frankycjr

What is : GM Smart Care plan issued, extending warranty on listed engine components to Did you have to pay for it or did GM add that in ?? If Gm added that I need to talk to me dealer

GM did not want to replace Piston and Rings at first with my vehicle, I aksed the service manager to go back to district manager and explain to them that since they were partially tearing down my engine anyways and that I wanted to minimize the number of times the engine was taken apart that I was requesting everything to be done at one time. I also insisted that it was a known fact that the piston and rings would need to be changed and that a cleaning with fluid sitting at the top of the piston was just a waste of time. I had to wait a few weeks but they finally came to their senses and agreed to do it the correct way. I was ready to call GM corporate myself and fiel BBB complaints if they did not do eveyrthing at one time. I'm lucky in that the dealer I go to does do very good work, but not everyone is so lucky. in the end if you can get them to do it all at once you'll be much better off for it. I also changed filter and oil after about the first 500 miles jsut to make sure no metal pieces would get circulated through.

I'm not sure I can say it's completely fixed yet, since I've only put a small amount of miles on the engine so far. I will say my dealer was very helpful in getting GM to approve to do ALL the fixes at one time and not piece meal it. I also need to change the plugs as well since they were dirty. The dealer did clean them, but I want new.

It's been a while since I updated my status. I've had new lifters, pistons, rings, valve cover and umbrella installed on my 09 Crew Cab. I've since put about 6000 miles on the engine. the oil was down one dimple on the dipstick. Now since this is regular oil it may be normal usage not sure. I plan on switching over to Mobil 1 in the next few days and will monitor things from there. I will also not that my MPG went from around 14.5 to about 16 . I'll have a much better reading on that once we hit summer and I don;t have the truck warming up all the time.

I've put about 4k miles on it so far, not a drop of oil burned, my MPG is at around 15.5 according to the DIC and I've calculated closer to 16MPG by hand as I track how muhc gas I pump into the truck. It did take lots of time to get GM to do the right thing. The truck runs great now, now I just need to replace a lower tranny line and a lower oil cooler line as they are both seeping fluid

I received a copy of the work slip, and noticed a few things of note. One was that along with the new valve cover they also installed an oil regulator cover along with the oil pan deflector. All my spark plugs did have some oil film on them, the dealer cleaned them and did not replace them, I wish they had replaced them since I will do it myself now. After about a tank and half of gas my MPG has increased from 13.6 to about 15.7 according to the DIC. I'll have real number on my next fillup. I expect to be doing an oil change this week just to be sure that any metal shavings and assembly lube are removed from the engine. All in all very happy so far with the engine.

Go my truck back yesterday. The Service manager agreed with me about changing the oil after about 500 miles to make sure any metal shavings are taken out of the system. He suggested switching to synthetic at around 5000 miles to allow everything to break in properly. So far the truck is running better than ever. There were some minor drive ability issues that were corrected with the new valve cover and cleaning of the intake. When stopping completely there was a slight engine racing condition that is gone, when taking left turn from climbing a hill there was a dead spot when I went to apply the gas pedal that is gone. Climbing hills there was a condition where the engine had a slight sputter that you could feel, that is no longer there. Overall I am very happy with what the dealer has done and the way it is driving. All the gauges are reading nice and normal with nothing spiking. I am considering changing the plugs, but have not decided yet on that. Any one used the Bosch Platinum plugs with the 4 prong open design ?? If so did you notice any increase in gas mileage ? I don't have the paperwork from the dealer yet that details all the work, but will have it by Friday.

Should be getting back my truck today. Looking forward to taking it for a nice drive. I'll send out updates as I get some miles on the truck

I always make them give me a similar truck to mine to drive when they have mine in the shop. I've considered turning off the AFM, but will probably wait until Warranty has expired first. Enjoy the ride on the bike

My truck goes in Monday to get everything done. Hopefully I have back by Friday, but I want it done right more than having it back quickly

I'm getting about the same MPG with my 5.3 right now, I'm really hoping with the fixes for the oil burn problem my MPG goes up. My 1999 Silverado ext cab got 15MPG on average for the 13 years I owned it and that also had the 5.3 engine, but only a 4spd tranny and 3.73 gears in the rear. I may have to bite the bullet and get 17" rims and run a narrower tire to get my MPG back, and get better snow traction as well.

