Doublebase

Well, just a follow up on the starter situation - which I’m sure is no secret any longer - within two weeks time I personally knew three people with these trucks that had their starters go (all under 50,000 miles). Three of them towed to the dealer. Two of them could not get the part. Guy at one dealer said, this is the worst thing he’s seen from GM in 25 years...the amount of failures and lack of parts. The starters are not sealed properly. They leak. Moisture gets in. I believe there’s a recall for it now, so if you paid out of pocket, GM should reimburse you. Don’t quote me on this. Lol.

6 speeds are no bargain either, there’s a thread on here about how the torque converter shudder tears up the pump, sending metal pieces through the transmission. Two GM techs on that thread say they don’t see 8 speeds in for repair, but 6 speeds all day long. I have the 6 speed it’s starting to shudder with only 47,000 miles (and two transmission services done to it). They both probably suck, pick your poison.

Well, I too have a similar situation with mine...2018, 47,000 miles, owned since new, 6 speed. It doesn’t like hills on the highway; if I hit a hill going slow it’ll stutter and shudder it’s way up that hill. I now have to hit hills just right, with some speed and heavy throttle, otherwise I’ll get a shudder from the tranny. I did get a check engine light once - cylinder five misfire - but everything checked out and it quickly went out. I have done two transmission services to this truck since new. Truck has been babied since day one...all highway miles. Not sure if it’s the torque converter or what...starting to think I made a mistake buying this thing.

Yeah, you guys are using Krown up there, right? Fluid Film or Woolwax seems to be popular where I am. Think Woolwax actually owns Fluid Film, go figure.

Well, don't feel too bad, guys! Friend has a 2020 Silverado and GM evidently didn't make any changes to their frame wax. The truck is less than two months old and it already has surface rust at the welds. Different looking frame though, instead of round tubes cutting across the frame in the rear, they use square tubing. Didn't crawl under it and see if anything else is different, but the rust and wax looks the same. I fluid filmed my 18 a month after I bought it...I reapply twice a year. 48,000 miles and almost two years later, it looks pretty darn good. But I don't think I should have had to gone through those extremes to keep my frame clean. It's been a real bad winter here in New England, not a lot of snow, but a ton of ice and salt. Everyday it's been a thorough salt bath.

$214.99 sounds like a decent deal...$300, not so much...and $467 is ridiculous. I know some guys that would charge you that for removing the transmission and putting it back in.

I think it depends on warranty, if they can give you a warranty with the $1,800 rebuild, I'd go with that. Because if you're going to spend $3,500 for a used transmission, there's probably a good chance you'll be having the same issue down the road (probably sooner than later). So why spend the extra $1,700?

But does that make sense to you? A vacuum issue would introduce air into the intake, the computer would compensate and add MORE fuel, not take away fuel, right? So you'd have + fuel trim, not negative. Vacuum leaks skew the fuel trim positive. And there is no PCV valve on these trucks, it's a fixed orifice, it won't get any larger and cause excess flow. You can replace it, but it's not a PCV valve. And if you did have a vacuum leak in that part of the system, I think it would cause a misfire at cylinder 5 (because the PCV line dumps right above cylinder five at the intake). If you have a catch can, potentially you may have a leak at one of the lines causing a vacuum situation, but I still think your fuel trim would trend +, not -. I could be totally wrong, let me know what you find out/how it goes.

Yup, been experiencing the same thing since day one, seems to be getting worse now. Feel it on the highway when going up an incline...truck will shutter, feels like a misfire almost (and once it did actually throw a misfire code cylinder 5). I've done two tranny services since I've owned it since new (now at 47,000 miles). Pan looked good, no metal shavings, not a lot of debris on the magnet, fluid looked good. And listen, I can live with "this", I just don't want to have to throw a transmission in it as soon as it gets out of warranty. Know what I mean? If it blows at 150,000? I guess I could be "ok" with it, but not at 60,000

Well, sounds like you’ve checked/considered everything...except fuel. Check the fuel trims with a scan tool, if it’s something like -25%...fuel is being taken away (because too much fuel is being use). Leaking injectors could be the cause.

Well this sucks, I have the 2018 Summit White as well...haven’t seen anything yet, but with this truck...I no longer believe I’ll be avoiding any of the issues because I’m special and take good care of the thing. Lol. So when it does happen, my options are touch up paint because the dealer won’t do anything?

Rule of thumb...don’t touch block coolant drains. Waste of time. And depending on the engine, you could be opening up a big can of worms if that thing snaps. You said it best, do a couple drain and fills if you’re that worried that one won’t do it. Personally I let the factory fill go to 90k-100k, then I drain and fill the radiator once. I do it again the following year or roughly every 30k miles from there on out. I consider it more a replenishing thing at that point. But I like the other method too (doing it twice). My feeling is...once you get to 100k miles, you are at the point where you probably are going to be doing some sort of cooling system repair anyway (water pump, radiator, thermostat), so you’ll be draining most of that coolant anyway.

