The controversy led to massive class-action lawsuits where GM eventually settled, offering hundreds of dollars in reimbursements to affected owners.
The story took a dark turn in the early 2000s when thousands of GM owners began discovering a thick, brown, mud-like substance—dubbed ""—clogging their radiators and eating through intake manifold gaskets. The technical culprit was often a combination of factors:
In the mid-1990s, General Motors introduced , an orange-colored "miracle" coolant promised to last five years or 150,000 miles —vastly outperforming the two-year lifespan of traditional green coolant. It was a revolutionary step toward lower vehicle maintenance, but it quickly became the center of a decade-long automotive drama. The Rise and the "Sludge" Scandal