GM to pay in coolant repair cases

This is very interesting.

Looks like GM sent out a time bomb with every car for 10 years !

Amazing !

I am sure a lot of experts knew this practice was wrong for a long time.

Either GM has no experts or they knew what they were doing and intentionally made the cars to be with less lifetime so they would need to be replaced sooner.

It is similar to what Ford did when he sent people to investigate what parts in the cars being retired were still good so they could use cheaper parts.

This was the final straw as I am concerned.

I thought that GM was trying to make good cars but were just sloppy in management but it is obvious they do not care about their customers at all and are just like the medicine men in the past trying to sell anything as long as they can find anyone with money and sell them false hope.

I just wonder if GM will pay to get DeathCool OUT of my car!!

Reminds one of Toyota ending its "class action" problem with its ongoing sludge problem that pushed off the solution to the problem with their extended ten year warranty. It is hard for the shark lawyers to pursue a class action when the company offers a warranty for all claims.

In both cases the manufacturer gets off the hook, the lawyers reap the rewards and the buyers get screwed ;)

Why are you amazed? You were not aware of the intake gasket issues for the past 15 years?

Or they simply elected to use inferior parts with the expectation that people would just fix them, and it would never come back to haunt them. Save on the manufacturing costs. Would have nothing at all to do with building them so that they would have to be replaced sooner.

Why? You needed a class action decision to convince you of the problems that had been identified over a decade ago, and verified by tens of thousands of cars? Why should this decision have any effect on your opinion of GM?

If it took you this long to realize that, then your powers of observation are sorely lacking. Are you related to Mike Hunt?

He is my senile old grandfather

The link indicates that the reimbursements are about $400 up through the 5th year of the car's life, drop to $100 in the 6th year, and $50 in the 7th year. So, IMO, they are still dodging a substantial portion of the blame.

As in many other cases, GM knew they were producing crap, and continued to do it without conscience. And dumb old us continued to buy said crap.

You mean the minor fact that it was a change in the gasket material mandated by federal laws on asbestos that caused the entire problem for the auto industry.

Or they had NO choice in the matter and followed the law.

Tens of thousands of cars out of tens of MILLIONS of cars running Dex-Cool.

The real problem is NOT the Dex-Cool. Never has been. If it was the coolant that was a problem why don't ALL the vehicles using it show problems? The problem is and always has been a result of the gaskets going bad. That is why GM started using a redesigned gasket that eliminates the problem.

I agree, Steve..I dont think the DexCool destroyed gaskets either, although I dont think it is the best coolant that could have been used, with respect to engine corrosion.

There was a problem with the gaskets. Other motor companies did not seem to have this level of problems, and that indicates to me that it was something more than just the problem with gasket changes. The mechanical aspects of those engines' mating surfaces and assembly have been suspected.

Whatever the factors, GM has some responsibility in the matter.

Oh - I agree. To top that - how are most of the previous owners of those cars, who paid for repairs, or performed them themselves, going to document those repairs now? GM will get out of this pretty light.

Oh no Steve - you're starting to sound like Mike Hunt. This argument has been beaten to death.

Why didn't every other manufacturer have the same continuing problems for over 10 years?

Tens of thousands was almost certainly low. How about nearly every 3.1 and

No one but you have ever suggested it was the gasket that was the fault. It was the gasket that failed, causing the problems. That was a GM design issue. Exactly what the design flaw or flaws were, I don't really know. The point remains that GM stood alone in the line up of manufacturers that had such a long running design, complete with its known problems.

GM will not get out of this lightly. This is one more nail in their coffin. The money part of this is nothing compared to the loss of reliability and show how low quality they have been willing to put on their products. The goodwill of GM is gone and the badwill is growing. Getting goodwill is something you earn through trust. When you do not have goodwill and you do not have trust it is only a question of time before you can close the doors.

Unfortunately, the gasket debacle is not the end of the story for GM. New Impala's have problems consuming anti-freeze. You can talk to a dealer mechanic and he'll tell you they have no idea where the coolant is going. Right after that, he'll tell you they're not aware of any gurgling problems with the Impala that accompany the car not being able to throw heat while sitting still. Throws heat just fine while it's going down the road, but throws cold air if it's not moving. Nope - no problem there. This is exactly the kind of thing that took me from a 30 plus year GM bigot, and place 2 Hyundai's and a Mitsubishi in my driveway these days.

Just curious, but do you have any links about this problem with Impala's? You're speaking of the 2007+ model, right? I'm not being sarcastic (its a first for me, I know), I just haven't heard anything about this. 90% of our Police force use the brand new Impala's, and we build them here too, so I should've read about it by now.

I wish I did have one, but I don't. You're right though - lots of police depts use them so it would seem this problem would have gained more attention by now.

I'll keep looking. If I find anything, I'll post it.

But these engines aren't suffering from corrosion problems until the gaskets fail. And it's not so much corrosion problems after the gaskets fail, it's the coolant oxidizing, clumping/coagulating causing problems like plugged heater cores.

Who else uses the gasket design like GM uses on their V engines?

The mechanical aspects of

I have a 97 GA with the 3.1. but I bought mine in Dec. of 1997 with only 8k mile on it from a dealer who leased it as a rental, so I am not really the original owner. I had the intake replaced at about 80k miles. Currently have over 140k miles on it. My question is since I am the second owner am I eligible for the refund? Or must I be the original owner?