Concerning Lifter Noise and Whining noise

ObscureGlock · April 23, 2018

Hey all! Hope everyone is having a wonderful Monday morning. I’m reaching out to y’all because i purchased my 2014 Silverado 5.3 used, with 76k highway miles. From purchase, it had a decently loud engine, which after reading some posts about direct injection and the oil delivery of these engines, thought it was normal. But after comparing engine sounds to other 2014-2016 5.3 engines, I’ve come to the realization that my engine is obviously not operating the way it should be.

My transmission acts up a bit, but that’s GM transmissions... I’ll have it checked out when I take it for a warranty service.

Anyways, I wanted to hear what you guys think on this topic. I can’t seem to figure out what the whining is from, and why it’s incredibly quieter on other trucks. Maybe my (part that produced the whine) needs to be replaced? I don’t know what it is. My starter grinds sometimes and it’s a nasty sound, but I heard starters aren’t covered under warranty. Then, I noticed, if I get on the pedal and let off, there’s a chirp...I have no freakin clue what that is, so any insight on that helps. Next up is my lifters. I have to definitely get new lifters, and I heard that the lifters go bad after many miles thanks to the B.S. AFM. Once I get the full service I’ll be tuning out the AFM.

Then, finally, is my driveline. I get almost like a “clunk” somewhere along the driveline towards the end when I’m coming to a stop, and going... I think it might be my UJoint.

Thank you guys for any input you leave, it’s greatly appreciated.

diyer2 · April 23, 2018

I wonder why you bought this truck?

Lots of used ones available.

Brianibew · April 23, 2018

The chirp when you let off the gas is the exhaust flapper valve, very common problems and the fix is to replace the exhaust system since the flapper is an integrated component.

Why wouldn’t warranty cover a starter?...that doesn’t seem right.

The driveline clunk is caused from the poor shifting transmission...lots to read on here about that. I don’t think there is really a fix besides a tune.

ObscureGlock · May 1, 2018

On 4/23/2018 at 1:31 PM, Brianibew said:

The chirp when you let off the gas is the exhaust flapper valve, very common problems and the fix is to replace the exhaust system since the flapper is an integrated component.

Why wouldn’t warranty cover a starter?...that doesn’t seem right.

The driveline clunk is caused from the poor shifting transmission...lots to read on here about that. I don’t think there is really a fix besides a tune.

Hey there. My exhaust flapper valve is removed, i removed it when I did my exhaust. I don’t know why they wouldn’t cover a starter, I was reading that somewhere but I could be wrong. And the clunk is in fact from a poor shifting tranny? Cause mine does shift poorly but the clunk feels like somethings loose in the rear end.

Brianibew · May 1, 2018

Ok, just throwing out some possibilities...you never mentioned your exhaust was aftermarket. Use the search function on this forum, you’ll find plenty of info for your problems.

HondaHawkGT · May 9, 2018

On 5/1/2018 at 7:35 AM, ObscureGlock said:

Cause mine does shift poorly but the clunk feels like somethings loose in the rear end.

Slip yoke clunk. Common noise on a lot of newer trucks.

Sometime the noise is caused by the leaf springs if there's a lot of dirt between the primary and secondary spring. The plastic doesn't slide smoothly and as the axle twists (axle wrap), the springs flex and the plastic suddenly slides and makes a clunk.

greyjimmy · May 23, 2018

I bought my 2015 Sierra from the GMC dealership two months ago with 60,000 miles. I test drove the shit out of it and only noticed they funky way they shift. The Cadillac ride was so sweet I didn't hear anything else. They truck is tight. As the honeymoon was over, I began to notice how unusually loud the engine is at idle. When driving, I can't hear it at all. I compared it to some friends trucks of the same make and they were a little quieter but not much. As I pulled onto the highway last week the truck stuttered at about 25 mph, the check engine and light came on and it went in to limp mode. I called Onstar and they showed a P0300 code and said it was exhaust related. While I was waiting for the tow truck, I drove it across the road and had the auto parts store read the codes. It came up P0307. The dealer service dept. found it to be cylinder 7 lifter. They replaced four lifters and it is a bit quieter now at idle. It was covered under warranty and they turned it around in three days. I asked for a quote on getting all lifters replaced while they were in there but the service manager said it is cost prohibitive and recommended I wait until they go out being that i have 38,000 left on the warranty. I really like this truck, the ride is incredible but I am aprehesive to get on it and drive it hard.. It just feels like it's not as tough as the 2002 I had before. The way the new style trannys shift is foriegn to me.

ObscureGlock · June 12, 2018

Hey all. I’ll be responding to everyone as well as I can. So I took my truck back in, whole complicated story. They told me they were doing all the lifters, and when I got the truck back, I had my friend check it out and he informed me only half the lifters were serviced. He also explained my ticking noise is because there wasn’t any insulation around the injectors, which there is supposed to be. I’ll be keeping everyone updated through here. As far as the whine goes, I had the dealership tell me it could be my vacuum pump, but my mechanic said it could be belt related. I hope it can get resolved easily.

