BREAKING: GM is officially recalling the L87

[22BlackDenali]

Just talked to my dealership about my Escalade. According to them, no parts are available right now, no work can be done right now, the dealership cannot do anything right now. They aren't going to do anything for the moment. The guy told me to wait until I receive a letter in the mail with further instructions.

Meanwhile, I've got an alert in the MyCadillac app saying "dealer will inspect and as necessary, repair or replace the engine??!?!!?"

What the hell are we supposed to do?

I got same response. Dealers are not prepared for this.

 

[Lonny]

I got same response. Dealers are not prepared for this.

My service department guys told me they wished that GM hadn’t issued the recall until they were actually ready to DO something.

I was also told the dealer had already seen a number of blown motors.

Does anyone happen to have the link to join the class action lawsuit? And should I go ahead and change out the oil for 0W-40 on my own since GM could take months and months?

 

[Jocko PDX]

I wonder if this mess is enough to sink GM

 

[jfoj]

Understand this 0W40 is speced for the Corvette and the Camero with the same basic engine. I think the Camero lists 5W30 if 0W40 is not available. The LV3 4.3l V8 with AFM specs 5W30 engine oil. Understand 0W20 was never spec'ed because these engines needed it, it was spec'ed for these vehicles and almost everything the early 2010's on due to CAFE requirements.

So the 0W20, 5W30 or 0W40 is not going to cause problems.

The problem with 0W20 is fuel dilution thins it out to probably a 0W10 or lower depending on the situation. The L87 6.2l was recalled because either GM found out that the clearances were too great in the engine for some reason or they expected premature wear made the bearing clearances slightly larger or they have finally come to the realization that 0W20 engine oil that is fuel diluted and under great stress as not holding an oil wedge to properly distribute oil around the journals and have a thick enough oil film to protect the engine.

So does the Recall with swapping out 0W40 for 0W20 solve or correct anything, probably not. It may just keep some of these motors alive that have not seized up yet. Might give more of a safety margin for fuel diluted oil. May help if the engineers figured out the oil clearances at time of assembly were larger than anticipated.

I had oil analysis done on my 3 oil drains so for. 544 miles, 3,388 miles and 5,923 miles.
The common denominator was between 0.5% and 1.0% fuel in the oil. On the surface everyone would say, that's fine, that's normal, not a big deal. But you need to understand the big picture. Most of my driving is starting the engine and drive between 2-6 hours straight. If I do any town driving, where I live and where I go, I usually drive at least 30-45 minutes round trip without much of a stopping time. Pretty much ideal driving conditions. Then take the low mile oil change intervals of between 544 and 2,940 miles. Extrapolate out a bit, assume 7,500 OCI then I would likely be in range of 2.5% fuel contamination. AND this is under about as ideal driving conditions as you could expect. What would the fuel percentage be in the oil with 10-20 starts a days, short drives, Auto Stop/Start functioning, DFM fully functional?? Who knows, but 0W20 at the end of its life would probably not be a very good lubricant. It would be nice to see an oil analysis on a few of these 6.2l with 7,500 mile oil changes that do not operate under ideal circumstances to see what level of fuel is in he oil.

Anyway I expect that the "Recall" may be still be getting tweaks with exact wording. At last check the NHTSA has not published the "official" Recall document. Maybe GM is still "Negotiating" with NHTSA about what is the correct solution. NHTSA does not want to see any more vehicles have their engines seize at 60-75 MPH, they may want GM to replace engines, but GM will push back with what they see as a far cheaper and easier solution.

We shall see how all this pans out in the next week or so.

 

[jfoj]

I wonder if this mess is enough to sink GM

It will clearly sting. We want and need GM to stay alive to support these $75k-$120k vehicles for years to come. This means parts/hardware and SOFTWARE!!!

If they sink, with our luck the Chinese would buy them!

 

[cornicekurt]

Looks like they are not technically recalling all engines but rather, doing an analysis to see if an engine qualifies for replacement. Either way good to see them following up with an acknowledgment of the issues. The annoying part for me is if this is progressive damage from using the wrong oil viscosity, then the damage is done to most engines and all should be replaced.

