FCA Trucks with Cummins 6.7L Turbodiesel Engines Class Action

FCA US, LLC has been making heavy-duty trucks equipped with 6.7-liter Cummins turbodiesel engines. However, the fuel pump for these vehicles, the Bosch CP4, “has a fragile and unstable design,” says the complaint for this class action. According to the complaint, the metal parts run against each other, eventually producing metal shavings that get into the rest of the fuel system and cause catastrophic engine failure. Two other defendants are named in this complaint: Stellantis NV, the parent company of FCA, and Cummins, Inc., the maker of the motors.

The Nationwide Class for this action is all persons or entities who bought or leased a class vehicle. Illinois and Texas Subclasses have also been proposed, for those who bought a class vehicle in those states. The class vehicles are 2018-2020 heavy-duty diesel trucks equipped with 6.7L engines and CP4 fuel pumps.

The National Highway Safety Traffic Administration (NHTSA) opened an investigation into 2019-2020 Ram diesel trucks with the CP4 fuel pump. Its Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) cited reports “noting power loss, mostly while traveling above 25 MPH. Not only did the truck stall at speed according to these reports, [] the incidents resulted in ‘permanent disablement of the vehicle.’”

The complaint calls the vehicles “ticking ‘time bomb[s]’” because, it claims, “as the Defendants were aware, Bosch’s CP4 pump design is particularly incompatible with American diesel fuel. The CP4 pump’s fragile design is not built to withstand U.S diesel fuel specifications in terms of lubrication or water content.”

What’s the problem? The complaint alleges, “The CP4 pump uses the fuel itself for lubrication… If the fuel used with the CP4 pump is not sufficiently lubricious—which most U.S. diesel fuel is not—the cam and rollers wear against each other and generate tiny metal shavings that disperse through the high-pressure fuel injection system.”

The movement of these metal shavings through the system, the complaint claims, “is catastrophic, as it eventually causes the fuel injectors to become blocked and leads to an entire shutdown of the engine.” Not only is repair expensive, the complaint says, it is “futile because it will not actually fix the issue so long as the vehicle is being filled with U.S. diesel fuel.”

The complaint alleges that FCA and the other defendants knew about this problem but did not warn consumers. In addition, the complaint claims that when the problem does occur, FCA blames it on “contaminated fuel,” which is not covered under the warranty. This is a problem, the complaint alleges, in that consumers have no way to determine the quality of fuel they buy or whether it conforms to any particular specification.

The vehicles are expensive, costing between $40,000 and $80,000, because they are expected to last for between 500,000 and 800,000 miles.

Article Type: Lawsuit
Topic: Automobile
Tags: Defective Automobile, Fuel Pumps