2011 GMC Yukon Problem

[fuse]

My wife took her 2011 Yukon to the dealer for the engine light being on. Has 5.3l engine. It was having several things going on with it. They put it on the computer and said it had a misfire on  cylinder 7. Said plug was flooded out with oil. So they replaced plugs, changed the oil and told her that this was a quick fix, that the motor needed new pistons and rings. This doesn't sound right to me. They vehicle only has 69,000 miles. Just don't understand that myself. I know anything can break down, but this vehicle had been maintained since she bought it new. What is your guys take on what they told her it needed?

[Jsdirt]

Sorry she went to the dealer. God help you ...

 

It needs an engine - no if ands or buts about it. Common problem with these. Can have any number of issues from rings, to AFM issues - best course of action is to scrap the engine, and buy a new long block from a reputable ENGINE BUILDER - NOT a GM dealership. The dealer is going to do a quick fix - they won't even remove the engine - they'll slap in a new piston and rings from the lower end, and reuse everything else, and charge you a large percentage of what a NEW engine would've cost you at a local, private garage. Seen and heard this same story 100's of times ...

 

Sure, you can attempt repairing it ... but you'll be back to square 1 at any point between 5k & 30k miles. These engines are NOT cheap to repair. Cheaper in the long run to just start over, sorry to say. Welcome to 21st Century auto manufacturing ...  

[diyer2]

I would do a compression check.

Drive it with the new plugs and see if it repeats.

 

[Duelin]

Check out this TSB bulletin.

 

https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/tsbs/2012/SB-10062524-7690.pdf

[Jsdirt]

Good info, but I've rarely seen these GM bandaids work. The ones that have worked seem to have been short lived.

 

Throwing in piston rings WITHOUT honing? That goes against everything I've been taught in my lifetime regarding engine building.  I can't imagine being charged $1k labor for that kind of workmanship. 

 

With the miles the engine already has, coupled with the high labor cost (11 hours for JUST the shield!!!), and the fact that the AFM system WILL fail at between 90 - 130k miles, you might as well get that thing OUT of the dealership, and into a local garage for an engine swap.

 

You'll thank me later.

 

The other option (what I would do) is to just do what diyer2 said (although I probably wouldn't even bother checking compression given the history of these engines), and swap the plugs, and just run it until something breaks. Either now, or later, it's going to need an engine.

 

Mine is at 97k miles, always had top shelf synthetics run in it since 2,500 miles, and a cam bearing is STILL showing signs of imminent failure. Either wearing, or walking out of the bore. My days are numbered on this engine. Hell, I've already replaced the worn out rear differential, something I've NEVER had to do before on something with less than 250k miles ...

[fuse]

Good info there. Thanks for sharing.

[fuse]

Thanks to you guys for sharing this information with me.

[Jsdirt]

No problem - glad to help.