My understanding is the lifters collapse to obtain 4 cy. mode and when the get gummy from poor oil they get stuck in the collapsed mode. My dad runs the gm specified oil, I have run royal purple.
This is precisely what I was told when my wife’s 6.2 grenaded in October.
What afm delete did you go with.
I put a edge pulsar tune in my ram been running that the last 100k. Now debating what to put in our tahoe
You really can’t go wrong with the Range AFM device. Plug and play, no tuning, etc. If all you want to do is disable AFM with no strings attached this is your best bet.
I run a black bear performance tune in my 2016 silverado, and they disabled AFM, tuned the ECM specifically for 91+, and running a modified trans tune (Trans has it’s own TCM on 2014+ Gm’s, separate from the ECM). I like mine and when I run corn it really puts down some power.
Wife’s Tahoe remains stock to this day, but she hardly drives it. 70k miles no issues with AFM.
So what I’m trying to understand is Chevy has had issues with this afm for years and has not yet addressed the problem? And yet people keep purchasing a flawed product?
So what I’m trying to understand is Chevy has had issues with this afm for years and has not yet addressed the problem? And yet people keep purchasing a flawed product?
A VERY small proportion of people have problems. Ford hasnt done anything about the issues with the ecoboost and those were far more prevalent.
So what I’m trying to understand is Chevy has had issues with this afm for years and has not yet addressed the problem? And yet people keep purchasing a flawed product?
Old habits die hard. Also, to varying degrees, every manufacturer has problems. you got about 4 or 5 trucks to choose from depending on your needs. gotta pick one
So what I’m trying to understand is Chevy has had issues with this afm for years and has not yet addressed the problem? And yet people keep purchasing a flawed product?
Not exactly. There were issues in the original 2007-2013 5.3L engines for a few reasons. This usually starts with excessive oil consumption and ends with collapsed lifters. The 2014-2019 L83 engine has been modified quite a bit to address these issues and failure rate is much, much lower. It’s an entirely different engine and although the AFM operates similarly, changes were made. Now with 2019+, they have introduced DFM which takes things a step further and can drop down, I believe, to the point of running on a single cylinder. I have no idea how the new 5.3 holds up with DFM, but now with 3 years’ worth of sales reliability data should be flowing in.
However, for people like myself who want full peace of mind and don’t mind sacrificing 1-2 mpg, simply disabling the cylinder deactivation achieves that goal. I’ve seen my fair share of fords and rams having to get towed, and I’ve got some wheel time with a nissan titan which was a complete rattle box. All of these trucks have their strong and weak points. I’ve got a total of 540,000 miles on 3 GM trucks with no engine or trans failures to speak of so I am satisfied with the product as it reliably meets my needs.
I nearly ended up with a 2018 coyote F-150, which had a lot of great features and certainly produced great MPG’s for a v8 without cylinder deactivation. But for me I dislike Ford’s interiors unless you jump into a king ranch or platinum, but the price tag is too high for my taste. With GM I can get lightly used LTZ trim trucks for decent prices and so I choose to stick with them.
Well I guess I’d eliminate the afm myself if I were to purchase one, unless I had a good warranty. Not a cheap fix if all goes south with this design or significant oil consumption. You’d think after all these years they’d have figured out the issue completely by now?
Well I guess I’d eliminate the afm myself if I were to purchase one, unless I had a good warranty. Not a cheap fix if all goes south with this design or significant oil consumption. You’d think after all these years they’d have figured out the issue completely by now?
Can you completely control how people maintain their vehicles? Most of the issue is caused due to long oil change intervals because people just change oil based on the gauge telling them to do so. They’ve issued bulletins to reprogram this but not everyone goes in and just keep driving.
<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>John Timm wrote:</div>
Well I guess I’d eliminate the afm myself if I were to purchase one, unless I had a good warranty. Not a cheap fix if all goes south with this design or significant oil consumption. You’d think after all these years they’d have figured out the issue completely by now?Can you completely control how people maintain their vehicles? Most of the issue is caused due to long oil change intervals because people just change oil based on the gauge telling them to do so. They’ve issued bulletins to reprogram this but not everyone goes in and just keep driving.
Just put of curiosity, what is the new recommended change interval?
It was over 6000 miles now they changed it to 5000. Of course you have to use the dexos oil.
7500 was old and what the monitor is set for. Also takes 8 quarts.
Can you completely control how people maintain their vehicles? Most of the issue is caused due to long oil change intervals because people just change oil based on the gauge telling them to do so. They’ve issued bulletins to reprogram this but not everyone goes in and just keep driving.
Sounds like gm needs to issue a recall or a service bulletin? If people are relying on Chevys oil monitoring system and they already have a problem with the fuel management. Compounds to a major problem if people don’t get there oil changed in the right time? And as I’ve noticed it’s been an issue for years!
