2018 Chevrolet Silverado 15003rd gen (2014–2018), final year

Updated 2026-08-31NHTSA counts read on this date — 514 complaints. They rise over time.

GM Has Recalled the 2018 Silverado’s Roof Air Bag Four Times. The Latest Letters Went Out in June 2026.

Seven recall campaigns cover this model year. Six of them are two defects.

Four are the roof-rail air bag inflator, opened in October 2024, June 2025, March 2026 and May 2026. Each one covers a slightly different set of VINs, and each one describes the same thing happening: the end cap comes off the inflator, or the inflator wall ruptures, and compressed gas fires the cap into the cab. Two more are the brake vacuum pump, opened thirteen months apart. The seventh is a wheel-speed sensor.

Owners have filed 514 complaints with NHTSA about the 2018 model year — the fewest of any year in this generation, down from the 2017’s 836. Chevrolet sold 585,864 Silverados in calendar 2017 and 585,582 in 2018 — that is the whole Silverado line, not just the 1500 — and 2018 trucks were sold across both of those years. 514 complaints against a few hundred thousand trucks is not a failure rate, 514 filings are not 514 owners, and the number is only worth anything because every other year in this series is counted the same way.

The basics

The last year of this body. The 4.3-liter V6, the 5.3-liter V8 with a six-speed or an eight-speed, the 6.2-liter V8 and a mild-hybrid 5.3, in regular, double and crew cab. The 2019 truck is a new vehicle on a new platform.

Specs

Displacement and cylinder count are from NHTSA’s vPIC catalog, which holds what the manufacturer submitted. Fuel economy is EPA.

What owners filed

Sections below are sorted by count. Each complaint is counted once, assigned to the first section it matches in a fixed order that runs steering, brakes, transmission, engine, electrical, body, air bags, suspension — the same order on every year in this series. The cross-year table on the model page uses NHTSA’s own component labels instead, so a section here can be larger than its row up there. They add up to 443. The remaining 71 are spread across the smaller categories, and the last section below breaks them out.

Configuration comes from decoding the VIN attached to each filing. 501 of the 514 decode, and 484 of those come back as a crew or extended cab — 70.7 percent crew and 29.3 percent extended. vPIC calls the Double Cab an extended cab, and so does everything below. Regular cabs and filings whose VIN gives no cab sit outside every cab percentage below.

This is not a failure rate by configuration. Nothing here divides failures by how many of each cab GM built, because the complaint record does not contain that. What the sections below show is how far each one moves off that 70.7 percent baseline.

Transmission — 169

Counted as filings NHTSA tagged power train, plus those that name the transmission, a shudder or the torque converter.

A third of everything filed on this truck, and the largest section for the second year running. In raw count it is down from 230 on the 2017, but so is every other big section — as a share of the year it is larger.

43 describe a shudder or a vibration. 41 describe a hard shift, a bang or a clunk. 24 name the torque converter.

ODI 11719128:

“My transmission failed at around 69,000 miles. This was confirmed by the dealership. I bought my vehicle from and was covered under warranty. I purchased my vehicle in 2019 from a Dodge dealership and it came with a 10 year hundred thousand mile warranty for the powertrain. The tech indicated that the torque converter failed sending metal fragments through the transmission, coolant lines and transmission cooler. There were no warning indicators only hard shifting clunking when shifting and shuttering at different speeds.”

163 of the 169 list a cab, and 74.2 percent of those are crew, against the 70.7 percent baseline. Three and a half points.

Brakes — 84

Counted as filings NHTSA tagged service brakes, plus those that name the vacuum pump, the brake booster or brake assist.

The low-speed brake failure that runs through the rest of this series is gone here. On the 2016, 136 of 252 brake filings put it at low speed — backing up, a parking lot, a drive-through. On this truck it is 12 of 84. 16 describe a pedal that went hard, stiff or to the floor. 16 name the vacuum pump or the booster.

The crew-cab skew goes with it. 80 of the 84 list a cab and 73.8 percent of those are crew, three points off the baseline. On the 2016 that gap was nineteen points.

Two vacuum pump campaigns still cover this truck, and it is the only model year in this series that carries both.

Engine — 64

Counted as filings NHTSA tagged engine, plus those that name a lifter, cylinder deactivation or a misfire.

21 of the 64 name a lifter, 7 name the camshaft and 5 name cylinder deactivation or Active Fuel Management. Decode those 21: 16 are the 5.3-liter and 5 are the 6.2.

No recall on this model year covers it, and owners write about that directly.

