There are 13 owner-reported steering complaints for the 2021 GMC Acadiain NHTSA's database. These are unverified consumer reports and may not reflect confirmed defects.
My vehicle’s steering became dangerously stiff while driving on the highway, nearly causing my wife to be involved in a serious accident. While she was traveling on I-95 in Miami, Florida, the steering suddenly got so hard that she could barely control the vehicle and was unable to turn the wheel properly. This created an extremely dangerous situation and put her life, as well as the lives of others on the road, at risk. She was thankfully able to get off the highway, and I had to come take over the vehicle to make sure she got home safely. This was terrifying and completely unacceptable. A failure like this should never happen while a vehicle is in motion. When I took the vehicle to the dealership, I was told I would have to pay over $3,500 for the repair. That is outrageous for such a serious safety issue. I also found information online showing recalls for similar steering problems in GMC Yukons, yet GMC Arcadias do not appear to be included. That is deeply concerning, especially since this same dangerous defect is clearly affecting my vehicle. This issue could have caused a major crash, severe injuries, or even death. GMC needs to take responsibility for this problem instead of forcing customers to pay thousands of dollars for a dangerous defect that should be addressed as a safety recall.
For the 3rd time of ownership the cooling fan stays on after vehicle is turned off and the display “steering assist is reduced, drive with caution”.
I was driving home and about 10 minutes into my drive I got a notification about my steering assistance being disabled. When I arrived home about 10 minutes or so later and went to shut my car off I noticed that a very loud fan sound from the hood of my vehicle began roaring. I restarted my car and it went away. I looked at my temperature gauge and it was all the way on C. I tried shutting my car off again and the loud electrical fan sound picked right back up again. I stayed in my vehicle while it was turned off waiting to see if it would stop while trying to call for answers. I couldn’t risk having a dead battery for work tomorrow morning. After what was about 6-7 minutes the electrical fan finally shut off. Turns out my aunt JUST had this exact same issue with her 2021 GMC Acadia as well. According to Reddit MANY people are having this issue yet there is still no recall for this problem. My car is only at 85K miles, has always been dealership maintained and has never had any issues like this until now. If this is a wide spread make and model issue a recall should have been issued.
While driving, error popped up stating steering assist is reduced; drive with caution. Heat was no longer working. Engine temp was reading cold even though vehicle had been running for half hour and temp outside was 65 F. After vehicle was stopped, engine fan ran very loudly for at least 15 minutes. Took vehicle in to have diagnostics ran, and received error P0128 pointing to faulty engine coolant thermostat and sensor. Also received U0401 indicating insufficient data coming from ECM/PCM. I was told that together with U0401 and P0128 together indicate a communication problem between control modules. Check engine light was never on.
Recently took vehicle for alignment for a pull to the right. After 3 alignments at the dealership I was told the rack and pinion gear sensor shorted out causing the vehicle to pull to the right. Also the exhaust has a rattle in the resonator confirmed by 2 sources. I asked the dealer to fix years ago under bumper to bumper and tsb PIT5863. I was told not enough techs and not enough time so now the warranty is expired and the issue isn't fixed.
I have a 2021 GMC Acadia that keeps saying steering assist not available. But when it does this, the temperature gage stops working and so does the AC. After you turn the car off the fan still runs for at least 10 minutes.
Often times, on the heads-up display I would get "Steering Assist is Reduced Drive with Care" and my temp gauge will stop working and when I stop, my fan continues to run until I disconnect the battery for 20 secs.
The thermostat failed which cause the steering system to fail and car to not read temperature
"STEERING ASSIST REDUCED. DRIVE WITH CARE" message, fan runs nonstop, even after the vehicle is off. Sounds like a plane taking off. This seems to be EXTREMELY common after doing my research. Please consider turning this into a recall!
The contact owns a 2021 GMC Acadia. The contact stated while driving 50 MPH, the vehicle suddenly decelerated to 35 MPH. The vehicle stalled, and the "Steering Assistance Reduced" message was displayed. The vehicle was restarted. The vehicle was taken to the local dealer the following day, where it was diagnosed that the accelerator pedal and terminal connector were bent. The dealer retrieved DTC codes: P2138, and P2122. The vehicle was repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 27,792.
The car stopped working all of a sudden, I was driving the car with no issues that morning and parked & shut off car to go to my appt. I turned the car back on and worked fine as I was putting in my address on the GPS my car just stopped and shut off by itself. I pushed the start button and it sounded like it wanted to start but it wouldn't and the whole engine shooked. Called GM and car still under warranty had it towed to the nearest GM. They diagnosed it and said it was the fuel injector module that went bad. It's 2021 with only 23800 miles. After a week, just got it back for a day and now the cooling fan has a loud noise, check engine light on, coolant stays on C even after driving it more than 10 mins, ac blows hot air, I get an alert with steering assist is reduced and to drive with care.....seems like something is wrong with the thermostat.
CAR STEERS TO LEFT,VOLUME DOES NOT WORK AFTER A CONNECTED CALL WHILE DRIVING,SCREEN BLACKS OUT AND NOISE COMING OUT OF LEFT DRIVER DOOR PANEL WHILE CAR IS OFF,ALSO MESSAGE THAT SD CARD WAS REMOVED NO APPS WORKING
This is a well known issue. On the dash it keeps reading steering system is being reduced drive with care. I have been dealing with this issue almost years. Been to the dealership too many times for this issue
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