General Motors recalled almost 600,000 pickup trucks and SUVs in the US for engine issues. If that weren’t enough, a lawsuit alleges that GM’s handling of the engine recall is all-around insufficient. 

General Motors’ recall of L87 engines names a ‘higher viscosity oil’ as the primary remedy

General Motors, one of the largest automakers in the country, issued a recall for several popular pickup trucks and SUVs. The issue? It’s the 6.2L L87 V8 in favorites like the Chevrolet Silverado, GMC Sierra, Chevrolet Tahoe, and Cadillac Escalade.

According to the GM recall, service centers will look for a P0016 code, which indicates that the L87 requires replacement. That dramatic remedy may apply to around 3% the vehicles named in the notice.

As for the other pickup trucks and SUVs, GM says it will drain the L87 of oil and replace it with “higher viscosity oil.” Along with a new oil reservoir fill cap and oil filter, that’s the entire remedy, per Car Complaints.

A class action lawsuit asserts that GM’s fix is too little, too late

Needless to say, owners aren’t happy with the fixes. So much so that they entered into a class action lawsuit with Almeida Law Group LLC.

The lawsuit alleges that GM’s remedies are insufficient at any level. “GM’s remedies are inadequate for several reasons. In the vast majority of cases—97%, as estimated by the NHTSA—the remedy is merely an instruction to use a higher viscosity oil. But inserting a higher viscosity oil does nothing to remedy the out-of-specification crankshaft dimensions and surface finish.”

What’s more, the lawsuit points out that, when GM replaces the engines, it’s with the same “defective” L87. “GM has announced that in the very few cases where the engine of a Class Vehicle will be replaced, GM will simply replace the defective L87 Engine with the same type of defective engine, an L87 Engine.”

“This is by no means an actual remedy to a serious and potentially deadly engine defect affecting hundreds of thousands of consumers.” Here’s a list of the impacted vehicles: