2021 Silverado Trail Boss Lifter Failure

[Paul Ternes]

Add my truck to the list! My 2021 Sierra with 5.3 just did the catastrophic lifter, bent push rods failure at 7000 miles.

GM towed it to nearest dealer. No loaner available. Estimated 1 month to repair. Not happy!!

[Adamace1]

A month is outrageous. I thought it was outrageous that they wouldn't give me a loaner, or a ride home. But I took the truck to them on a Monday without an appointment and they had it fixed Wednesday about 50 hours after I brought it to them.

[RadBrad]

Probably a really dumb question...We had the lifter issues with our 6.2...towed in and all the good stuff associated with it lol.

 

We also have a 2021 Canyon built 2/21 with the 3.6 V-6 which also has the AFM...does the 3.6 with AFM use the same problematic/bad batch of lifters as the V-8s?  I can't seem to find the answer online.  Just kind of want to know if we could potentially have this issue with the V-6 as well.  The Canyon only has 2500 miles on it.

[Supreme Pizza]

When it comes to vehicle failures, and how they deal with them - watch "Fight Club". They explain it on the plane. In recent history, crippling financial issues have added a few more pieces of the pie, but they are basically along the same lines. Reduce the production cost to the point that the failures are lowering profitability due to warranty repairs, then back it off a little. You want as many failures as possible that the customer pays for, that is ideal. It increases trade-ins and dealer profitability. Its in the manufacturers best interest to make as much money as possible. Customer satisfaction and vehicle reliability are not as important as overall profitability. Its not good or bad, its just a fact. They make cars in order to make money. They do not make cars in order to make people happy - all those car manufacturers that made customers happy were either bankrupt or bought out many years ago. If I owned GM, I would pay 50 people $500,000 per year to increase profitability AT ALL COSTS. I don't care about reliability, or whats right or wrong. MAKE ME MONEY NOW. They have thousands of market analysts and profit specialists that work out the math every day. Reduce the quality of the coolant line brackets by 54.32%, and it will increase the profitability of the vehicle by $74.0221 per unit. And it will increase the overall repair revenue by $654.2837 million per year. It will also increase vehicle sales by 0.024%, which is fantastic. So should we reduce the quality of this part and make hundreds of millions of dollars for a starving company, or should we increase the quality of the part and go bankrupt? A lot of people are directly or indirectly employed by the GM company. You help the company make more money, and you help A LOT of people keep their jobs. Which would you pick? Keep "Joe Blow" happy about his rig, or save a hundred thousand jobs. These numbers are fictional, but the general theme is correct, in my opinion.

[Silverado4x4]

6 hours ago, Supreme Pizza said:

When it comes to vehicle failures, and how they deal with them - watch "Fight Club". They explain it on the plane. In recent history, crippling financial issues have added a few more pieces of the pie, but they are basically along the same lines. Reduce the production cost to the point that the failures are lowering profitability due to warranty repairs, then back it off a little. You want as many failures as possible that the customer pays for, that is ideal. It increases trade-ins and dealer profitability. Its in the manufacturers best interest to make as much money as possible. Customer satisfaction and vehicle reliability are not as important as overall profitability. Its not good or bad, its just a fact. They make cars in order to make money. They do not make cars in order to make people happy - all those car manufacturers that made customers happy were either bankrupt or bought out many years ago. If I owned GM, I would pay 50 people $500,000 per year to increase profitability AT ALL COSTS. I don't care about reliability, or whats right or wrong. MAKE ME MONEY NOW. They have thousands of market analysts and profit specialists that work out the math every day. Reduce the quality of the coolant line brackets by 54.32%, and it will increase the profitability of the vehicle by $74.0221 per unit. And it will increase the overall repair revenue by $654.2837 million per year. It will also increase vehicle sales by 0.024%, which is fantastic. So should we reduce the quality of this part and make hundreds of millions of dollars for a starving company, or should we increase the quality of the part and go bankrupt? A lot of people are directly or indirectly employed by the GM company. You help the company make more money, and you help A LOT of people keep their jobs. Which would you pick? Keep "Joe Blow" happy about his rig, or save a hundred thousand jobs. These numbers are fictional, but the general theme is correct, in my opinion.

Most of this I don't believe to keep it short people buy products mostly based on quality, reliability, cost and how it performs. Bottom line if you make a bad underperforming product people stop buying your product which leads to low sales and lost money then your done.

 

Now retired I worked for a major company that made commercial building products, are product was top of the line product and about 10-15 years ago we started using low grade cheaper additives to make more profit which reduced the performance and quality of the product and once those products hit the customers are rep declined drastically due to cheap additives in the product to save money and it got to the point to where nobody wanted are products anymore and sales declined. It took around 1-2 years to get are rep back after going back to quality additives to bring back a quality product.

[KARNUT]

Since the beginning of time it’s cost vs reliability and longevity. And usually you get what you paid for. Reliability is going to suffer when you ask a part to do something that stresses it. Cylinder deactivation falls under that description. 

