2021 BUICK ENCORE GX — Complaint #2156732
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about ENGINE AND ENGINE COOLING:EXHAUST SYSTEM filed December 12, 2025
NHTSA complaint #2156732 (ODI reference 11704676) concerns a 2021 BUICK ENCORE GX and was filed on December 12, 2025. The owner reports the failure occurred on December 11, 2025. The vehicle had 52,590 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to Texas based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as engine and engine cooling:exhaust system, one of NHTSA's standardized taxonomy codes used to group defect patterns across make, model, and year.
The filer flagged the following severity indicators: crash: no, fire: no, injuries: 0, fatalities: 0. No crash, fire, or fatality was associated with this report, which places it in the early-warning stream rather than the priority-review stream. Because a VIN was supplied, this complaint is tied to a specific vehicle and not just a model-year cohort.
Individual complaints are consumer-submitted and unverified by NHTSA engineers — the agency's role at this stage is to collect, index, and make them searchable. What matters for federal action is the pattern: when many owners of the same BUICK ENCORE GX cohort independently describe similar engine and engine cooling:exhaust system failures, defect investigators have grounds to open a PE and request manufacturer data. Related filings for the same vehicle and component appear below, and the detail page for the full 2021 BUICK ENCORE GX shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
The contact owns a 2021 Buick Encore GX. The contact stated while depressing the brake pedal to make a right turn, there was an abnormally loud popping and scrapping sound coming from underneath the vehicle. The contact pulled over to the side of the road. Upon exiting and inspecting the vehicle, the contact became aware that the exhaust manifold had detached from the vehicle. The vehicle was drivable and was currently parked at the residence. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired by a dealer or an independent mechanic. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 52,590.
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 2156732 |
| ODI Number | 11704676 |
| Date Filed | December 12, 2025 |
| Failure Date | December 11, 2025 |
| VIN | KL4MMFSLXMB |
Source: NHTSA Vehicle Complaints Database. Component taxonomy and severity codes are standardized by NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation.
Read our methodology — how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.