That's a good point @Wolfmanjohn, so I'll still change the oil after 1000 miles, I'll just use conventional oil and ask the dealership when I can make the switch to Synthetic. What kind of MPG's do you get with your truck, mine is almost exactly the same except that it has the chrome clad 22" rims

Just heard back from my Service Manager at the dealership, and GM is going to pay for the replacement of the piston and rings as well. They are ordering the parts and will have me drop the truck off once they all have arrived. It's taken a while, but the dealership did a great job in diagnosing the problem and getting GM's buy in to do things right the first time. Once I get the truck back I'll run it for about 1000 miles and switch it over to Synthetic. I'm hoping my MPG goes up as well.

I have seen this document. In my case GM is replacing the lifters so the engine is being torn down anyways. On top of that, putting a cleaning solution on the top of the pistons is not going to clean the oil control rings. The first 2 rings should keep 90% of the cleaning fluid on top of the piston. I prefer for this to be done right, and the right way is to replace the piston and rings with the other fixes so that the issue is completely resolved. Plus how does the oil being consumed and burned affect the fuel injectors, O2 sensors, spark plugs and catalytic converters ?

@service1956 which TSB do the dealers now have and what are they required to do ??I'm still waiting to hear back from the Service Manager whether GM has agreed to replace the piston and rings as I have demanded, in a nice way Can you provide a copy of the TSB or the TSB number ? Thanks Frank

I was at my dealer last week for another oil reading. They have agreed to add the umbrella to the oil pan valve and to replace the valve cover. The also have to replace my lifters. I explained to the manager that they needed to replace the piston and tings as well. Manager has opened a case with GM to attempt to get permission to replace the piston and rings under warranty. I just don't see how putting cleaner on the top end of the piston is going to clean the carbon and oil buildup on the oil control rings. I'm betting I'm going to end up having to call GM corporate with the case number to push them into doing the right thing for me. Plus how do you test to make sure the catalytic converters, O2 sensors, and fuel injectors have not been clogged or damaged by the burning if the oil ? Lots of questions, but not a lot of answers at this point, but progress is being made.

@shortyb I had a 99 silverado extended cab with the 5.3 v8, 4spd and 3.73 rear. At around the 200000 mile mark it also started using a bit oil, probably about a quart every 6000 miles. I ran Mobil 1 in that truck from the first oil change. I change the only around every 10k miles, and I had almost no problems with the truck. It got 15mpg from the day I bought it new, till the day I sold it with a blown tranny. I would have fixed it but my little kids weren't so little anymore and a Crew Cab seemed a better fit for us. I had expected slightly better mpg from the crew cab since it has the 6spd and 3.42 gears and the afm and it should just be more efficient. Seems to me the car makers are just making the engines more complicated without any real efficiency gains. The winners in all this are the lobbyists and politicians and parts suppliers who all get a cut of the action.

@JCFitter51 I would call the dealership manager and tell then you want to sit down with GM district Rep, you should NOT be paying for that test. Record the meeting and tell them both you consider this to be a defective engine. What kind of gas mileage are you getting ?? Explain to them nicely but firmly that if it does not get resolved, you will go to your attorney general and local news stations. But be ready to play hardball with them, they need to know you will make things very uncomfortable for them with bad publicity. More than likely they will fix the problem, and if after 3 tries it's not fixed, I'd invoke the lemon law and make them give you a new truck. The amount of oil burned should be extremely negligible in most vehicles. We're still doing my consumption test now, but my dealer so far has seemed very responsive. I've also recently given him a spreadsheet of my mileage for the past year showing that I am not even averaging 13mpg which is ludicrous for a truck that from GM should get much better then that. From what I've read here a GM Crew Cab with 5.3l v8 with a 6spd and 3.42 gears should average between 15-18 overall. Good luck