If it’s that loud and it’s on the driver's side it’s most likely the brake vacuum pump. There’s a recall on it...take it in and get it replaced. Other than that, hate to break it to you...virtually every modern engine now is “loud”. The days of those Lexus commercials where you didn’t even know if the engine was running, are LONG GONE. They now wrap these engines in foam insulation’s to try to combat the direct injection noise. All of them have to do it. Open a hood, it’s there...the noise, the insulations. In terms of noise, the silverados I’d say are about normal/average on the spectrum...there are others much worse.

A couple weeks ago I got a cylinder 5 misfire...only lasted about ten seconds, light blinked then went off. I have a 2018 Silverado (45,000 miles, owned since new). So I pulled the spark plug...plug looked great. I swapped the coils and drove home with a scan tool hooked up to it watching live data. Had misfires here and there and cylinder 5 did misfire going up a hill once on the highway. fuel trims were -25 the next morning. Then the next morning they were fine. Ran super through and some Techron. Seems to be “ok” now. At first I thought it was an injector, but I don’t think it’d be this intermittent. A friend said the computer might it needs to be in flex fuel parameters and it’s causing some random issues in the cold weather. I’m not sure what it is, but it seems better now. Will keep an eye on it. I just think winter fuel doesn’t cooperate with these engines all that well.

Interesting to hear that the starters are still on back order, this summer when my 2018 starter took a dump, local part stores couldn’t get them.

Mine is not showing a lot of misfires either, have your friend look at the fuel trim adaptives , both long and short term adaptives. Mine was reading -25. That tells me I have an injector probably leaking a bit and the computer is trying to compensate by taking away fuel. I also turn on the fuel economy portion of the digital readout on the dash and I can see the fuel economy gauge kind of going up, then down...like the computer is trying to correct it. I really need to keep an eye on this, I don't smell fuel, which is a good thing...and I've pulled my oil dipstick, it doesn't smell like fuel but then again maybe it does? I can't really tell - I do think it's strange that I'm at 5,000 miles of my interval and I'm still at the "full" mark. That never happens, I always use some oil between changes and have to add. Not this time. Makes me wonder if I have fuel in there. I might change my oil today and track it.

From everything I've been reading it sounds like an injector. I'm having a similar situation going with cylinder number 5. Not as bad as yours yet, but I'm getting a slight misfire occasionally when going up a hill on the highway. Only one check engine light so far, it cleared up on it's own in minutes. The light flashed. Came on. Then went out, but I did feel the misfire. I have hooked the scan tool up and see a misfire her... a misfire there on every cylinder on occasion. Looks pretty normal. But twice the cylinder five acted up when on the highway (going up a hill, giving it some gas, etc). 7 misfires once, then 14 the second time. Fuel trim was in the negative...-24 long term fuel trim. That was checking it after five miles of driving, cold start, probably 20 degrees outside. I wish I had checked it when it warmed up but I was too busy watching the misfire counter. Pulled the spark plug, it looked great. Moved the coil to another plug. Still got some misfire hits on cylinder 5. But if you are getting the rough idle upon start up...from what I've read that's a sign of the injector. I'm going to try to run super through it for a few weeks...maybe put a fuel additive in it. Don't think it will help. Cylinder 5 is right under where the PVC valve dumps into the intake. I run a catch can...part of me thinks the cold weather is dumping liquid vapor right into cylinder 5, but I doubt that too. I have 45,000 miles on my 2018 Silverado 5.3 - not real happy to be honest - expected much more from this vehicle than this. This thing is babied and well well cared for. I'll see how it goes. I'll try to live with it until it gets worse...and who knows? Maybe it won't get worse, but from what I've been reading, these injectors are the real story behind these engines...probably more so than the AFM failures and torque converters. Doesn't look like too bad of a job to do, but when you're in there you might as well do all 8 injectors...what's that going to cost? $480? $600?

Wow, that looks pretty bad. Only 78k miles? I've seen some other pictures on here and they look bad too. I do 5,00 mile oil changes too...and run a catch can. When I reach 70k miles I'm planning on pulling the intake off and doing a manual cleaning...wondering how it'll look (not sure how much help the catch can is actually giving).

Personally I'd just change it out under the severe service interval or less (I'm a little anal and did mine at 26K miles and I drive that much in a year, so I'll just do it every year). But for all of the gloom and doom around here we hardly ever hear about rear end failures or transfer case failures...so that should tell you something...in the world of "these trucks are bad", you don't hear about these components failing. And you know there are people on here who beat the ever living tar out of these things.

