MaverickZ71

We also have an 09 and an 18 in the family. Both 5.3L crew cabs, bone stock. The 09 is a 6 speed Z71 4x4 and the 18 is an 8 speed 4x4. The window sticker on the 09 said 14 city and 19 hwy and it gets 10 city winter (remote start) and 12 city summer and 17 hwy. The highest I have ever seen was 18-19 hwy with a strong tailwind. Ford products I had driven in the past had been spot-on, so I attempted to have the 09 Silverado's DIC recalibrated under warranty when it was new. The dealer service manager there was no way to do so, and in his opinion, they were factory calibrated to be overoptimistic by GM to give IGMO owners who never hand calculate their fuel mileage that warm fuzzy feeling. I wondered if GM did used their 3.08 hwy gears/hwy tires/2WD calibration on all of the DICs, so if you're running 3.42 gears and all-terrain tires, the DIC reading is off. Also, I turned off AFM because of the excessive oil usage problem, which according to GM , is supposed to result in 7% worse fuel mileage. I didn't see any difference in fuel mileage after it was turned off. I hardly ever drive the 18, but now you've got me curious, so I want to take a closer look at what it is reporting and if it is accurate at all.

Right, but they must apply some unknown GM formula also, to give themselves a big pad on prospective warranty claims. My last new Z71 was governed to 96mph which was 86% of the capability of it's "S" (112mph) rated Dueler A/T's.

Been that way for many years. The dealer will not take the mirror apart and play with gears--they will just replace the entire mirror assembly, which requires removing the inner door panel. As long as it gets power and folds at all, they will call it good. Reset it according to the owner's manual and learn to live with it, or have it replaced. FWIW, just had the passenger mirror on our '09 Silverado replaced with an OEM-style aftermarket unit (don't know what brand--the body shop did it), and it folds faster, quieter, and smoother than the OEM GM part ever did.

Bubba rope. That's a real thing, and it works good. (It has nothing to do with NooseCar PR stunts or Bubba Wallace-Smollett, or fake FBI investigations at Talladega.)

2009 Silverado crew cab, 5.3L LC9 engine, 6L80E transmission. Brake fluid keeps mysteriously slowly disappearing from master cylinder. (Several small bottles of DOT3 over the last couple of years.) When master cylinder gets half full, MIL lamp lights and Service Brakes Soon appears in DIC. Brakes function normally, even when fluid level gets lower. Local dealer says they THINK (?!) the master cylinder is leaking into the brake booster [they say to diagnose will require removal of master cylinder and brake booster and by then I'll be on the hook for a few hundred $], requiring replacement of both the master cylinder and the brake booster. Does that sound right, that the brake booster would also need replaced? Same dealer says I can't do it myself, because I would have no way to properly bleed the ABS brake system. Is that correct? I've driven many vehicles a couple of million miles, but I've never had a master cylinder leak before. Drum brake wheel cylinders, yes, but not a master cylinder. Thanks!

If you don't use the GM lift and have the GM dealer install it, almost all GM dealers today (unless your father or brother-in-law owns the dealership) would unfortunately use that as an excuse to say you have NO WARRANTY anymore.

Holy crap. Guess I've saved enough $ doing my own service work wherever possible over the last 40 years to pay for my truck!

Not a problem. After a few miles, that little piece of paper will think it's a chicken that got caught in a tractor's nuts.

A long time ago in a galaxy far away, I had a new GM car that had a lot of troubles from day one. After a while, I bought the top-of-the-line GM protection plan extended warranty. Cost like $1200 at the time, which was a crap ton of $ for me at that particular time, while making big car payments. Ended up getting something like $4600 worth of warranty work done at no extra cost to me. And there were some things I didn't think they would cover that they replaced without even arguing about it. So in my opinion, it was $ very well spent. It all depends on your vehicle and how long you want to keep it, and how willing your dealer is to do warranty work.

Confucius say: When you start post with bold print stating you don't care about thoughts on subject, you don't get many thoughts on subject. Just sayin.

Lemme guess, TFL got their numbers directly from the Dominion Voting Machines guy. Next thing, you'll say the Ram numbers were inflated by the 2020 Dakota sales.

Right. Back in reality, they ask thousands of vehicle owners like myself what problems we’ve had with new vehicles. Those “opinions” aka actual results are what they used to issue a new GM truck categorization of “Do Not Buy” because of poor reliability.

I don’t care if you just pulled the article out of your ass 2 minutes ago. The point is, Ford has been the bestselling truck for 44 years straight. Anything else is old, fake news.

Upgrade to what?

1) Old news. Key word there being COMBINED. Ford and Ram vs Chevy by itself is not pretty. Note that Ram has now moved past Chevy into 2nd place. 2) So that's why RAM just won Motor Trend's Truck of the Year for an unprecedented 3 years in a row! 3) So that's why Consumer Reports just put ALL new Silverados/Sierras/Colorados/Canyons in their "Do Not Buy" category due to poor reliability!

Factory sizes were P265/70R-17, P265/65R-18, and P275/55R-20. The 17 inch factory wheels were 7.5 inches wide, the 18 inchers were 8 inches wide, and the 20 inchers were 9 inches wide. If you stay with those factory sizes and wheel offsets (available online), you won't have any rubbing. The 17 inch tires are generally less expensive, have more brands available in that size, ride softer, and offer better flotation for off-road use. The 18's and 20's generally handle better, ride rougher, cost more, and have less brands available as you go bigger. You have to have at least 17 inch wheels to clear the factory disc brakes up front. If you ever use tire chains you'll want to go with the 17 inchers.