ObscureGlock · June 12, 2018

On 5/9/2018 at 6:01 PM, HondaHawkGT said:

Slip yoke clunk. Common noise on a lot of newer trucks.

Sometime the noise is caused by the leaf springs if there's a lot of dirt between the primary and secondary spring. The plastic doesn't slide smoothly and as the axle twists (axle wrap), the springs flex and the plastic suddenly slides and makes a clunk.

Thank you so much. I’ll look into this the next chance I get. I appreciate your feedback greatly, I’ve been trying to narrow this down. I’ll keep you updated once I’m able to check off my driveline checkup.

ObscureGlock · June 12, 2018

On 5/1/2018 at 1:06 PM, Brianibew said:

Ok, just throwing out some possibilities...you never mentioned your exhaust was aftermarket. Use the search function on this forum, you’ll find plenty of info for your problems.

Thanks. Sorry on my behalf, I should’ve mentioned that, you’re right. Thanks again.

ObscureGlock · June 12, 2018

On 5/22/2018 at 10:40 PM, greyjimmy said:

I bought my 2015 Sierra from the GMC dealership two months ago with 60,000 miles. I test drove the shit out of it and only noticed they funky way they shift. The Cadillac ride was so sweet I didn't hear anything else. They truck is tight. As the honeymoon was over, I began to notice how unusually loud the engine is at idle. When driving, I can't hear it at all. I compared it to some friends trucks of the same make and they were a little quieter but not much. As I pulled onto the highway last week the truck stuttered at about 25 mph, the check engine and light came on and it went in to limp mode. I called Onstar and they showed a P0300 code and said it was exhaust related. While I was waiting for the tow truck, I drove it across the road and had the auto parts store read the codes. It came up P0307. The dealer service dept. found it to be cylinder 7 lifter. They replaced four lifters and it is a bit quieter now at idle. It was covered under warranty and they turned it around in three days. I asked for a quote on getting all lifters replaced while they were in there but the service manager said it is cost prohibitive and recommended I wait until they go out being that i have 38,000 left on the warranty. I really like this truck, the ride is incredible but I am aprehesive to get on it and drive it hard.. It just feels like it's not as tough as the 2002 I had before. The way the new style trannys shift is foriegn to me.

Dang man, I’m sorry to hear. And yes, I don’t know why our tranny’s are shit. My mom’s 05 Yukon XL has a rough shift between 1-2, never been able to figure out why. And that SUV is mechanically sound; regular maintenance, etc. I’m surprised GM still hasn’t engineered a better transmission after all these years. And about your code, that’s super strange. I’ve never had that happen. About my engine noise, it seems very relative to yours. Check my above replies to another poster, we can further discuss this as I’m interested to see if you happen to have my same issue... it would be nice to know my problem isn’t isolated to just my truck. Thanks again!

6.2_GMC_DEN · June 16, 2018

JimCost2014 · June 21, 2018

On ‎5‎/‎22‎/‎2018 at 7:40 PM, greyjimmy said:

I bought my 2015 Sierra from the GMC dealership two months ago with 60,000 miles. I test drove the shit out of it and only noticed they funky way they shift. The Cadillac ride was so sweet I didn't hear anything else. They truck is tight. As the honeymoon was over, I began to notice how unusually loud the engine is at idle. When driving, I can't hear it at all. I compared it to some friends trucks of the same make and they were a little quieter but not much. As I pulled onto the highway last week the truck stuttered at about 25 mph, the check engine and light came on and it went in to limp mode. I called Onstar and they showed a P0300 code and said it was exhaust related. While I was waiting for the tow truck, I drove it across the road and had the auto parts store read the codes. It came up P0307. The dealer service dept. found it to be cylinder 7 lifter. They replaced four lifters and it is a bit quieter now at idle. It was covered under warranty and they turned it around in three days. I asked for a quote on getting all lifters replaced while they were in there but the service manager said it is cost prohibitive and recommended I wait until they go out being that i have 38,000 left on the warranty. I really like this truck, the ride is incredible but I am aprehesive to get on it and drive it hard.. It just feels like it's not as tough as the 2002 I had before. The way the new style trannys shift is foriegn to me.

Almost same thing as far as the symptoms on my 16, except mine broke a push rod. GM wanted the cylinder walls inspected and the dealership reported enough abnormal wear that my engine was pulled and sent back to Chevy R&D to be checked out. The new engine should be put back in the next couple of days, not real excited to see how my truck is going to look after this much major work being done on it. 23100 miles. 62,500 dollars for MSRP, had a 73 Vega with a 150000 plus miles that burned oil, but was still running when I sold it without any type of failure like this.