2015 Chevrolet Silverado 15003rd gen (2014–2018), second year

Updated 2026-08-31NHTSA counts read on this date — 1184 complaints. They rise over time.

The 2015 Silverado’s Brake Complaints Happen at Walking Speed. 196 of 360 Say Backing Up or in a Parking Lot.

On the 2014 truck steering was the largest category. On this one brakes take over, at 360 filings against the steering’s 194, and the filings are specific about when it happens.

Not at highway speed. Backing out of a parking spot, pulling into a garage, creeping through a drive-through. 196 of the 360 say so.

Owners have filed 1,184 complaints with NHTSA about the 2015 model year. Chevrolet sold 529,755 Silverados in calendar 2014 and 600,544 in 2015 — that figure covers the whole Silverado line and this page is the 1500 — and the 2015 model year sold across both years, so the denominator is in the hundreds of thousands. That is not a rate. 1,184 filings are not 1,184 owners, and the count earns its keep only because the other years in this series are counted the same way.

The basics

Carryover from the 2014: the 4.3-liter V6, the 5.3-liter V8 and the 6.2-liter V8, all with a six-speed automatic, in regular, double and crew cab.

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 and each complaint is counted once. They add up to 996. The remaining 188 are spread thin — NHTSA tagged 83 of them unknown or other, 21 exterior lighting, 19 visibility and wipers, and 17 seat belts.

Configuration comes from decoding the VIN attached to each filing. 1,133 of the 1,184 decode, and 1,095 of those come back as a crew or extended cab — 73.5 percent crew and 26.5 percent extended. The largest section leans hard against that. 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. It compares a section’s split against the split of the whole record.

One note on the record itself: 36 of the decoded VINs are 2500 or 3500 HD trucks that NHTSA filed under the 1500. Taking them out moves the numbers below by two tenths of a point, so they are left in and named here rather than quietly removed.

Brakes — 360

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

Thirty percent of everything filed on this truck, and the most of any model year in this generation — the 2016 truck is next at 252.

196 of the 360 put the failure at low speed, or name a place that means the same — backing up, reversing, a parking lot, a driveway, a drive-through. 121 describe a pedal that went hard, stiff or to the floor. 113 name the vacuum pump or the booster.

From ODI 11507479:

“I was backing up at low speed after a 25 minute drive and went to stop, pushed brake pedal and it was hard and didn’t slow the vehicle. I stood on the pedal to stop from backing through my garage door and wheels made a dragging sound and stopped. Put it in drive to check the brakes and same thing happed, brakes hard and no stopping power. Put truck in park and shut it off. Started it back up and brakes were fine.”

From ODI 11697138:

“I pulled into a parking lot, and into a parking spot. I put the truck in reverse to back up and straighten the truck, when I started to pull back in the brake pedal became hard to press. I had to stand up on the brake pedal to keep from hitting the car parked in front of me. It also happened another time while backing out of a parking spot when someone walked behind the vehicle, and I had to stand on the pedal.”

Of the 346 filings in this section that give a cab, 90.2 percent are crew, against 73.5 percent of the record — nearly seventeen points. The 2014 truck shows the same lean in its brake section, fifteen points, on a different baseline. Two model years, the same direction and about the same size.

What the record does not say is why.

Steering — 194

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

Down from 463 on the 2014 truck, counted the same way. The 2014-only EPS recall does not reach this model year; a separate steering campaign, 18V586000, does.

Transmission — 142

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

Engine — 103

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

Electrical — 83

Counted as filings NHTSA tagged electrical system.

Air bags — 63

Counted as filings NHTSA tagged air bags.

Eight of this year’s eighteen campaigns are restraints — four air bags, three seat belts and a seat — which is where most of this section comes from.

Body and structure — 38

Counted as filings NHTSA tagged structure.

Suspension — 13

Counted as filings NHTSA tagged suspension.

The rest is thin

188 filings. The largest groups are 83 that NHTSA tagged unknown or other, 21 exterior lighting, and 19 visibility and wipers.

Recalls

NHTSA holds this model year under two model names that return different lists — “Silverado 1500” gives eleven campaigns and “Silverado” gives seven, with no overlap. Merged and filtered to the ones whose text covers the 1500, this truck carries eighteen campaigns, the same as the 2014. No other year in this generation reaches fourteen.

Four of them are brakes, and they are the ones to ask about first.

19V645000 — the brake vacuum pump, reported September 2019 and covering 2014–2018 Silverado and Sierra along with several full-size SUVs. GM’s summary is short: “The amount of vacuum created by the vacuum pump may decrease over time.” The consequence:

“As the vacuum level drops, the brake assist decreases, increasing braking effort, extending the distance required to stop the vehicle, thereby increasing the risk of a crash.”

The remedy is a reprogram of the Electronic Brake Control Module rather than a new pump. 17 filings name it.

