A federal judge has dismissed the GM class action lawsuit alleging that the engines in certain models suffer from a defect that causes low oil in the vehicles.
Lead plaintiff, Thomas Szep, alleged in his 2019 class action lawsuit that GM’s Generation IV 5.3 Liter V8 Vortec 5300 engine consumes a high amount of oil, leading to damage and premature failure. According to the complaint, the engine was used in nearly a dozen Chevrolet and GM vehicles between 2010 and 2014.
The complaint pointed to allegedly inadequate piston rings that failed to maintain adequate tension in the engine, allowing oil to leave the crankcase at too high of a rate. Additionally, a monitoring system meant to alert drivers of low oil levels allegedly malfunctions, making the problem worse.
The class action lawsuit accused GM of violating Ohio state consumer protection laws, as well as federal warranty laws, fraud, unjust enrichment, and breach of warranty. The plaintiff sought to represent a nationwide Class of consumers who owned an affected GM or Chevy vehicle, along with an Ohio subclass.
GM asked a federal court to dismiss the class action lawsuit. The carmaker made several arguments, including that the plaintiff did not suffer a “concrete injury” and lacked standing for many of his other claims.
U.S. District Court Judge Solomon Oliver, Jr. noted in his order that the plaintiff, owner of a 2011 Chevrolet Silverado, did not allege in his complaint that his vehicle was damaged due to the engine defect.
“Plaintiff does not allege that his vehicle suffered any excessive oil consumption issues,” Judge Oliver pointed out in his order tossing the claims.
The plaintiff’s claim that GM violated Ohio consumer protection laws was dismissed as well. The judge concluded in his order that the plaintiff did not allege he would suffer any future harm from the alleged defect.
“Szep neither alleges nor argues that he is likely to purchase or lease another GM vehicle that has a Gen IV Engine or that he is likely to suffer future harm as a result of GM’s conduct,” states the order.
In addition, Judge Oliver dismissed the plaintiff’s breach of warranty claims. The order concludes that the plaintiff’s allegations under federal warranty law requires there to be a named plaintiff from each state; however, the plaintiff did not claim that he purchased an allegedly defective vehicle in each state – just Ohio.
“Plaintiff does not assert that he suffered injury in any other state. As a result, the court finds that Szep does not have standing to maintain his nationwide class allegation…” concludes the order.
Further, Judge Oliver dismissed the class action claims based on violations of GM’s limited warranty, noting that the plaintiff alleged that the oil consumption problem is a design defect.
Similarly, the judge agreed with GM’s argument that the plaintiff’s allegation of breach of implied warranty should be dismissed.
“Here, although Plaintiff alleges that the oil consumption defect poses a safety risk to occupants, he does not allege that his vehicle suffered any excessive oil consumption issues or otherwise required repairs for excessive oil consumption during the eight years that he has owned his vehicle,” noted the order. “Similarly, he does not allege that his vehicle experienced any serious engine problems as a result of the oil consumption defect.”
GM also fought the class action lawsuit’s fraud claims, arguing that the plaintiff failed to show that it has a duty to disclose the alleged defect. Noting that the plaintiff faced a higher standard to establish his fraudulent omissions claims, the judge also dismissed the allegations. Indeed, despite pointing to inline complaints from other GM and Chevy vehicle owners, complaints to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Technical Service Bulletins, and the fact that the carmaker abandoned the engine in later models, the judge concluded that the plaintiff had not shown “an inference that GM had knowledge of the oil consumption defect.”
While this GM class action lawsuit was dismissed, the carmaker reportedly faces a number of other claims over similar issues. According to GM Authority, one such claim was filed as recently as April of 2020.
Do you own a Chevy or GM vehicle that suffers from excessive oil consumption? We want to hear from you! Tell us what happened in the comment section below.
Szep and the proposed Class are represented by Mark A. DiCello, Justin J. Hawal, Adam J. Levitt, John E. Tangren, and Daniel R. Ferri of DiCello Levitt Gutzler LLC.
The GM Class Action Lawsuit is Szep v. General Motors LLC, Case No. 1:19-cv-02858, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio.
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20 thoughts onOhio Judge Tosses GM Class Action Lawsuit
I have a 2011 GMC Yukon XL 5.3 with 113K miles and I also have similar issues with oil consumption that others have described in this thread. I change my own oil, use high quality synthetic (Mobil one), and usually perform the oil change when the computer says oil percentage is below 10%. The last regular change I performed around 6 months ago (I don’t put a ton of miles on this vehicle), it was down between 2-3 quarts. I don’t regularly add oil between changes.
Last month, oil percentage was at 52% and oil pressure light came on, pressure dropped to 0, and truck started screaming to turn off engine immediately. Got the truck home after 6-7 shut offs and pray we don’t blow the engine. Ran some motor medic thru it and changed oil the next morning. It was down 2 quarts at just 52% computer reading. Now I can’t keep my eyes off the oil pressure gauge. Initially I thought it might be oil sending unit, but after seeing these comments, leaning towards faulty design.
