2020 Chevrolet Equinox

Experienced brake issues in March of 2022, brake pedal became extremely stiff and difficult to use. Bulletin showed an issue with vacuum brake pump and that was replaced with the exact same faulty part. On 12/28/2023 my engine blew in the middle of the road, leaving myself and my children stranded as I could not shift the vehicle out of neutral for quite sometime. The faulty vacuum brake pump caused the cam to break off the shaft- resulting in debris inside the engine.

During the month of November while driving on Interstate 35 inTexas I attempted to administer my braking system during slowed traffic and they did not respond. The brake pedal became completely stiff and I had to apply incredible pressure to get the vehicle to slow down until I turned on my hazards and rolled to a stop on the shoulder. I did not have any alerts or warnings until I powered the vehicle off and powered back on to find my engine light on and the service brake assist alert on as well. I had it towed for service to which they replaced the vacuum pump, brake booster pressure sensor and brake fluid. Everything seemed to be working fine however a month later the same exact issue occurred. I took it in to the same place for service and had a brake inspection done and was told everything looked good and they were not sure what was wrong other than the ecm and ebcm were now reading codes. The issue is that this is intermittent with no warning and has been incredibly difficult to pinpoint the exact issue. This has also been incredibly pricey trying to chase an issue that appears one day and clears itself the next and lastly this has been terrifyingly frustrating as I do not know if i will have valid brake control or not on each ride. This issue could be life or death and was traumatizing as I had my son and mother in the car with me during the first event.

I was traveling the interstate I90/94 , merged to the exit ramp and found the brake pedal hard and unable to push to brake. I had to slide the car into neutral and use two feet on the brake pedal to slow down enough to make the corner at the end of the off ramp. All due to a faulty vacuum pump. The debris from the exploded vacuum pump were sent through the engine. And after having the car fixed it now uses about a quart of oil every 500 miles. Engine is shot! Seriously bad engineering design that will kill someone if it hasn't already. I am 5'11" and weigh 190 lbs. I estimate it took around 200-250 lbs of force to push the pedal to even start to slow. If I hadn't had over 40 years of driving experience, this would have ended in a catastrophic incident.

Attempted to start braking while in high traffic. Brake assist came on and prevented the car from braking properly, almost causing a crash on the highway with the car in front. The brakes had to pressed extremely hard and the e brake had to be engaged in order to stop. Since then the brake assist has not turned off and the vehicle is not safe to drive.

Driving and brakes went out with no warning, no sounds, no anything almost causing me to rear end a 16 wheeler in the dead of night and almost causing another passenger to rear end me! No fluids are leaking. Break fluid not low. The brakes will not go to the floor in reverse, neutral, or drive. I had to get a Uber and get the car towed back home. Upon research it is apparent that this is a known problem in Chevrolets, specifically the 2020 equinox model with the vacuum pumps or something randomly going out while driving. This is very dangerous and I could have lost my life or caused someone else to loose their life! I just got my car a few months ago and it says” no unrepaired safety recalls reported” however this is clearly a known defect that was not bought to my attention upon purchasing the car.