16V069000 — brake pedal and linkage, reported February 2016. GM’s stated consequence is that “if the brake pedal becomes loose or inoperative, the driver may be unable to stop the vehicle by using the brake pedal.”

18V578000 — reported August 2018, the same component and the same consequence, two and a half years later. On the 1500 it names only the Crew Cab Special Service, a fleet trim, and GM’s own remedy note says those trucks need it despite being covered by 16V069000 already. Worth checking by VIN rather than by year.

19V761000 — reported October 2019 and conditioned three ways: a 5.3-liter engine, a 3.08-ratio rear axle, and four-wheel drive. If a wheel-speed sensor fails between 41 and 60 mph, the module may brake one wheel on its own and pull the truck to one side.

Two are steering. The 2014 truck’s 17V414000 does not reach this model year, but two others do.

14V719000 — reported November 2014, and GM’s consequence is one line: “An unexpected loss of power steering increases the risk of a crash.”

18V586000 — reported September 2018. “If EPS assist is lost and then suddenly returns, the driver may have difficulty steering the vehicle,” which is the same description the 2014 campaign uses.

One more is worth naming on its own.

14V819000 — the rear axle shaft, reported December 2014. “If the rear axle shaft fractures, the rear wheel may separate from the axle shaft.”

The other eleven

Eight of those eleven are restraints — four air bag campaigns, three seat belt campaigns and a seat. Two of the air bag campaigns are curtain inflators, reported in 2020 and 2021, six years after the truck was built.

37 filings on this model year say the owner’s VIN was not included in a recall they had read about. Counted as filings where “VIN” and a phrase like “was not included” — or covered, or listed, or in the recall — fall in the same sentence. Several describe the low-speed brake failure and say they had read about the vacuum pump campaign.

From ODI 11603628:

“Truck has issues breaking at very low speeds such as drive thrus ect. Zero issues at driving speeds. I see there is a recall for this issue on silverados between 2014 and I believe 2018 that had to do with a vacuum pump or similar issue that caused breaking issues at low speeds. For some reason my truck is not included in this recall but is having the same issues.”

What doesn’t show up in the complaints

NHTSA gives the 2015 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.

Nothing in the complaint record says the crash performance is a problem, and the air bag and belt filings above track recall letters rather than crashes.

The 4.3-liter V6 leads on fuel economy at 18/24/20 in two-wheel drive. The 6.2-liter is the only engine that reads the same in both drivetrains, at 15/21/17.

What the complaint curve says

2015   37     2018  177     2021  101     2024   60
2016   77     2019  214     2022  115     2025   73
2017   77     2020  116     2023   87     2026   44

The peak is 2019 and the second-highest year is 2018. Both brake campaigns were announced in the second half of 2019, and the steering campaign in 2018.

A complaint count going up can mean a letter arrived rather than that a truck got worse. On this model year the two tallest years sit directly on top of the three campaigns that matter most, so the curve is telling you at least as much about mail as about trucks.

The tail is not falling the way the older trucks in this series do. 2022 is higher than 2021, and 2025 is higher than 2024.

Complaint databases collect complaints. Nobody files to say the pedal was firm. Rates are not comparable across models without running the same arithmetic on each. What this data supports is the ranking inside this truck and the cab split inside its largest section.

If you’re looking at one

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

Test the brakes at walking speed, not on the road. 196 filings put the failure at low speed, backing up, or in a parking lot, and many say the truck was fine at speed. Back it up and stop it several times. Then do it again after twenty minutes of driving — several filings describe it appearing only after a longer run.

Ask whether 19V645000 was completed and what the dealer actually did. The remedy is a software reprogram of the brake control module, not a new vacuum pump. Completed does not mean the pump was replaced.

If it is a 5.3L with four-wheel drive, ask about 19V761000 too. That one also needs a 3.08 rear axle, which is an option code a dealer reads off the VIN rather than anything visible.

Ask about the steering campaign 18V586000. Steering is 194 filings here, well down from the 2014 truck, but the campaign exists and its remedy is worth asking about by name.

Check the restraint campaigns by VIN. Eight of this year’s eighteen are air bags, belts or a seat, and two of the air bag ones were reported in 2020 and 2021 — late enough that a truck sold before then may have missed the letter. A restraint recall is the kind that only matters once.

Numbers worth writing down

The 2016 truck is next, and brakes stay on top while the count falls by a third.

Sources

• NHTSA complaint database — 1,184 complaints for the 2015 Silverado 1500, quoted above by ODI number
• NHTSA recall API — eighteen campaigns, merged from the “Silverado 1500” and “Silverado” model names, quoted from the campaign summaries and remedy text
• NHTSA vPIC — engine, cab and drive type, decoded from the VIN attached to each filing
• NHTSA safety ratings — 2015 Chevrolet Silverado 1500, regular, extended and crew cab
• 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 — 1,133 of the 1,184 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.