2012 1500 Silverado 5.3L Gas Mileage

alstairs · April 11, 2012

I have a brand new LTZ 1500 Silverado with 5.3L engine. I have been really disappointed to date (2 weeks) with the fuel mileage. As a brief test, I tried turning on the 4WD High. The AFM seemed to be on more often, turning the engine into 4Cyl mode. Also, I reset the fuel mileage before doing this, and my average fuel mileage was better.

Is there anyone out there that has seen this, and is there a fix? I could be way off, but it almost seems like a programming error in the AFM. I can't understand why the fuel mileage would be better in 4WD, and the AFM was switching into 4Cyl mode at a noticeably longer period of time. (I checked it on the same stretch of road i drive every day...)

Thanks for any help, this is a great site.

Al

hodo78 · August 3, 2012

I have just over 6k miles on my 2012,and I have been averaging 19.6 mpg on the interstate with cruise set at 70mph, 22 mpg with cruise set at 55. And I average 16-17 overall with 50/50 city / interstate driving.

Truck is stock except for a Borla GMPP touring muffler and a Airaid JR kit with synthamax filter.

I always go through the break in procedure in the manual if that matters.

00Silverado4x4 · April 12, 2012

You need 5000+ miles before worrying about gas mileage. Also if your looking at the DIC for current mileage, you should watch it over a couple of tanks.

Mark

+1

When my truck was new, it wasn't until I hit 10k miles before my mileage stopped going up.

f0st3r · August 3, 2012

I average 16.5mpg in my 2008 CC 5.3 with 3.73's. I drive 60hwy/40city. When my wife was driving my truck, she got about 14.5-15mpg, but she drives 80city/20hwy. I have a lead food, she doesn't.. lol.. But cruising at 60 I get about 21-22mpg, 70 is 19-20mpg depending on the wind.

I had a buddy get one of those new junky v-6 fords, and he was excited when he told me he got 20mpg on the highway.. I said wow, so do I..

z71silverado12 · August 3, 2012

elcamino- MPG is calculated per tank, not a years worth of driving. With that said, the dealerships "Lead Technician" stated that he sees them come in getting 11.7 MPG to 12.5 MPG. I told GM that with MPG like that, there is an issue. I refuse to drive it for an entire year just to find out that the MPG changes from 11.7 to 12.5 as an average. That's just retarded to accept.

76251- And MPG like that sounds exactly where it should be. Where were you at about the 900 mile mark? The fueleconomy.gov website states exactly 17 MPG with a mix of 50/50 city/highway.

I spoke with a GM customer service rep. today and they told me that the shifting issue is a "characteristic" of chevy and they could not duplicate it. So it's a characteristic of chevy and they couldn't duplicate it.....um....so it's there but it's not??? I also showed them a video I made of the remote start not working and they said that "it never happened" or it was something that I was doing....I think that they are trying to hypnotize me in believing their bullsh*t! They couldn't duplicate that and there were no codes in the 24 computers so I am crazy and this never happened. They also said that they would not escalate it to a supervisor because there "Isn't a problem".... I told them that the problems that I am refrencing are charicteristics of chevy and in my eyes are a "problem"!! Especially the fuel mileage that I am getting.

When I do the math; 24 gallon tank getting 15.6 MPG would be 374.4 miles per tank and (with 12,000 a year) that is 32.05 tanks a year, getting 11.7 MPG would be 280.8 miles per tank and that is 42.74 tanks per year. At $84 per tank (gas being $3.50 a gallon) that adds up. That's approx. $897.12 per year extra to drive it the way it sits.

Like I said before, they started the "Love it or Return it" 8 days after I bought it. I "DON'T Love it" and "I want to RETURN it". You'd think that they would somehow honor that instead of pissing of a customer but we will see. Every day that I have to put up with this obviously BAD truck I get angrier and angrier.

hodo78 · August 3, 2012

elcamino- MPG is calculated per tank, not a years worth of driving. With that said, the dealerships "Lead Technician" stated that he sees them come in getting 11.7 MPG to 12.5 MPG. I told GM that with MPG like that, there is an issue. I refuse to drive it for an entire year just to find out that the MPG changes from 11.7 to 12.5 as an average. That's just retarded to accept.

76251- And MPG like that sounds exactly where it should be. Where were you at about the 900 mile mark? The fueleconomy.gov website states exactly 17 MPG with a mix of 50/50 city/highway.

I spoke with a GM customer service rep. today and they told me that the shifting issue is a "characteristic" of chevy and they could not duplicate it. So it's a characteristic of chevy and they couldn't duplicate it.....um....so it's there but it's not??? I also showed them a video I made of the remote start not working and they said that "it never happened" or it was something that I was doing....I think that they are trying to hypnotize me in believing their bullsh*t! They couldn't duplicate that and there were no codes in the 24 computers so I am crazy and this never happened. They also said that they would not escalate it to a supervisor because there "Isn't a problem".... I told them that the problems that I am refrencing are charicteristics of chevy and in my eyes are a "problem"!! Especially the fuel mileage that I am getting.

