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My 5.3l Issues

aldaron327

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aldaron327 Enthusiast

aldaron327

Posted
Posted

First off, let me say that I'm extremely thankful for the 100k mile warranty and that I do love my truck. Here's what happened to me:

 

I had a transmission problem first. There's apparently some kind of "pump" in the tranny (according to the service manager where I get it serviced) that circulates fluid in an attempt to warm it up quicker. Anyway, this pump died so they had to replace it. Several days later, they finally got all the parts together and got it fixed. I shrugged it off. After all, 100k mile warranty, blah, blah, blah.

 

Two days after I got the truck back from the dealer, the CEL came on and it was throwing a P300 code. I shut the truck off and re-started it and the code went away. It came back a couple days later and then went out. I figured maybe I just had a short in the system somewhere until it came on and stayed on. I took it back to the dealer and had them check it and change my oil and the guy came into the waiting area and told me that my lifters were bad (read any of the AFM threads to find out what that's all about) and that he'd call me when they got the parts in to fix that issue. He finally called me about a week later and I brought it in. He called me yesterday and said that one of the rollers off of one of the lifters had broken off and screwed up the cam, though I'm unsure how that happens, exactly. I mean, isn't there a push rod occupying the space that something like a roller bearing would need to fall into the rotating cam? So now my truck is sitting at the dealer waiting for a new cam. There were no weird noises, no rough idle, no stumbling, no oil consumption issues... nothing. I didn't know anything was wrong other than the CEL and the P300 code, which can be any number of things.

 

Anyway, I've been a GM guy since birth (my Grandpa is a retiree and used to work the Corvette line in the 60s and 70s) and my other car is a 2010 Camaro SS, so I'm not giving up on the brand, but I'm thinking maybe I'd be better served with a 3/4 ton diesel. I don't know. I talked to the service guy about maybe swapping in a hotter cam and getting rid of the AFM, but then my warranty is voided and I can't really afford to drop another engine in the truck any time soon.

 

I know this is a pretty depressing second post, but I wondered if anyone else has had to replace a cam?

 

-Tim

mhenshaw Senior Enthusiast

mhenshaw

Posted
Posted

Sorry to hear that. Like you said good thing for the powertrain warranty and hopefully you didnt get a lemon.

GPSilverado Enthusiast

GPSilverado

Posted
Posted

Back in the 90's while working for GM, I had a Cadillac that was brought to me with 1500 miles on the modular V8 that was in the front wheel drive models, which had a skip, and was throwing codes. It turned out to be a lifter and cam issue. When I pulled the Intake off the engine, I noticed one of the guides that was supposed to keep the lifters from rotating had been left off at the factory. The lifter on one cam lobe had actually been rotating, and wore the cam out, and broke the roller off the lifter as well. The roller has to roll up the ramp of the cam lobe, and if it breaks or gets turned sideways, it slides up the ramp, and wears both the roller bearing as well as the cam lobe.

 

Not sure how the AFM would affect that, or if it even would, but the roller can break on any roller lifter, and in fact if it had broken first to cause the problem, probably had nothing to do with AFM.

 

It sure is strange that both problems occured at roughly the same time for you, but I don't think they were related.

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