ODI 11729006:

“Failed/collapsed lifters associated with known Active Fuel Management (AFM) issues. These issues are documented in Technical Service Bulletins and I believe there are Special Campaigns for 2014-2018 L83 engine, but my VIN does not have a Special Campaign attached to it for some reason. I believe there are also class action lawsuits associated with these known issues, but a recall has not been issued.”

The technical bulletins and the special campaigns that owner describes are not in the recall database and this page does not check them. What the recall database says is that there is no campaign here for the lifters.

Steering — 55

Counted as filings NHTSA tagged steering, plus those that name the power steering, the steering assist or StabiliTrak.

The one section that leans crew on this truck. 50 of the 55 list a cab and 80.0 percent of those are crew, nine points above the baseline. On the 2016 this section leaned the other way by fifteen points.

Electrical — 41

Counted as filings NHTSA tagged electrical system.

37 of the 41 list a cab and 59.5 percent of those are crew, eleven points below the baseline — the same direction this section leans on the 2017.

Suspension — 13

Counted as filings NHTSA tagged suspension.

Four of the thirteen name the upper or lower control arm or the ball joint in it. The control arm campaign in this series, 16V256000, covers the 2016 and the 2017 and stops there.

Air bags — 9

Counted as filings NHTSA tagged air bags.

Nine filings, on a model year carrying four air bag campaigns. The campaigns below did not come out of these nine filings. Exactly one filing on this truck mentions the roof-rail air bag, and it is worth reading in full.

ODI 11666148:

“The contact owns a 2018 Chevrolet Silverado 1500. The contact stated that while the vehicle was parked, the contact approached the vehicle and observed that the passenger’s and driver’s side roof rail air bags had independently deployed. The contact stated that there were no passengers in the rear seats during the failure. The contact had the vehicle towed to a local auto body shop; however, the vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The contact stated that the Insurance provider declined to cover the repairs. The vehicle was towed to a dealer but was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was informed of the failure and offered to buy the vehicle back. The contact researched online and related the failure to NHTSA Campaign Number: 24V756000 (Air Bags); however, the VIN was not inclued. The failure mileage was approximately 65,000.”

Filed June 2025. By then 24V756000 had been open for eight months and 25V432000 was days away. Two more campaigns for the same part followed in 2026.

Body and structure — 8

Counted as filings NHTSA tagged structure.

Two of the eight are corrosion. One says the frame had rusted through far enough to fail a state safety inspection.

The rest is thin

71 filings. The largest groups are 28 that NHTSA tagged unknown or other, 9 tires, 7 seat belts, 5 fuel or propulsion, and 5 visibility and wipers.

The one death in this year’s record is in that group. A rear tire blew, the truck struck a wall beside a highway, and someone in it died. The filing is one sentence long and NHTSA tagged it wheels.

Recalls

NHTSA files this model year under “Silverado 1500” only. Seven campaigns, and they are unusual in two ways: six of the seven are two defects, and four of the seven were opened in the last two years.

Across all seven campaigns, 8 filings say the owner’s VIN was not included in a recall they had read about. Counted as filings where “VIN” shows up in the same sentence as “was not included,” “not covered,” “not listed” or “not in the recall.”

The roof-rail air bag, four times

24V756000 — October 2024. 25V432000 — June 2025. 26V166000 — March 2026. 26V325000 — May 2026.

All four are worded almost identically.

“The left or right-side roof-rail air bag (RRAB) inflator end cap may detach from the inflator or the inflator sidewall may rupture.”

And the same consequence: escaping gas can throw the end cap or pieces of the inflator into the vehicle. The remedy in all four is the same too — dealers replace both roof-rail air bag modules, free.

What changes between them is which trucks are named. 24V756000 covers 2018 Silverado 1500 and Sierra 1500 plus 2018–2019 heavy duty crew cabs. 25V432000 names the 2018 Silverado 1500 Crew Cab specifically. 26V166000 and 26V325000 name the 2018 Silverado 1500 again, and the fourth drops the crew cab restriction that the third one had.

GM says the relationship outright in the last one’s remedy text: 26V325000 “expands previous NHTSA recall number 26V166.”

Being covered by one of these is not the same as being covered by the next. Owner letters for the four went out in November 2024, July 2025, April 2026 and June 2026. On a truck this old, whoever owns it now probably is not the person that first letter was mailed to.

The vacuum pump, twice

19V645000 — September 2019, covering 2014–2018 Silverado and Sierra. “The amount of vacuum created by the vacuum pump may decrease over time,” and as the vacuum drops the pedal gets harder to push and the truck takes longer to stop.

