Owners are mad about defective Chevy Camaro starters. So mad that there is a huge class-action lawsuit to get GM to do something about it. The heat shields meant to protect Camaro starters aren’t doing the job. Resistance builds as they get hotter requiring more power to spin them. According to the lawsuit, there is only so much resistance that the starters can take. Soon, they stop functioning or at least turn too slowly to start the car. It also damages the starter solenoid. So, over 750,000 Camaros are involved in this class-action lawsuit. 

The lawsuit takes in every Camaro made from 2010 to the present

This lawsuit takes in all Camaros made from 2010 to the present. It says that GM “knowingly sold Chevy Camaro models without disclosing that the vehicles are plagued by a starter and/or heat shield defect.” And it is not just the starter and starter solenoid going south. 

There is so much heat buildup that the wires going to the starter are melting in some cases. This also causes damage to fuses and the fuse box itself. Not to mention shortening the life of the battery because it has to work harder to spin the starter. 

There are instances of damage to the Camaro’s entire electrical system

But there’s more. The lawsuit also says that there is permanent damage to the pinion and starter gear because they stay engaged to the flywheel. It goes on to say there are instances of damage to the Camaro’s entire electrical system. Heat build-up in the wiring is causing added resistance which combined with the ambient heat can fry other parts of the wiring. 

There is already a tendency for the battery cables to get hot. That’s because the battery in all of these fifth and sixth-gen Camaros is in the trunk. So the longer distance means added draw to spin the starter. That’s why most cars are built with the battery close to the starter. 

Camaro forums tell a tale of many starters being replaced under warranty. Owners found that as temperatures rise the problem gets worse. Many times they say GM refused to repair things under warranty. It would lead to owners spending hundreds and sometimes thousands of dollars out-of-pocket to resolve the issue. A number of forum posts show that owners would have the problem repeat itself over several years.

“Had GM disclosed the defect, the plaintiff and class members would not have purchased the vehicles”

“GM’s failure to disclose the starter defect at the time of purchase is material because no reasonable consumer expects to spend hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars to repair or replace damaged vehicle components that the manufacturer knows will fail well before the expected useful life of the component and damage other components of the vehicle as well,” the lawsuit says. “Had GM disclosed the starter defect, the plaintiff and class members would not have purchased the class vehicles or would have paid less for them.”

The lawsuit says that Chevy should have designed the starter heat shield to curve around the starter. As the damage mounts, it can cost owners thousands of dollars to find and then repair the problem. Once the warranty is over everything must be paid for by the owners. 

GM has been aware of the problem since 2010 according to the lawsuit. Dealerships say it is the owner’s fault of bad batteries that causes the problem, not poorly designed heat shields. It seems like such an easy fix for GM to redesign the heat shield we are surprised it hasn’t already happened.