2018 Silverado 1500 Sputtering & Loss of Power

mcr217 · January 22, 2020

I have a 2018 Chevy Silverado 1500 Z71 and at random times the engine sputters slightly like it's losing power for only a split second, and it does it several times in a row over a second or 2. It happens most frequently between 1000 and 2000 rpms, but its random. Vacuum leak or a cracked/split hose somewhere maybe? Air intake or fuel problem?

mcr217 · January 22, 2020

I've also noticed the throttle response is the worst of any vehicle I've ever owned, especially when accelerating from a dead stop, or going from reverse to drive or vice versa... which are one in the same I suppose. It just seems like an eternity when I backup, stop, put it in drive, and wait forever for the throttle to respond to me pushing the gas.

MaverickZ71 · January 22, 2020

Is the truck totally stock? How many miles on it? Do you run flex fuel? Engine air filter need changed? I've been told the fuel filter on these is a sleeve-type inside the fuel tank and as such, is not user-servicable.

Run a few tanks of a Top Tier brand premium fuel with Chevron Techron Fuel System (not Fuel Injection) cleaner through it. Some of these trucks, even through they are rated for regular fuel, run better on mid-grade or premium gas. If that doesn't fix it, take it to a dealer. If you try to clean the throttle body yourself, you'll probably have to have a dealer use their scantool to recalibrate its position. Some trucks get the spark plugs fouled by the AFM oil usage problems, and this can lead to misfiring cylinders, but that usually is accompanied by a check engine light. If you have that, a dealer can scan for the trouble code(s).

Edited January 22, 2020 by MaverickZ71

mcr217 · January 24, 2020

No check engine light and it kind of feels like misfiring. I haven't checked the air filter, but will this evening. I usually run 89 instead of 87, and yes, it's totally stock. I'll run the chevron and let you know if that helps- i was recommended this by a friend, too after telling him this. Thanks

Doublebase · January 25, 2020

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.

Edited January 25, 2020 by Doublebase

tlaw91 · February 2, 2020

Do you have a 6 speed or 8 speed?

6 speed- your torque converter is exploding

8 speed- you need a fluid exchange

Hope this helps

-Your friendly neighborhood GM tech, guessing with little info to go on lol

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

ChromeK2XX · December 9, 2021

Has anyone found a solution for this?

This sounds identical to what my truck is doing. It's been going on since I purchased the vehicle and it's getting worse. I've brought it to the dealer multiple times and they don't experience the issue.

Last week it got into it's sputtering fit and stayed there longer than normal. CEL and Stabi lights popped up and flashed for about two miles. Dealer pulled codes for misfires and recommended Top Tier fuel. So now I'm using Super Premium TT, yet issues persist. Lately, it feels like I'm adding more pressure to the pedal and getting terrible acceleration response (since CEL notice).

Something is definitely not right, and I want it fixed before it's a bigger problem.

Haynstyle · October 9, 2023

Has anyone figured his out? I’ve taken my 2018 Silverado 1500 Into service over 8 times to multiple dealers and they all say the same damn thing. Without an error code they can’t diagnose it. It’s been 1 1/2 years and now I’m out of warranty and each one of the garbage dealers keeps saying they can’t find anything and that this is a normal function of the car if it does stutter at low rpm’s.

Josh707 · August 14, 2024

I have a '15 silverado 5.3. I'm at roughly 130k and have several upgrades. About a month ago I experiences loss of power and struggle going up hills. I narrowed it down to bad cats and replaced the cats 3 weeks ago. After the replacement I regained the power and drivability instantly. Felt so good! Then it slowly got bad again. Not as bad as before, but far from right. It seems like everything I do fixes it slightly for a couple days and then back to spurstic symptoms. Cleaned air filter, did smoke test for vaccum leak, pulled spark plugs and ended up replacing them due to condition (newish only 30k on the bad spark plugs). Again after replacing them the truck ran great for two days. Now back to running like crap. The day I replaced the cats I had a couple engine codes pop up (all confirming it was the cats) . Did the cat sawp and cleared the codes. About a week later I got a single code again. A p2096, running lean. That code held through all my efforts until until replacing the spark plugs . Truck still runs bad but won't throw a code now .

Injectors are semi new, 30k

I'm thinking fuel pump maybe ?!?!