Doublebase

The thing I really like about this thread is that you guys are still driving this vehicle and getting your money’s worth out of it. Your last sample was July 28th with 178,800 miles on it, now just a couple weeks later you’re at 181,421. That’s a lot of driving. You’re dealing with a problem and yet managing it enough that you’re able to keep the vehicle and continue extending its service life. Not many people do that. Nice work!

Back pain is the worst, hope you recover soon.. Definitely been one of the hottest summers I can remember, we’ve been in a heat wave where I am for almost a month! Does make driving less fun, but I’ve done a few road trips anyway...heading out today for another. Happy trails! Hope you’re back at it soon!

Oh wow, I thought I had responded to this post, must have hit submit reply and it didn’t submit. Good to hear pepper is still doing very well. I miss the days when you were putting a ton of miles on her. My car life has become boring (which is a good thing). My 2016 Toyota Avalon has just rolled over 100,000 miles with zero issues - and for the first time in my life I just did a 10,000 mile oil change interval...zero makeup up oil, oil analysis came back with less wear metals than a 5,000 mile interval. But it’ll probably be my last, I don’t have the stomach for that (probably back to 5,000-7,000 intervals). I do miss my truck though. Keep on trucking, Grumpy. And good luck with that Terrain! That thing has certainly given you a run for your money.

How many miles on Pepper nowadays? Last I checked you were heading to 150,000? Plan on keeping Pepper to 300,000? I love high mileage stories, especially well documented ones. Hope all is well.

Comman problem, has happened to me and others I personally know. Starter. Change it before it leaves you stranded, like it did to me. Luckily in my own driveway, haha, but it was on July 4th weekend a few years ago.

GM did lie, they always do. My point is, your oil is specified for a GM product, it’s Dexos approved. It should easily be able to do a 5,000 mile interval in a 7,500 recommendation. And that’s the problem. GM lied. They built a product with oil ring returns too small, and tension too light...in a direct injection vehicle to boot!! Their fault. Not yours. Not your oil. GM lies like a rug, always have always will. Their “fix” to their noisy intermediate steering shafts 15 years ago was for us (I used to work on GM’s) to remove the shaft and stroke it 15 times, which in theory moves the wax around, and then reinstall. Customer would be back three weeks later. They were the ones getting stroked. Finally GM bit the bullet and replaced the shafts. It’s what they do. Lie, cut corners. When I mentioned the Redline and Amsoil, I was picturing you trying to fix this problem with a boutique oil, on short intervals. Or prevent this problem, I should say. And maybe it would. It would also cost you over the life of a vehicle almost as much as a new engine, compared to being able to do a 7,500 mile intervals on a dexos licensed oil (which GM is telling/lying to customers that it can do/should do). Engine life to 200,000 miles x oil changes every 2,000 miles x using Amsoil at $80 bucks x 100 oil changes = $8,000 dollars. VS $810 bucks doing 7,500 mile intervals using Quaker State Ultimate Durability over the course of 200,000 miles. I probably screwed that math up a bit. Give or take a few hundred. But if GM didn’t lie and screw this up, that’s what one should reasonably expect out of a an engine. 200,000 miles, 7,500 mile intervals, using an off the shelf readily available licensed Dexos approved oil and filter.

So, you’re blaming your maintenance plan? I would think most engines wouldn’t need 2,500 mile oil changes using an oil like Amsoil or Redline, just to keep it from ruining itself before 100,000 miles, no? Unless there’s an inherent problem associated with the rings or piston itself. 5,000 miles seems like more than reasonable to me based off that it’s shorter than 90% of the manufacturer recommended intervals out there nowadays. I guess what I’m saying is, 2,500 mile intervals might prevent the engine from failing, but it shouldn’t have to. IMO

Yeah I did notice where the wear was. He’s shown a few other videos similar. Toyota recommends 10,000 intervals on their vehicles now, been that way for a while. Obviously that’s open for debate. Lol. If that weren't a direct injection engine I imagine things would have went south maybe a little quicker. Then again there is the camp that just say this is not the oil, or interval, it’s simply a design flaw and there is nothing that will prevent it (just luck). And there’s plenty of people running around nowadays doing extended drains to maybe prove that. But it depends on the engine. Good luck! Keep up the good work. I hate it when things go south and you’re stuck there trying to come up with solutions. And they sometimes don’t work (or they do). Dealing with a chimney situation at home right now (with me trying to figure why the thing is weeping into the attic wall. Hasn’t been fun…and it’s cost me a lot of money. I thought when you had 7 ppm of iron on a short interval that something was amiss with those rings and cylinder wall. And with low, to non existent other metals. I bet your engine looks great outside those cylinders.

It looks like your rings are shot, and when I say shot, I don’t necessarily mean “worn”, I’m saying they are stuck in their lands, can’t expand like they’re supposed to and because of THAT they are allowing blow by and they may have also done a little bit of wear directly on to a cylinder wall (or two). Unfortunately this is something I’m seeing with low tension, direct injected engines. Toyota had a problem with this, there have been many others. The blow by is leading to fuel dilution, and oil consumption. I imagine you’re getting oil tracking up into your intake as well. Those rings just can’t expand and break through the carbon/soot that is building up on the sides of the pistons. And the rings are stuck. Sometimes a treatment can free them up, but usually not. When these things get stuck they’re tough to move even if you can get your hands on them and pull them out. This guy explains it pretty well on a Toyota. https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwiqp4H39p_2AhXejIkEHXf1A-8QwqsBegQIAhAB&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3Dh6XnNAfQ904&usg=AOvVaw16LZHdtiALvfJ6suw_JCPa But you’re doing a great job keeping this thing going! You might be able to get another 50,000 out of it. And I imagine weather conditions might be playing a small part. Summer months may be a little more forgiving with that thing being able to heat up quicker and stay warmer longer? Best of luck to you! If anyone can keep it going it’s you.

-20 through -25 is what I was experiencing on my 2018 with 45,000 absolutely babied and well maintained miles. I never knew if it was "normal" or not - only reason I even took a look is because of a cylinder number 5 misfire - which I never pinned down a reason for...random misfire, everything seemed ok. However I'd experience a misfire/shudder event when climbing a hill at highway speeds. I ended up trading it in at 50,000 miles - I think what finally did me in was the reports of fuel injector issues - that, and knowing that they were no longer covered under warranty. And I didn't like the fact that I had purchased a new truck and it couldn't make it up an incline on a highway without stuttering. Problem started at around 37,000 miles. also pulled the pan on the transmission, thinking it was a tranny/torque converter issue, but everything looked good in there...no metal, nothing. Changed filter and fluid, no improvement.

I'd be more concerned with your transmission/torque converter to be honest. It's a more expensive repair - and I'm not sure it's more prevalent - but it's the reason I sold mine at 50,000 miles. When you're driving around in a two year old truck with 40-50k on it (like I was), you kind of expect it to be able to drive up hills on a highway at 70 mph without misfiring/hiccupping/struggling.

I used fluid film for two years on my 2018, never an issue with the factory wax. In fact i think it was the only thing keeping it supple and preventing it from drying out. I find that's the biggest issue with that frame wax, it dries out then falls right off.

Two simple reasons... GM likes people that live in California better or people in California do not get fuel injectors covered under power train warranty.

When I had my 2018 I had the same issue: I've since sold it, but I'll tell yeah, it must be a thing now because my current vehicle does the same thing...it takes 6.4 quarts of oil and reads like it's overfilled by a quart.

I don't believe they're covered...GM doesn't consider injectors part of the power train warranty (they consider them electrical).