I know as many ecoboosts that went to helll as AFMs. Are there disablers for those? I’m not singling out ford, just with vehicles it’s pick your poison afaic. 5.3l vortex is a good engine, if I can easily buy something to get rid of all the fancy crap the government wants an engine to do then I’m on it especially if it’s not actually doing all the fancy stuff our government wants it to do.
Have fun arguing about it tho. 
I go 10,000 miles between full changes. Using a fully synthetic oil and the best possible filter money can buy (for my application, purolator boss PBL22500 is my favorite), I drain my oil after 5k and refill but leave the filter alone. I use a fumoto valve which turns this into a no-mess, 10 minute job. I use Costco’s oil as it has shown to be good in independent testing, although it’s likely not the very best. I believe Penzoil Platinum was the best according to project farm’s youtube testing.
I love changing my oil right when winter starts and not having to get under the truck until March. Wife’s Tahoe could be done once a year but I do it twice anyway- beginning of summer and right when winter sets in.
My buddy just had a 2019 tahoe munch the entire valve train including the cam. He was deployed for 9 months and his wife drove it with a ticking noise for about 6 of those months without saying anything about it. By the time he got home it had ground cam lobes down to nothing and contaminated the whole engine. Warranty rebuild and he sold it asap as they didn’t rebearing the bottom end and you know that thing was full of embedded hard particles. So I can confidently say they haven’t fixed the valve train problems on the newer 5.3’s. He only used mobil 1 full synthetic and changed every 5k miles. Dealership tried to get warranty denied because he didn’t have them change oil and he had to take his buckets of used oil to the ship to show he actually changes it lol. GM does a great job of acting like its a maintenance problem when its actually a design and quality problem.
I had a 2014 6.2l grenade the #5 cylinder at 73k. It was 92 days out of the drive-train warranty period, but well under mileage window. Was in middle of nowhere Montana with wife and kids in car. Had to fight with GM tooth and nail for something as it is. After dozens of calls and arguments, we got 1/3 of the 10k covered. Better than a sharp stick in eye, but certainly nothing special. Dealership that fixed in in Billings didn’t have a comparable truck to sell me and wouldn’t give me what it was worth anyway as they knew I was “in a jam”. Thank fully the lead tech in the shop was decent guy. They “happened” to have a crate motor on the shelf and had it put back together so I could at least drive it home. Best kicker of all was I smoked a deer at 11 at night in Jamestown on way home, took out whole drivers side. After I made sure everyone was ok inside, I cut the airbags out, inspected the drive ability and drove the thing home. Insurance wouldn’t total it. Nightmare to say the least.
The warranty just expired on the rebuild crate motor, so now I am debating what to do with this AFM system as I know that was the issue that caused it, but they would never admit to it naturally. I have to drive it for the next few years, and I like the truck, but GM not so much. 2-400 bucks to delete the thing and not have to worry about it may be my best bet.
Good thread to read other peoples issues, and interesting that its still happening on units as new as 2019. Unreal
I vowed to not own another one, but the 3.0l duramax may have my attention in a few years. Guess we will see.
Good thread to read other peoples issues, and interesting that its still happening on units as new as 2019. Unreal
I vowed to not own another one, but the 3.0l duramax may have my attention in a few years. Guess we will see.
Its much more rare on models 2014 and newer and even rarer on 2019 and newer. A buddy just got a 21 baby duramax and absolutely loves it. Thing is so dang quiet you wouldnt believe it. His dad lives in SD and he visited him recently and averaged 31MPG.
<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>John Timm wrote:</div>
So what I’m trying to understand is Chevy has had issues with this afm for years and has not yet addressed the problem? And yet people keep purchasing a flawed product?A VERY small proportion of people have problems. Ford hasnt done anything about the issues with the ecoboost and those were far more prevalent.
This is not accurate, Ford made significant improvements to the gen 1 ecoboosts (’11-’14) and they are much more reliable today. Same goes for Chevy with the AFM, the early models had much higher failure rates than their current offerings.
Question for Bearcat,
Did you get the Edge Pulsar LT unit? or which one did you add to your Ram? The ones in my price range that seem to be good are the diablosport predator 2 or that Edge Pulsar LT. I like that idea of the Edge one as it uses the steering wheel for the controler on my Denali, and it runs stealth.
Thanks!
I hated the stumble from 4 to 8 cylinders in my 2010 silverado driving in town. Put in a cheap afm blocker. No stumble and better mileage. No lifter issues but it fouled the spark plugs that were disabled at 50,000 miles! Probably getting one for the Tahoe too!
Question for Bearcat,
Did you get the Edge Pulsar LT unit? or which one did you add to your Ram? The ones in my price range that seem to be good are the diablosport predator 2 or that Edge Pulsar LT. I like that idea of the Edge one as it uses the steering wheel for the controler on my Denali, and it runs stealth.
Thanks!
This is the one I have
My neighbor has new GMC with motor rebuilt twice. My other neighbor just bought a new 2022 F150. He said they eliminated it this year. Be a good idea till they figure it out. To my Knowledge Dodge also has issues with theirs. Problem when the government mandates technology before the bugs are worked out.
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