Well, i dropped my pan and changed the filter at 40,000 miles...cleaned the magnet. To my surprise the thing actually seems to be shifting a little smoother now (probably my imagination). I'll just do simple drain and fills from here on out, once a year or so. Magnet was fairly "clean", filter looked "good". If you ever change your filter, do yourself a favor...leave the little filter gasket in the transmission and don't try to replace it...it's a royal pain to get the old one out.

Yeah and mine still does it, I'm at 42,000 miles now. No change, no big deal I guess.

I mean, there are some people that actually prefer it, I wouldn't worry about it too much at all. I've considered going to the 5W30 when my warranty is up. Tell you what you could do if you're really that concerned...drain 3 quarts or so and fill it up with 0W20. Good for 5,000 miles, easy. IMO

I've driven both the 4.3 and 5.3...I currently own a 5.3. I think there is a noticeable difference in power between the two in everyday driving scenarios...passing, flooring it, pulling out onto the highway. The 5.3 has more "pep" and it just feels more "snappy". I've read many posts on this thread alluding to "slug", when describing the 4.3...I understand what they are saying when compared to the 5.3, but I don't agree when compared to other vehicles in normal driving situations. I think the 4.3 is fine. I think it is "capable" for everyday driving situations, maybe not as snappy and peppy as the 5.3 in passing situations, or situations where you're towing, but I think the 4.3 is fine. I also think the 4.3 feels much smoother when driving/shifting. I was actually shocked comparing the V6 to the V8 in terms of shifting/V4 engagement and overall driving smoothness. I'm averaging 24.5 mpg in my double cab 5.3 4x4 V8...that's pretty damn good, but I imagine I could do even better with the V6 (and enjoy the everyday smoothness of that power plant). But I definitely think the 5.3 has more power - I can feel it - it is useful at times, but not needed in my daily 80 mile round trip commute. In hindsight I probably should have went with the 4.3 - I don't tow, I don't drive "fast" and I don't need the power. But the 5.3 is impressive and fuel efficient, nonetheless.

While I agree with most of this, one thing I do worry about is my transmission because of the AFM (specifically the torque converter clutch and premature wear). I'm at 40,000 miles now with my truck, my lifetime average in the truck is 24.5 and if it weren't for having to drive through four months of cold winter every year it'd be probably close to 26. I'm easy on the gas pedal, coasting is my friend, I'm probably in cruise control 50% of my yearly 26,000 mile commute...but I am having a problem keeping this thing from shifting too much. I have experienced the shudder going up a hill twice now - so I do understand when it might happen and how to avoid it - so that's not my issue. I'm not annoyed by the occasional harsh shift, an occasional clunk, an occasional shudder up a hill once in a blue moon...I'm more concerned about wear and tear. And it's not a tranny temp thing...my tranny probably spends 3/4's of the year at 180-185 degrees. It's the constant shifting, converter lockup, converter release. I worry my clutch materials are going to wear away too quickly and I'll be putting a transmission in this thing by 120,000 miles or sooner. Maybe I have nothing to worry about? I mean, how much are these trannies anyway? How much will they be 5 years from now? Probably not that much...probably only a 3-4 hour job. But it'd not an ideal situation and something I'd like to avoid. I did a simple drain and fill at 25,000 miles....fluid looked fine. I'll be doing a pan drop and filter replace at 50,000 miles. I'll be proactive with this thing the whole way (probably do simple drain and fills every 25,000). So it's not the lifters I'm worried about really, it's the transmission...and if that proves to be a non issue? Well then I have a full sized 4x4 truck with a V8 that I'm averaging almost 25 mpg in...my wife's 2008 Honda CRV is having trouble doing that. I'll take this truck over an Eco Boost any day of the week. I'd rather have the Silverado and not worry about timing chains, nightmare water pump replacements, turbo inter coolers, cam phasers, worse valve buildup, worse fuel economy.

That's the problem with these frames, unless you strip all of the GM frame wax off, paint, then apply some sort of corrosion inhibitor...it just isn't going to work. Everything else is just band aids. All you can really do is try to slow it down...do preventive maintenance...keep that metal covered in something...and do it frequently. I actually Fluid Film my truck twice a yea - - and even then it's not enough - I still do some touch ups when I do my oil changes...and believe me it needs it. There's always a little piece of bare metal exposed and I'll just cover it up with some white lithium grease (it seems to stick well and hold up). Just keep up with it, it's not a one time set it and forget it, thing, it takes some work. And that's true for ALL trucks...painted frames, rubberized coated, you name it...they all rust. It's just a matter of how much it bothers you and how much you're willing to slow the rust down. Right now my truck is only two years old...I'm still in love, but that will stop some day. I won't be so anal about treating that frame and believe me it will quickly rust. Good thing is, the frame has so much metal on it that in all honestly it will take probably 20 years to rust through to the point where you'll need repair (and you can repair these things professionally - a welding shop can handle probably 90% of these frames safely).