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GM Flex Fuel Engine Class Action Lawsuit Filed In Illinois

A class action lawsuit that was filed against GM in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois alleges certain Flex Fuel capable Chevrolet Impala manufactured by the American automaker cannot run E85 fuel without suffering damage to the fuel delivery system.

Plaintiff Michael Fleury purchased a used 2016 Chevy Impala in October of 2019 and began using E85 fuel shortly after gas prices began to rise significantly in early 2022, according to Car Complaints. The vehicle began experiencing problems at this time and was later informed by a GM technician that the vehicle had suffered damage to the high-pressure fuel pump and that it was likely caused by using E85 fuel, which contains 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline. The technician also told Fleury that even though his car was Flex Fuel capable, he should have been alternating between tanks of gasoline and tanks of E85, as opposed to only filling up with the high ethanol blend.

GM technical service bulletin 18-NA-072, which was cited by Car Complaints in its report on the suit, notes that “excessive use of E85,” may cause “a plunger internal to the fuel pump to stick.” The plaintiff alleges the TSB is proof that GM is aware Flex Fuel capable vehicles have this alleged problem and is seeking compensation in return. He also claims Flex Fuel-capable Chevy Impala vehicles hold a greater value than regular Impala models, increasing the claimed damages inflicted upon him. The lawsuit also notes that this class action proceeding includes all persons with Illinois addresses, “who purchased a GM Flex Fuel vehicle, new or used, on or after a date 3 years prior to the filing of this action.”

GM has not publicly responded to this class-action lawsuit or the claims contained within it.

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Sam loves to write and has a passion for auto racing, karting and performance driving of all types.

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Comments

  1. WTF ? I bought a used car not knowing any history and I want a class action WHO?

    Reply
  2. CARFAX? What’s a CARFox 🤦🏻

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  3. I don’t understand why anyone would use E85. Ethanol has 30% less energy than gasoline so you’ll not only have less power but less fuel economy. And don’t tell me it’s less polluting either-it’s more polluting. An in depth study shows that growing corn and turning it into ethanol is 24% more carbon intensive than gasoline. Look it up-we’ve been duped for decades. We need to remove all ethanol from our gasoline.

    Reply
    1. E85 with the correct tune is good for a minimum of a 10% horsepower increase. E85 setup cars make more horsepower than 93 octane cars by a substantial amount.

      Reply
      1. Okay, tune your engine to run properly on E85. How many people will do that? I still stand by what I said-Ethanol has 30% less energy than gasoline. Estimates are that your fuel mileage will decrease 10-30% with E85. Not my numbers, look it up.

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        1. Every one knows your mileage drops noticeably with E85, but there is the price difference that evens out the cost. Tuning for E85 and the easy install of a E85 sensor is big time popular amongst the high performance world, best bang for the buck mod.

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    2. So clearly high performance sports cars never use premium fuel, only cheap cars use premium because premium fuel has less energy, so it makes less performance, according to you.

      As octane goes up, energy goes down. Ethanol has 113 octane.

      Reply
      1. First of all, I’ve said nothing about premium fuel. Secondly, you are wrong about premium having less energy than regular gasoline. It has the same energy. I’m guessing that you are confused since regular burns faster than premium. Has nothing to do with the amount of energy it contains. Look it up on the internet.

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    3. E85 has lower mileage but it does not have less power. It has higher octane than even premium gasoline.

      Negative claims about the environmental impact of ethanol tend to rely on discredited papers from two writers who consistently overstated the energy input needed to make ethanol and understated the energy yielded. They used techniques like using Third World or decades-outdated statistics, ignoring an ethanol byproduct’s use as high-protein high-value animal feed and wrongly assuming that all ethanol corn is irrigated when only about one-sixth of all US corn and nearly no ethanol corn is. That last is the killer because they assign huge energy costs to that irrigation.

      Reply
  4. Such a shame GM stopped Impala production.

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    1. I agree the last impala with the 3.6 super nice V6 is a great car, rented many of those cars for long trips.

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  5. Fuel doesn’t make horsepower but higher octane allows more timing which is where the increase in horsepower comes from so Don is correct in his statement ” properly tuned “. E85 with a 113 octane rating can be purchased in drums for racing which allows over bored engines to run more timing at cooler temperatures otherwise out of the pump it is 100 to 105 octane rating.

    Reply
    1. Isnt there also a more Oxygen thing with E85? and your right it cools the combustion chamber that helps with detonation. Any time we can make more power for not a lot of money its worth it and gas mileage is not a concern with most performance minded people imo.

      Reply
  6. Fellow Impala lovers!
    I ADORE my Cranberry 2015 LTZ with Black Leather, with the 20″ Rims!! My baby has NEVER seen E85, OR 10% Ethanol!!! It IS a FF Car tho’. Doesn’t matter…..it’ll never see it.

    What’s rarely mentioned in these kind of conversations, is the Owners-Manual itself! In Section 9-54, it talks about the preferred use of Top-Tier NO-ETHANOL Premium. Shell & Holiday are the only places I fill at.

    Once a month, I add 1/3 bottle of Seafoam to to the Tank. A week or 2 before an O/C, I add a Cup of SF to the Engine-Oil. Because of these practices, she runs STRONG!

    (I’ve got a couple buffers too. Gotta keep those swirls away!!) 😜🎸😎😈

    Reply
  7. In typical GM fashion they killed their two best cars the Impala and the LaCrosse

    Reply

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