When I do the math; 24 gallon tank getting 15.6 MPG would be 374.4 miles per tank and (with 12,000 a year) that is 32.05 tanks a year, getting 11.7 MPG would be 280.8 miles per tank and that is 42.74 tanks per year. At $84 per tank (gas being $3.50 a gallon) that adds up. That's approx. $897.12 per year extra to drive it the way it sits.

Like I said before, they started the "Love it or Return it" 8 days after I bought it. I "DON'T Love it" and "I want to RETURN it". You'd think that they would somehow honor that instead of pissing of a customer but we will see. Every day that I have to put up with this obviously BAD truck I get angrier and angrier.

If memory serves me right, I was getting 18.5 - 19 interstate at 70. But I have also added the GMPP muffler & Airaid Jr kit which seemed to help a bit.

gmtech4 · April 12, 2012

omg

jdelrizzle · August 3, 2012

I bought a 4.8 last year and EPA Estimates my fuel economy at 14/19 mpg, I logged all the times I filled up, price, miles driven, blah blah blah, and well I'm averaging about 11 mpg city/short trips. Dic says I'm averaging 14.2 yea right, my point being, DUDE you bought a truck get over it, if it's that bad go get you a little gas saving car.

TimmyG · August 4, 2012

I have 8,000 miles on my 11 i avg 18mpg in the summer low 17 in the winter, due to using the remote starter i think

Sent from my ADR6400L using Tapatalk 2

ruggedlife · August 4, 2012

so...the real question... is how are you driving the truck? I can EASILY drive my truck and get 11mpg and i can EASILY drive my truck to get 15+city (I don't do my highway so I can't include that) set your dic to display the current mpg and watch it while you drive, keep that number as high as possible. try filling up at a different gas station. do you sit in traffic and idle a lot? MPG can not be blamed entirely on the truck...

waumo1 · April 16, 2012

My 2011 5.3L Ext Cab LB 4WD only has 2600 miles but it is reading 15.5 MPG over that distance. We don't have any flat terrain in my state....

z71silverado12 · August 4, 2012

So basically I am hearing from the "5.3L Owners" that most are averaging 15.6 MPG mostly city with a little highway. From my research, that is what I should be getting.

jdelrizzle- DUDE!! I bought a vehicle based off of a lot of things and one important thing was the sticker. If the sticker said it was supposed to get 25 city and 36 highway, would you have made the same statement "...DUDE, you bought a truck....."?? No, we are having this discussion to see what people are getting with their trucks. I am explaining my side and my experience and getting feedback as to what others are getting as far as MPG. You're right I bought a truck and do not expect to get incredible gas mileage, just what was stated at the time of purchase. Thanks for your input.

TimmyG- Thanks for your numbers. That seems to be the average.

ruggedlife- To be honest, I use the remote start in the morning, then I drive straight to daycare to drop off the kids (1 mile) then drive 2.2 miles to get coffee and then 1.2 miles to work. I know that this makes a huge difference but I also then usually drive about 10 miles (straight highway) after work. So that makes it about 60/40.. The place I live is not congested so traffic is usually not a problem. As for driving habits, I am a little bit of a granny driver because its a truck. For what ever reason I tend to be gentler on trucks.

elcamino · August 4, 2012

If you use remote start you are wasting fuel and thats where your mileage is going. You do not need to warm up the truck. Start it, put it in gear and go, any idle time is wasted fuel.

z71silverado12 · August 4, 2012

If you use remote start you are wasting fuel and thats where your mileage is going. You do not need to warm up the truck. Start it, put it in gear and go, any idle time is wasted fuel.

I will try the next couple of weeks without using the remote start and see if things change. Thanks for the idea.

alstairs · April 13, 2012

Thanks everyone.Yes, I only had it on going straight. It looks like 16MPG in 2WD, 18MPG in 4WD. Maybe I'm being too eager to resolve this, and based on above I should give it a little time. I wasn't sure if I was fooling myself in hoping it would get better. Sounds like it may.

z71silverado12 · August 1, 2012

I am new to this forum and found it through a search engine. I am having extremely low gas mileage and wanted to see what you all thought.

I have a 2012 Silverado 5.3L with 850 miles on it. I have gone through 3 tanks of gas and found that I am getting 11.7 MPG. I dropped it off at the dealership yesterday and the lead technician told me that the MPG that I was getting is "average" and it is in fact correct. He said that all of the trucks that come in are getting between 11.5-12.5 and that is what they are supposed to be getting. I basically told him that he was nuts since the window sticker states (as well as fueleconomy.gov) that City 15 MPG and Highway 21 MPG and everyone that I talk to with the same truck is getting 15.8 MPG. I also said that a friend of mine which has a 2010 (without the fuel saving 8cyl to 4cyl shifting thing) and he is getting better MPG than mine. The tech told me that he doesn't believe me....

What do you think about the 11.7 MPG?

Just FYI, I tried to return the truck the second day that I owned it because the transmission or engine is acting funny (shifting hard, downshifting even harder, etc..). I have also had some electrical issues; the remote starter didn't work but would recognize that I was pressing the start button but nothing happened (I have it on video), the door sensor was acting up showing that the driver door was ajar when it was closed (I also have these 2 separate instances on video). I called GM and told them everything as well and they stated that I would have to take it to the dealership.

Oh yeah, 8 days after I bought it GM started the "love it or return it" special!!