GM Oil Consumption Lawsuit In Washington Partially Dismissed
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A class-action oil consumption lawsuit that was filed against General Motors alleging oil burn-related issues with its Generation IV 5.3L Vortec V8 engines has been partially dismissed by a Washington judge.
This oil consumption lawsuit was filed by plaintiff Tim Nauman in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington at Tacoma, according to Car Complaints. In it, Nauman alleges his 2011 Chevy Silverado consumes an excessive amount of oil due to a flawed piston ring design. The plaintiff also alleges GM was aware of the flawed engine design when it sold Nauman the truck, as it had previously received consumer complaints relating to the same issue and also issued a technical service bulletin in an attempt to remedy the problems.
Additionally, GM redesigned the 5.3-liter V8 engine used in its full-size trucks and SUVs after the 2014 model year, utilizing different piston rings. The plaintiff says the eventual redesign of the engine serves as further proof the automaker is aware the Generation IV engine is defective.
GM sought to have Nauman’s oil consumption lawsuit dismissed on the basis that did not breach its implied warranty. The language of GM’s policy only relates to issues regarding manufacturing and materials defects, but the oil consumption problem is an inherent design defect and therefore not covered by the warranty, it argued. The automaker also pointed out the plaintiff purchased his truck used from an independent dealer and not a certified GM dealer. Furthermore, GM said the plaintiff filed the suit too late after the time of purchase.
Judge Benjamin H. Settle said Nauman did not provide an adequate response to any of GM’s arguments and was therefore left with no choice but to partially dismiss the suit, Car Complaints reports.
While the suit was partially dismissed, Judge Settle also said Nauman is free to amend and re-file his claims due to the high number of consumer complaints regarding the Generation IV Vortec engines. In a statement, the judge said the volume of complaints regarding the affected engine and components “support a plausible inference under Rule 9(b)’s standards that GM had knowledge of the oil consumption defect.
“At the pleading stage, Plaintiff has alleged sufficient allegations to support a plausible inference of GM’s knowledge,” he ruled.
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Here’s my anecdotal account of oil consumption of the 5.3
2012 Silverado; 125,000miles/200,000km
Zero measurable oil loss between oil change intervals of 6200miles/10,000km
I haul max payload frequently, tow a 3,000lb boat frequently, tow the boat with ATV in the bed occasionally, tow 10,000lb dump trailer occasionally
Canadian climate frigid cold, rough, starts 3 months of the year. Relatively hot humid summers.
I do my own maintenance, all fluids are changed at recommended intervals, in terms of engine oil it has had full synthetic 5w30 since new.
Maintenance is huge, and variable. If you don’t maintain it, it will likely run into issues, very simple concept
I purchased a used 2007 Tahoe with the 5.3 in April 2011. The oil life monitor indicated the oil had been changed recently. At around 50% oil life I received a message in the DIC that oil volume was low. I filled the oil to capacity. Just before 0% I received the same oil volume low message. My Chevy dealer did all my oil changes. I was also able to obtain TSBs from my dealer on this matter, and found it affected all GM gen 4 V8s, including trucks, SUVs, Corvettes, and Camaros. To help alleviate the problem I swapped the radiator in my truck to the one used in the PPV and SSV Tahoes and installed the correct oil cooler lines. This was an attempt to increase oil capacity and cool the oil. The issue with the cylinder deactivation feature in the gen 4 V8s is that the valves are still opening and closing when the fuel injectors were turned off. Compressed air heats up. When fuel is sprayed into the chamber it cools the air temperature. This prevents the oil from scorching. Scorched oil, as a result of cylinder deactivation, lead to piston rings wearing down, increasing oil consumption. GM about this problem which why they issued TSBs to injector cleaning services, installation of oil baffles, and other services until the gen 5 V8s debuted in 2014. Along with direct fuel injection, the valvetrain was changed to prevent valves from opening and closing when the fuel injectors turned off, thereby preventing oil scorching and excessive wear on the piston rings.
Sadly, my bandaid attempt to resolve the matter failed in September 2012 when my truck’s engine failed in the middle of Wyoming, standing my wife, my child, and I. As a military family were subject to the needs of the military first. The time allowed for attending the funeral of a family member wasn’t extended by command. This means we were forced to abandon the truck and roll $10k debt into a 2012 Chevy Malibu LS. The Chevy dealership stated the bottom end of the engine failed. We had 96,xxx miles on the odometer. The truck was 6 months out of its factory powertrain warranty, and GM said, tough sh*t.
Bottom line, GM learned about the problem and issues many TSBs about it. They redesigned the heads to fix the problem with the gen 5 V8s. At this point, GM knew there was a problem, but figured it’s cheaper to fight a lawsuit than to repair faulty engines or lose customers.
An oil change is relatively cheap, I do mine at about 35-40%.