I went in for my first reading and am down 3/4 of a quart after about 1500 miles. We're going to do another 1 or 2 readings and decide how to move forward from there. I also gave the service manager a copy of a spreadsheet that I use to track what kind of MPG I'm really getting. I calculate 2 sets one from the DIC and one from readings from the Trip and the pump. The DIC calculations have me getting 12.39 mpg and hand calculating show me getting 12.83 mpg. I consider this to be extremely low my 1999 extended cab Silverado with a 5.3, 4 spd, 3.73 rear got on average 15 mpg even after 200,000 miles. I was expecting to be getting around 16 mpg with the newer truck. 2009 Crew Cab 5.3, 6 spd and 3.42 rear and traction control. The new truck is also running 20 inch 275 tires where as the 99 was running 17 255 tires. My driving is basically putzing around town here and there and every few weeks a 80 mile roundtrip highway run. I don't get on it very much most of the time. I can't figure out if the tires are making me take a hit on mpg and if the traction control could be also contributing to my crummy MPG. Any one burning oil and having lifter noise notice crummy mpg ??

Finally got some time to get to the dealership and we have adjusted the oil level so that it is now right at the top of the cross hatch and also covering the top dimple. We now have a known good baseline to start the oil consumption test. Now we'll see if the truck continues to use oil at the same rate as before.

Got my truck back from the dealer to start consumption test. At dealership I checked oil and it was way past hash mark, they took it in and gave it back saying it was all set. It's been sitting in my driveway for a few hours now. My driveway is not quite level so the nose is slightly higher than back. In checking the oil again it is still about a quart past hash mark. So I'm going to take a picture with my cell shortly and contact the Service Manager. Seems like GM is trying to prevent having to do a full workover of the vehicle. Frank

RyanbabZ71, According to the Service Manager my intermittent hesitation could be form the PCV valve getting oil into it. I don't know if I buy that yet, but I need to be able to get them to reproduce the issue which is a bit tough on this one. It was just one of the things I needed to have looked at by my dealer. Overall I love the truck, but really think my gas milage is a bit low. I had a 1999 silverado Extended cab with the 5.3 and 4 speed tranny and 3.71 rear and even with 200000+ miles was still getting around 16mpg. My only complaint about the 1999 was the Tranny, which blew at 213k and that the extended cab became a bit small for my 2 kids in the back. I keep thinking that if I swapped out my 20" rims and the 275/50/r20 tires with a set of 17" rims and 255/75/r17 tires that I would get much better mpg, but I have nothing to prove it one way or the other. I will probably get a pair of Aluminum 17" rims this summer off of Ebay as I do prefer the look of those rims better than my 20" rims. Thanks Frank

Sixathome, What are your MPG before and after tune ??? I'm averaging 14 MPG with GM 20inch tires 275/15/r20 Thanks Frank

I've got a 2009 Silverado 1500 CC with the 5.3 Aluminum block\ and AFM I've got the noisy lifters issue. Used 3 qts of oil starting from an oil change at 42000 miles until the other day when I brought it back to the dealer. Getting a crummy 14mpg in mixed drivng with it leaning more towards highway driving. Some hesitation a times after letting off the gas and getting back on it a little. My dealer has been great so far, they have acknowledged the lifter noise as being an issue. He is going to start an oil consumption test, but with the truck at 49000 miles right now, it should not use any oil at all between oil changes. We will be starting the oil consumption test tomorrow, and I am going to go over the TSB's for the truck with the dealer to find out which ones may be applicable. We both have the goal of wanting to do any teardowns only once. I am hopefull that they will implement all the TSB's for the lifters and oil usage during this teardown. How many of you guys were given new engines after having everything replaced failed ? If you're engine was replaced what kind of warranty did you get on that engine ? Has anyone noticed any difference in the MPG they are getting once the consumption issue had been fixed ? When GM extended the Power Train Warranty how long or how many miles did the extend it by ? Thanks Frank