[LMcleod]

Lucky me, had the lifter issue on cylinder #5 and resulted in a bent rod on #4.  Dealership replaced both banks of lifters and rod with a complete inspection of the rest.   Took about 2 weeks to get back but less than 48 hours later had to get towed back in due to code P0300.  So now we're looking at a bad coil or injectors on a 2020 1500 Sierra with less than 25,000 miles.

 

And the kicker is that they don't think GMC will cover the injectors under the warranty.  

[2NDGENJOE]

On 6/14/2021 at 12:56 AM, Trailboss2021 said:

2021 Trail Boss 6.2L v8. 21000.
Same thing.. parking brake engaged Evs, shaking knocking and all kinds of lights. Had it towed in bc it was unable to be driven to the dealership couldn’t control the brakes or steering well. first thing they said it was injectors then dealership said pushrod bent due to lifter failure replaced 8 lifters number 7. It has been in the shop since June 1 went to pick up Friday within a few minutes struggling to get over 40mph and wouldn’t go over 60mph. Turned around and brought it back for the same issue. Service Manager stated a wire is loose and it will be ready Monday. Let’s see hope so. Brand new truck not even a year. Anyone got this fixed and any further issues ?
 

 

Came here to read about this problem seeing as we have about a dozen trucks with the same issue. I was pained to see this in particular. CDK is such hot garbage. 

[Mrlinkous]

Always been a Chevy person but very very disappointed in my new 2021 Chevy Silverado. Been in shop 3 times now with transmission issues and now replacement of 8 lifters. Chevy should be responsible under the lemon law. More research I have done, clearly this isn’t an isolated incident. Clearly Chevy has a problem and should recall them all.

[Brian Albert]

On 5/12/2021 at 9:17 PM, cioservices said:

I had my 2021 LT Trail Boss with the 5.3L engine towed to the dealership yesterday.  While driving home from work, the truck started a really rough idle, engine knocking, random misfiring, had Service Emergency Brake, Service ESC messages on the display, check engine light and several other dash warning lights.  I pulled a P0300 code for random misfire.  The dealer diagnosed the truck with a lifter failure.  I haven't been told which cylinder(s) had the failure, but has anyone else had this issue on a 2021 Silverado?  I have 6,200 miles on the truck, and this seems a bit soon to have such major issues with an engine.  At what point does GM decide this is a recall and replace all the lifters?  I suspect, based upon what I've read on the forums, most who are plagued with the failing lifter issue, return to the dealership with additional failed lifters.

 

My 2021 cherry Red  Trailboss LT  is a lemon!  At 10,000  they replaced 6 lifters and 2 rods. 
 

At 12,000  my climate controls failed “ they replaced a relay or fuse”. 
 

At 18,000 the truck died pulling into the box lumberyard. The dashboard lit up like a Christmas tree. Had to get towed to the dealership. They kept it for a few days.  I was told “ they found nothing. Suspected

, A/i overload”. What?  

 

im currently looking for a more reliable pick up truck.  Any ideas?  Or do they all suck!

 

The fack that they are offering me more than the $53,000.00 sticker price to get it back is surprising.  

 

 

[ram1067]

Don’t surprise me…dealer offered me a pay off + 10G to walk away from my 2021 RST

[MikeMSierra]

Folks,

How many engines are being affected by this, is it "not if be when" scenario? I was planning on towing my car (Tail of the Dragon) 1,000mi but don't feel confident with the truck. 2020 Sierra 1500 5.3, 10sp tranny. I don't want to be stuck that far away and have to pay U-Haul $1,200 to come pick up their trailer. 

FYI: Asked GM about the lifter issues and they kept saying "there's no recall on your truck". 

[Mcropper514]

Mine went out 7500 Miles this past Monday.  Wife and I were about 70 miles from home on our way out for a day out without the kids and it stranded us.  Started knocking and making weird noises.  We were in the middle of a downtown area on the interstate.  Was able to limp it to a shopping center and wait for a tow and my dad to pick us up.  Would have been done today but the tech had to go do some training so it won't get done until Monday / Tuesday I was told.  They told me it was getting all new lifters on both banks.  Haven't heard which one it was that went.  Gave me a Buick Encore to drive.... horrible little car.  Can't wait to get my truck back.  Also complained to GM about it.  This is my second truck with an issue.  First one had the front axle jingle jingle.

[ram1067]

1 hour ago, MikeMSierra said:

Folks,

How many engines are being affected by this, is it "not if be when" scenario? I was planning on towing my car (Tail of the Dragon) 1,000mi but don't feel confident with the truck. 2020 Sierra 1500 5.3, 10sp tranny. I don't want to be stuck that far away and have to pay U-Haul $1,200 to come pick up their trailer. 

FYI: Asked GM about the lifter issues and they kept saying "there's no recall on your truck". 

I wouldn’t worry about it. Affected trucks are 2021s with a Pacific build dates and I doubt your truck falls within that range. 

[MikeMSierra]

13 hours ago, ram1067 said:

Pacific build dates, oh I just realized that was a typo!

My truck was built Sept 14, 2020 which appears to fall into the range.

Edited February 26, 2022 by MikeMSierra