Unfortunately, at today's GM, quality seems to be job none. Consumer Reports just rated ALL of the new Silverados/Sierras/Colorados/Canyons in their "don't buy" category due to poor reliability. Good luck.

YES.

Sounds like you had it rebuilt to stock specs. You'd have been $ ahead in the long run to have them install a AFM delete kit such as the one from Texas Speed while they were in there--your AFM problems would be over and you'd have a new cam to boot. The main idea with AFM problems is to turn off AFM as soon as possible. A GM dealer will not do that for you. A Range V8 module is the cheapest, easiest way to do so; it plugs into your OBDII port and can be plugged in or removed any time the ignition switch is off. You can also get a Blackbear tune or use a Diablo or Hypertech tuner or such to turn off the AFM function. And be sure to use Dexos-rated full-synthetic motor oil and change at OLM-indicated intervals or sooner. Be aware that you can still have an AFM-related parts failure, but with the AFM function turned off, the odds of it are less, because the lifters are locked in the extended position and your engine is running in V8 mode all of the time.

I read somewhere where GM planned to revise their suspensions after the car magazines complained about the '19s. I'll see if I can find where I saw that. But I'm also starting to believe that Bridgestone tires are just "stiff" compared to some other tire brands. I got 74K miles out of the OEM Bridgestone Dueler A/T RH-S tires that were rated at 40K miles. Never had a 4x4 truck tire last that long without a belt separation or other problem. Appreciated the longevity, and OWL tires of the original type were no longer available, so I replaced them with OWL Bridgestone Dueler H/L Alenza Plus tires, hoping the new 'highway' tires would be a little quieter, get better fuel mileage, and ride a little softer than the old 'all-terrain' tires they replaced. Not so much. In my opinion, the Alenza's ride rougher than the RH-S's did, until you get about 20+ miles of highway trip heat into them. And the RH-S weren't the softest/smoothest tires I'd ever had. My GM dealer said they were aware of complaints on the new full-sized SUVs with Bridgestones. The Firestone/Bridgestone dealer said they are known for tough belts and stiff sidewalls--that's how they get their higher-mileage warranty. And they drive them on the freeway for 5+ miles to get some heat into them before they'll attempt a rebalance. Never heard of that before. Next time, I think I'll go with Michelins.

Insert Jack Webb's Dragnet voice here: It was 12/26/2020. A balmy 65F in mid-America red-state flyover God's-country instead of a white Christmas. So I took the opportunity to do an impromptu outdoors short-interval change on the oil and filter on the 2009 Silverado at the folk's house, since early next Spring may be extra fun in my line of work, what with the vaccinations for the pandemic and coming civil war and plagues of locusts or whatever else the Deep State and Communists can dream up together. 2009 Silverado Z71 4x4 5.3L 6 speed 3.42 gears 90,200 miles ~3800 engine hours Little less than 4K miles on this oil, 35% remaining on Oil Life Monitor in DIC 6.0 quarts of Quaker State 5W-30 Ultimate Durability full-synthetic Dexos2 motor oil from Wally World. AC Delco PF48E oil filter from Wally World (yes I know, e-core filter; hell froze over) [I did not have any of my cache of Shell Rotella Gas Truck oil or Wix 57060XP oil filters with me, as all extra room was being used to truck Christmas stuff.] New AC Delco A3181C air filter will be installed this weekend; it was not in stock at O'Reillys when I did the oil change. New Michelin Stealth hybrid wiper blades from Wally World will also be installed this weekend, AFTER the first winter storm. DANG! I did the 4-tire rotation (rear tires straight to front and fronts crossed-over to rears), charged EverStart Maxx battery, and lubed the tie rod end zerks with Mobil1 full-synthetic grease over Thanksgiving weekend. Why this post? For the record, so I can refer back to it for the next oil and air filter change, of course. Happy 2021, Patriots! All others should just move to the United Socialist States of Canada now and avoid the rush later.

Lemme guess, you are a former Ford driver where you were used to seeing the oil pressure, coolant temp, and voltage gages never move after startup.

Check the wheel bearings and cv joints (if it has cv joints)--a drag on one side could make it feel like it's pulling in that direction. Also, you might look up the correct factory alignment settings online and make sure that is what your service places are using and you might look in on your alignment services to make sure it is actually being performed. Last one I paid $85 at a tire dealer and found out later from someone I trust that they didn't do anything. Normally I watch, but the tire dealer purposely has their service bay walled off and garage door windows covered up. Now I know why. Keep in mind that the factory alignment settings contain a range. A vehicle can be within range and still wander excessively or pull due to road crown. How do you rotate your tires? Rears to front and fronts crossing over to rear is the GM preferred method. Some service places like just doing front to back rotations (if they do them--again, we have caught places not rotating them before) because that is a just a hair quicker and easier for their techs. If you have a tire or tire(s) with radial tire pull and you just switch them front to back (so they are still on the same side), they will still pull in the same direction. A road force balancing machine used correctly can diagnose a tire or tire(s) with radial tire pull due to internal belt problems.

If your back window leaks, My Bucket's Got a Hole In It by Hank Williams.

I Can't Drive 55--Sammy Hagar