The one part of this comment that got my attention was that you pretend to know exactly what the problem is with the Gen 4 with cylinder deactivation, gave me a good laugh. You are saying that because the valves are still operating, the piston is still compressing air with no fuel to cool the combustion chamber and so this excess heat caused by the compressed air is causing the oil to burn and cake on the rings? I don’t suppose you thought about the fact that since the gen 4 was not direct injected, the fuel was injected into the intake port and compressed along with the air so not a lot of cooling effect there. Also, the compression ratio of a gasoline engine might at the extreme end of the scale hit 500 degrees F, that is still way less than if the fuel was injected and ignited. The flame temperature at stochiometric will very briefly exceed 2500 degrees F. If the combustion process doesn’t cause the oil to cook, the compression with no fuel or combustion is sure not going to cook the oil. Harley motorcycles have killed the fuel to the rear cylinder at idle while still operating the valves when the engine is overheating as a way to manage temperatures for years. All that being said, gen 4 v8 engines did indeed deactivate the valves on 4 cylinders as well as deactivating the fuel injectors and ignition on those cylinders, so it is all moot anyway because when the valves are not being operated, there is no compression. The real problem comes from a combination of low tension piston rings that have less spring tension pressing against the cylinder wall to reduce friction and improve fuel economy and extending oil changes out too far. The extended oil changes on a vehicle that is driven short distances and in extreme conditions can lead to sludge build-up around the oil rings. Since the rings have less spring tension, sludge that traditionally wouldn’t have caused a problem is now a problem since it takes far less buildup to stick the rings. I always change my oil at 5K, which is usually around 30% on the oil life indicator. I have never had a problem with oil consumption. Not completely absolving GM of blame here, I think the oil life monitors are way too ambitious and cause most of the problems and therefore they should be responsible for the problem on that basis. GM is not the only manufacturer with this problem either, I know Toyota has been plagued by oil consumption problems for years and has even had several recalls and TSBs related to it.
This isn’t a V8 engine but is a HFV6 in a 2009 Camero it’s my Son’s
He has gone through 2 engines now with them having oil consumption.
No signs of Oil leaks or it burning oil so now it’s up for review if he gets a 3rd engine.
I work for GM of Canada in St Catherine’s Ontario. I’m actually a Teamleader on the HFV6 engine Block machining line .
I ran the issue by the head engineer for our department & he mentioned it could be the PCV system drawing to much oil mist out of the engine & if they put that same system on the 2nd engine & it faulted for the same issue no oil left in the oil pan than that is the issue.
A quality catch can and AFM eliminator kit eliminates buying expensive engines.
I bought my 2010 Silverado 5.3 used with 85k Miles, had no clue about the oil consumption issue until a lifter failure at 102k miles. Had this repaired (all lifters, baffle etc replaced) and then paid very close attention to oil level for the next 33k miles. The truck was using 1qt every 2500 miles. Despite my vigilance, at 135k, I had another lifer failure, and took it to a Chevy dealership for repair. The tech unofficially and off the record said ‘they sell plug in AFM deactivation device online’. This was an unsolicited comment without a follow up statement. I took the wink and bought one from an online speed shop and oil consumption STOPPED. Connect the dots.
Note: I drive 85% highway with little to no load so the AFM was always engaging. My fuel economy with the AFM defeat installed has dropped by roughly 5%.
Funny to think that if I was working the truck hard, I probably wouldn’t have had this problem…twice!
If you work your engine hard put on LS9 valve covers and a catch can.
If you have a lifter failure DO NOT TAKE IT TO THE DEALER order the AFM eliminator kit from Summit and if you don’t know a good independent tech find one.
Consumers need to file a lawsuit against chevys crappy transmissions!!! Shuttering, vibrations, clunks, pull and kick etc. Transmissions are junk !!!!!
Joe- After owning three trucks with the 6 speed transmission-anybody who doesn’t admit the power trains are not very refined are fooling themselves and are a “fanboy” in denial. My next truck WILL NOT be one made by GM.
had a couple six speeds,not the best in the world but there are a lot out there that are worse ever experienced a chrysler product,
TransPak shift kit. Correct the factory valve body TECHEM shift bang and transmission heat issues.
I have a 2007 Chevy Tahoe I’m the first owner with 40,000 miles And the AC Don’t work for the back passengers
If the front A/C is working good it may just be a switch or valve.
gm needs to update its warranty pamphlet, our engineers have “big guy” moments and these moments are not covered by any warranty express or implied.
I have a 2013 Silverado my truck use so much oil .i have to do oil changes in between oil changes
Anybody wonder why gm share of the retail US market has dropped from about 50% in the 60’s to less than 17% today?
People flock to quality products and good customer service.
It’s definitely no fault of the owner as I see in some comments. I have a 2012 GMC Terrain, always serviced regularly and oil changes every 3-5000 km and there was also a won lawsuit with GM and they were forced to provide special coverage to repair the piston ring, the cause of this issue. So this similar year GM product could very well be the same flawed engine build. They just don’t want to own up to it and repair a vehicle this old because of the damage that this issue would cause to the cat. etc. Which is why they expired the coverage in 2019.
I have a 2006 Tahoe 5.3 uses oil like drinking water worst oil consumption I’ve ever seen
Rare for an 06 does it have high mileage?
I have a 2012 Buick lacrosse and I have 3.6 litre v6 that is always going low in oil in BTW oil changes been that way since I purchased it. I’m starting to think it’s just not only the gm v8s are trash dies not smoke or leak can’t figure it out why it always get low on oil.
The newer 3.6s received updates those are good engines,….now
I’ve got a 2010 LaCrosse with the 3.6 that I purchased new, just turned 100K. I change the oil between 3 and 5K, have use 5W30 synthetic since new and it doesn’t burn a drop between changes.
You are close to the danger zone of timing chain and cam phaser issues.
Taking it to the dealer if those issues pop up and they will want to sell you a rebuilt engine because at the minimum you have bent valves also.
We all need to start a petition for a class action law suit against gm over this , I have a link that gm says it looked good on paper who’s with me
GM said that this was an “inherent design defect” and therefore not covered by warranty. So essentially they can do really bad designs and as long as they are built according to that design, there’s no recourse. Interesting.