There is more dirty diesel news to report. Wednesday a class action lawsuit was filed in Detroit alleging GM “sold hundreds of thousands” of diesel trucks that pumped metal shavings into fuel-injection system damaging engines according to the Detroit News. The lawsuit claims that US diesel fuel is thinner than European diesel. This causes air pockets to form in the fuel injection pump causing metal-to-metal contact inside of the pump creating metal shavings.

The suit says affected engines include 2011-2016 GMC and Chevy trucks with the 6.6-liter Duramax diesel engines. The fuel pumps are manufactured by Bosch.

Catastrophic Failure

Statements in the suit allege that “the pump secretly deposits metal shavings and debris throughout the fuel injection system and the engine until it suddenly and catastrophically fails without warning. Such catastrophic failure often causes the vehicle to shut off while in motion and renders it unable to be restarted because the vehicle’s fuel injection system and engine component parts have been completely contaminated and destroyed.”

Ticking Time Bombs

The suit says the Bosch fuel pumps are “ticking time bombs.” The suit continues, “GM promised consumers the continued reliability of their diesel engines, but with increased fuel efficiency and power.” The culmination of this consequence for consumers was that “this came with a hidden and catastrophic cost that was secretly passed on to consumers.”

On the List?

Here’s the list of allegedly affected trucks:

• 2011–2016 2500HD Silverado 6.6-liter V8 Duramax diesel trucks with LML engines
• 2011–2016 3500HD Silverado 6.6-liter V8 Duramax diesel trucks with LML engines
• 2011–2016 2500HD Sierra 6.6-liter V8 Duramax diesel trucks with LML engines
• 2011–2016 3500HD Sierra 6.6-liter V8 Duramax diesel trucks with LML engines
• 2010–2011 Chevrolet Express vans with Duramax LGH engines
• 2010–2011 GMC Savana vans with Duramax LGH engines
• 2010–2011 GMC Sierra trucks with RPO ZW9 (chassis cabs or trucks with pickup box deleted) with Duramax LGH engines
• 2011–2012 Chevrolet 2500HD Silverado 6.6-liter V8 Duramax diesel trucks with LGH engines
• 2011–2012 Chevrolet 3500HD Silverado 6.6-liter V8 Duramax diesel trucks with LGH engines
• 2011–2012 Chevrolet 2500HD Sierra 6.6-liter V8 Duramax diesel trucks with LGH engines
• 2011–2012 Chevrolet 3500HD Sierra 6.6-liter V8 Duramax diesel trucks with LGH engines.

Similar To VW Dieselgate

Bosch was also involved in the Volkswagen “Dieselgate” lawsuits that cost VW billions of dollars to rectify. According to the lawsuit GM went to Bosch because at the time GM was attracted to the claims of increased diesel fuel efficiency from Bosch software and components. Later, Dieselgate exposed that this software and related devices cheated emissions testing systems in the US. 

Volkswagen pleads guilty to three criminal counts of cheating for over 10 years to trick US emissions testing equipment. Millions of cars were affected. They paid $2.8 billion in criminal fines and $1.5 billion in civil penalties.

Chrysler Also Found Guilty

Fiat Chrysler also was found to be guilty of software cheating on 104,000 diesel trucks using similar “defeat devices” also used by Volkswagen for cheating on emission testing. They paid $515 million in penalties for using software similar to what VW used. 

For owners of Jeep Grand Cherokees and Ram 1500 trucks, FCA paid $280 million with 2014-2016 3.0-liter V6 diesel engines. Additionally, Bosch was required to pay $27.5 million.