Please contact me asap with information on joining the class action lawsuit against GMC , I”m paying high auto repair bills due to the oil consumption problem with my GMC Terrain
2012 Suburban with same issues. Has always used oil since we purchased used a few years ago. Currently having lifters replaced do to one that froze up. Found that oil was 3 1/2 qts low since last oil change noting that 2 times we added over a quart during that time. We have been running full synthetic due to the potential wear on the engine from this condition. Now we are into costly repairs while we are trying to pack, move, sell and buy a home before interest rates go higher. Tough to do without the use of our moving vehicle. So frustrating!
2014 gmc sierra 5.3 3.5 quarts every 7500 miles on mobil 1. Gets really pricey.
2011 Yukon XL consumes 1 quart of oil weekly, sometimes more. High mileage, but has been consuming extra oil consistently since purchase. We preform regular maintenance and oil changes consistently. Oil consumption/burning continues to increase.
Would like to join any lawsuit about this issue.
I own a 2008 Sierra with the LY5 engine. I bought it with 99K miles on it in 2017 and realized quickly that it burned a lot of oil. On average, the truck burns 3/4qt per 1,000 miles. Luckily, I check oil on any vehicle I’m responsible for frequently. I updated the driver’s side valve cover out of pocket and nothing has changed. I can’t believe I bought a slow burning oil fire with faulty oil rings, oil being sprayed directly at the oil ring skirts, and oil being sucked up into the intake. This is not OK.
I contacted GM Executive last year about this and was told that if a dealership confirmed my consumption rate that we would discuss repair options. After 4 attempts of finding a dealership that was competent enough to do an accurate consumption test I had the proof I needed to go back to my GM Executive liaison. I was then bluntly told that my truck is too old and out of warranty so they weren’t going to do anything. Then why in the F did you have me wasting my time trying to get a dealership report? Seriously, I wasted at least 30 hours of my life trying to find a dealer service dept. that would bother to note both the starting and ending levels of the test. It was very mentally distressing to spend my limited time on this planet playing GM’s game only to have them tell me to get F’ed in the end.
My engine’s condition is caused by GM’s faulty parts and design (unibody PCV valve cover, lack of drain capability of the oil rings, oil overpressure relief spraying directly at the bottom of the oil rings). These faulty parts and design have led directly to and negatively impacted my by:
Reducing engine power efficiency, resulting in very low gas mileage (13.5mpg average per DIC) compared to normal GM reported avg of 19mpg (check this), I’ve spent approximately an extra $4,000 on gasoline due to faulty GM parts/design;
I’ve burnt around 50qts of oil into the atmosphere at a personal expense of ~$350, not to mention the environmental cost;
$250 to update the faulty valve cover;
100+ hours researching this to find means to correct the issue, including 30+ hours wasted directly by GM= $4,000+;
Mental distress knowing that I can’t just sell this truck for what KBB says it’s worth, I either have to become a POS like GM and find an unsuspecting consumer to sell my problem too or I have to deeply discount the sale price to make up for the faulty parts/design implemented by GM, either of these is a negative for me because I’m not a POS, so maybe I can expect to get $2,500 less than KBB, I don’t know what mental anguish is worth but all of this has caused me plenty and I know there’s no reasonable difficulty way for me to sell the truck and wash my hands of the whole thing.
BTW, I’ve been a GM guy my whole life. I’m from Michigan and my family has been involved in GM vehicle production for over 80 years. F GM, they use their customers as guinea pigs. They know there is a problem with parts they used on these vehicles and the design. They’ve shown this by repair programs they’ve implemented in the past. But hey, if you’re late to the party, then F you is GM’s stand point.
I am in WA and have a 2011 Yukon XL that started burning oil like crazy at about 60,000 miles. There is no low engine oil indicator to warn me. I only figured it out after the oil pressure indicator came on and I had to add 4 qts even though it has oil changes always on time in accordance with the vehicle’s own oil life remaining indicator. The dealer tells me it’s normal to have to add a qt every 2000 miles. I think it’s more often than that. And that would make sense if this was a 1970s engine – not a 2011 engine. Since I have been changing my own oil lately and could tell that not enough oil was draining – by a lot. Ridiculous. Add me to any class action.
I have a 2014 Silverado LT. I do regular oil changes every 5 to 8 months. It never fails, every few months I get the “low engine oil” light on. I’ve become accustomed to breaking out $30 to $40 bucks every couple of months just to keep my truck running in between oil changes. This past time I was just going to wait until I was due for my oil change. (bad decision on my part) My truck actually shut off in the middle of a turn on a busy intersection. I lost all power and had to disconnect the battery and reconnect it to get it started again. (,Mind you, I am in the middle of an intersection doing this) It has since done this same thing 3 times in the last few days. I finially had to bring the truck in to a Tire Kingdom to see what was wrong. They told me I was over 4 quarts low and that was why the truck was shutting off. I just had an oil change two months ago. This is an extremely dangerous defect. I had my 6 month old and my 5 year old in the truck when it just shut off on me. Worse case scenario is that we could have all been killed.
03-17-21: Can anyone tell me if there is an active class action law suit concerning excessive oil consumption in the Chev Silverasdo?
I have a 2007 Chevy Avalance that started making a knocking noise. So I brought it to my mechanic. I found out it has Spark Plugs #1 #4, misfire. Then found out after replacing spark plugs that the lifter needed replacing. So I eventually needed a new motor (5.3 Liters, V8 engine).I would love to be on this lawsuit. Because its causing me $8,000.00 for motor and labor that is a General Motor problem.