I agree. Doubling the weight of the oil in an engine that was specifically designed to operate with the lighter oil seems like a dart toss.

 

[Stbentoak]

My service department guys told me they wished that GM hadn’t issued the recall until they were actually ready to DO something.

I was also told the dealer had already seen a number of blown motors.

Does anyone happen to have the link to join the class action lawsuit? And should I go ahead and change out the oil for 0W-40 on my own since GM could take months and months?

I deal with 3 dealers in IN and FL ....all of them had these engine failures/lifters happening and customers waiting for engines well over 24 months ago, some waiting for multiple months for replacements to show up. The only thing this recall really did is rip off the band-aid on a long-standing issue that GM has been sweeping under the rug.

 

[KMeloney]

Doubling the weight of the oil in an engine that was specifically designed to operate with the lighter oil seems like a dart toss.

Just don't know that the bold part is true. It might be, but doesn't sound like it.

 

[cornicekurt]

Understand this 0W40 is speced for the Corvette and the Camero with the same basic engine. I think the Camero lists 5W30 if 0W40 is not available. The LV3 4.3l V8 with AFM specs 5W30 engine oil. Understand 0W20 was never spec'ed because these engines needed it, it was spec'ed for these vehicles and almost everything the early 2010's on due to CAFE requirements.

So the 0W20, 5W30 or 0W40 is not going to cause problems.

The problem with 0W20 is fuel dilution thins it out to probably a 0W10 or lower depending on the situation. The L87 6.2l was recalled because either GM found out that the clearances were too great in the engine for some reason or they expected premature wear made the bearing clearances slightly larger or they have finally come to the realization that 0W20 engine oil that is fuel diluted and under great stress as not holding an oil wedge to properly distribute oil around the journals and have a thick enough oil film to protect the engine.

So does the Recall with swapping out 0W40 for 0W20 solve or correct anything, probably not. It may just keep some of these motors alive that have not seized up yet. Might give more of a safety margin for fuel diluted oil. May help if the engineers figured out the oil clearances at time of assembly were larger than anticipated.

I had oil analysis done on my 3 oil drains so for. 544 miles, 3,388 miles and 5,923 miles.
The common denominator was between 0.5% and 1.0% fuel in the oil. On the surface everyone would say, that's fine, that's normal, not a big deal. But you need to understand the big picture. Most of my driving is starting the engine and drive between 2-6 hours straight. If I do any town driving, where I live and where I go, I usually drive at least 30-45 minutes round trip without much of a stopping time. Pretty much ideal driving conditions. Then take the low mile oil change intervals of between 544 and 2,940 miles. Extrapolate out a bit, assume 7,500 OCI then I would likely be in range of 2.5% fuel contamination. AND this is under about as ideal driving conditions as you could expect. What would the fuel percentage be in the oil with 10-20 starts a days, short drives, Auto Stop/Start functioning, DFM fully functional?? Who knows, but 0W20 at the end of its life would probably not be a very good lubricant. It would be nice to see an oil analysis on a few of these 6.2l with 7,500 mile oil changes that do not operate under ideal circumstances to see what level of fuel is in he oil.

Anyway I expect that the "Recall" may be still be getting tweaks with exact wording. At last check the NHTSA has not published the "official" Recall document. Maybe GM is still "Negotiating" with NHTSA about what is the correct solution. NHTSA does not want to see any more vehicles have their engines seize at 60-75 MPH, they may want GM to replace engines, but GM will push back so

Agreed. Need some additional protection beyond current 60k powertrain

Exactly! You’re not selling me a car for 80k that you know may have a bad motor then at 70k the engine blows up so I get to kick rocks?

 

[cornicekurt]

GM’s notice of recall states (twice) that the recall should only be performed on vehicles in dealer inventory (only).

Not true. Those on the lot can’t be sold. Those on the road are under recall.