GM Stinks

Frank Williams
by Frank Williams

Well, at least that's the opinion of passersby at the St Catharines Powertrain Plant in Ontario. The Standard reports the Ontario Ministry of the Environment and General Motors both received "quite a few" calls from residents near the plant complaining about a "musty burnt smell" emanating from the facility that could be detected several blocks from the factory. Eventually they found the source: "90,000 litres of mouldy lubricating oil" that circulates through some of the equipment. Although the lubricating system wasn't leaking, it is vented, releasing the pungent odor. GM plans to replace the infected lubricant post haste.

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  • Luther Luther on Oct 26, 2007

    A malfunction in GM's oil life monitor system? Maybe the manual should state to change the oil when the oil life monitor is at 0% or whenever you smell mold.

  • Sajeev Mehta Sajeev Mehta on Oct 26, 2007

    Too bad the facility isn't equipped with OnStar.

  • Gentle Ted Gentle Ted on Oct 26, 2007

    Its been said that the GM built Equinox "stinks" too, a odd combination of plastic and pole cat flows from the rear of the Cabin according to the "Lemon Aid Guide"

  • Rtx Rtx on Oct 28, 2007

    I worked in a machine shop where we had the same problem every Monday morning......mold in the coolant tanks which had been sitting all weekend. The problem was solved when one of the maintenance crew went to the health nurse and got a bottle of Dettol. It's a disinfectant used on cuts and scratches. We dumped a bottle of this stuff in each coolant tank and the problem disappeared overnight. From then on we treated the coolant tanks each Friday with the Dettol and on Monday the tanks were clear of mold and other then the slight odor of disinfectant when the coolant started to circulate the problem was solved.

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