AND THEY DONT SEEM TO CARE ABOUT THIS SAFETY CONCERN. THIS ISSUE HAPPENS WHEN THE VEHICLE IS BEING OPERATED UNDER NORMAL CONDITIONS WITH THE HEAT ON AFTER 30 MINS OF DRIVING AND THEN THE PEDDLE WITH START TO STICK
Complaints are unverified consumer reports submitted to NHTSA. A high complaint count may reflect vehicle popularity, not defect severity. Data sourced from NHTSA public records.
Data synced from NHTSA on May 4, 2026