GM said eight fires had been caused by the problem, but there were no injuries. The company said all of the fires had occurred in very cold places, and it urged customers to avoid leaving trucks idling unattended.

The No. 1 U.S. automaker said the recall included 2014 model trucks with 4.3 liter and 5.3 liter engines in the United States, Canada, Mexico and other markets. Trucks with 6.2 liter engines were not being recalled.

GM said signs of the problem were a continuous yellow "check engine light" and an "engine power reduced" message in the driver information center.

It said recall letters would be mailed next Thursday, but customers could contact dealers for appointments beginning early next week. It said the repair would take about 20 minutes.

Of the trucks recalled, about 303,813 are in the United States, about 26,000 in Canada, about 665 in Mexico and about 7,753 in export markets, said company spokesman Alan Adler.

Adler said all the numbers were preliminary and that as of late Friday the total number of vehicles being recalled was 370,000.

( This version of the story was corrected by the company to show about 26,000 trucks were recalled in Canada instead of 57,769 and adds last paragraph to show numbers are preliminary, total as of late Friday.)

(Reporting by Ben Klayman in Detroit; Editing by Toni Reinhold)