20V603000 — October 2020, and this one is 2018 only, and only if it has the 5.3-liter or the 6.2-liter V8. GM describes the same failure in almost the same words: “The output of the mechanical vacuum pump can decrease over time, decreasing the amount of vacuum/power brake assist.”

Both remedies are a reprogram of the Electronic Brake Control Module. Neither is a new pump. 9 filings on this model year name one of the two campaign numbers.

The seventh

19V761000 — October 2019, and it only applies if the truck has all three: the 5.3-liter engine, a 3.08 rear axle and four-wheel drive. Between 41 and 60 mph, a failed wheel-speed sensor can make the driveline-protection system brake the wheel on the opposite side.

“Unintended activation of the driveline-protection system will cause unintended braking on the wheel on the opposite side of the failed sensor, causing the vehicle to pull to one side unexpectedly, increasing the risk of a crash.”

What doesn’t show up in the complaints

NHTSA gives the 2018 Silverado 1500 five stars overall, five for the driver in the frontal test, five on side impact and four on rollover. Regular, extended and crew cab all score the same, and so does the hybrid.

Nothing in the complaint record says the crash performance is a problem. The air bag campaigns are about a part that can hurt someone when it is working, not about one that fails to protect.

On fuel economy the six-speed still beats the eight with the same 5.3-liter engine: 19 mpg combined against 18 in two-wheel drive, 18 against 17 in four-wheel drive.

What the complaint curve says

2018   18     2021   71     2024   51
2019   53     2022   71     2025   91
2020   44     2023   71     2026   44

Three years flat at 71, and then the tallest year is 2025 — seven years after the truck was built, and the most recent complete year on the page.

That is not the shape the older trucks in this series make. On the 2015 and the 2016 the peak sits on top of a brake campaign. Here the peak does not sit on a campaign: the tallest month is May 2025, with 20 filings against three to ten in every other month of that year, and the air bag campaign nearest it was opened the month after. Read through those 20 and they are the same mix as the rest of the year — transmissions, lifters, electrical faults. The record does not say what May 2025 was.

Complaint databases collect complaints. Nobody files to say the transmission shifted cleanly. You cannot compare these numbers across models unless you count them the same way on both. What this data supports is the ranking inside this truck and the recall history attached to it.

If you’re looking at one

Ordered by what it costs you if it goes wrong, not by how many people filed.

Run the VIN against all four air bag campaigns, not one. 24V756000, 25V432000, 26V166000, 26V325000. They cover overlapping but different sets of trucks, the newest letters went out in June 2026, and the part in question can throw metal into the cab. This is the cheapest thing on the list and the one with the worst outcome.

Drive it long enough to feel the transmission shift, and again coming to a stop. 169 filings are the transmission, 43 describe a shudder and 41 a hard shift or a clunk. No campaign covers it, and several filings put the failure past 100,000 miles.

Listen to a cold start and ask what the lifters have had done. 21 filings name a lifter, mostly on the 5.3. There is no recall for it, so any repair shows up in the service records as warranty work or a customer-pay job, not as a completed recall.

Ask which of the two vacuum pump campaigns was completed, and whether both were. 19V645000 and 20V603000 describe the same failure thirteen months apart, and this is the only model year carrying both. Both remedies are a software reprogram, not a new pump.

If it is a 5.3 with four-wheel drive, bring up 19V761000 by number. The third condition is a 3.08 rear axle — an RPO code on the glovebox sticker, not something you can eyeball — so the dealer has to read it off the VIN.

Numbers worth writing down

The 2019 truck is next. It is a different truck, and it has 1,059 filings.

Sources

• NHTSA complaint database — 514 complaints for the 2018 Silverado 1500, quoted above by ODI number
• NHTSA recall API — seven campaigns, quoted from the campaign summaries, consequence and remedy text
• NHTSA vPIC — engine, cab and drive type, decoded from the VIN attached to each filing
• NHTSA safety ratings — 2018 Chevrolet Silverado 1500
• EPA fuel economy — city / highway / combined
• GoodCarBadCar Chevrolet Silverado sales figures

Complaint counts and quotes come from NHTSA’s public database, retrieved 2026-08-31; each quote lists its ODI number so you can look it up. Configuration comes from decoding the VIN attached to each filing — 501 of the 514 decode. Recall applicability depends on the VIN — check yours at nhtsa.gov/recalls. This summarizes what owners reported. It isn’t buying or repair advice.