GMC Sierra 1500 New Motor - Failed Lifter

SSMUFF · May 10, 2022

As the title says my 2018 GMC Sierra 1500 had a #5 lifter fail and is seized in the block. Not so lucky for me is I have 79,000 miles on the truck and no extended warranty. I did tune out the AFM when I purchased the vehicle new. Dealership has gotten me a price on a GM remanufactured motor and a used motor. Any feedback on how to proceed? Dealership is going to put together a out of warranty request to see if GM will step up. I am also going to speak with the CEM person tomorrow. I can't believe I would need to replace the entire motor because of a GM design issue.

Snowcamo · May 10, 2022

Honest feed back here.

Spend your dollars elsewhere. Do not give gm a dime for a used motor no matter what they tel you the deal is. Find a local shop and have them look it over and see if they can make repairs or build it better.

shakenfake · May 11, 2022

You don't need to replace the entire motor. Just swap the cam and the lifters and you should be good to go. Look for the delete package.

CamGTP · May 11, 2022

If the lifter is stuck in the block like he said, there would be no saving that engine. It likely turned and got wedged in place, which can damage the lifter bore.

I've seen them stuck before and they weren't turned sideways, had to use a little heat and a mini slide hammer to get the lifter out, luckily it had no damage.

SSMUFF · May 11, 2022

Yep they bore scoped through a different lifter to see that the lifter had mushroomed and was not removable. Currently have some GM assistance in paying for the new motor. Working with them to see if they will pay more. Problem is the motor is on backorder which just adds to the entire debacle. I also called a outside shop to get their pricing but they had told me they would use nothing but a gm crate motor. In the end this truck is worth $$$ and replacing the motor with a new one is the best bet. 3 year/100,000 mile warranty isn't terrible and helps with the decision if to fix and sell or fix and drive for 2.5 years. Either way this truck is getting sold before the 3 years is up.

WT35002017 · May 12, 2022

Just curious as to engine maintenance history, did you personally do the oil changes on the motor or did you have a service center or dealership do the oil changes, and at what intervals? I have 2 DOD Chevys and I’m wondering about the horrible trouble you’re having here.

SSMUFF · May 12, 2022

I am the original owner and had for the most part I had all the maintenance done at the same dealership. There were a few times that I had it done by the company mechanic because of timing. I always changed around 5,000 miles. Do oil change and tire rotation at the same time. I was lucky and got 65,000 miles out of the factory tires and maybe had another 5,000 in them. The truck had a bad front driver hub go out at 62,000 miles so I had to replace out of pocket, then a misfire caused by bad injector and coil at 72,000 miles then the catastrophic filter failure at 79,000.

NE18 · May 17, 2022

I know it’s only a matter of time…when my 6 speed and 5.3 blow up, it will still be cheaper to repair than purchase a new truck.

SSMUFF · May 18, 2022

True but very hard to swallow that kind of money on a repair when the truck is so new and very few miles.

WT35002017 · May 20, 2022

I decided that since I will have to do these replacements at one time or another that I will just replace things with high performance parts instead of stock parts. As long as I don’t overdo it, these engines can make a lot more power in modified trim and since I have to pay for it anyway, I might as well have some fun. With just tuning that I’ve done so far, I can spin the tires whenever I like. It is almost like GM is saying: build it better.

Easymoney · May 29, 2022

On 5/10/2022 at 1:47 PM, SSMUFF said:

As the title says my 2018 GMC Sierra 1500 had a #5 lifter fail and is seized in the block. Not so lucky for me is I have 79,000 miles on the truck and no extended warranty. I did tune out the AFM when I purchased the vehicle new. Dealership has gotten me a price on a GM remanufactured motor and a used motor. Any feedback on how to proceed? Dealership is going to put together a out of warranty request to see if GM will step up. I am also going to speak with the CEM person tomorrow. I can't believe I would need to replace the entire motor because of a GM design issue.

My 2014 5.3 the engine took a dump at 68k miles. Truck was maintained properly. Engine was back ordered 6 weeks at the beginning of the year. Here is whats left of cylinder #2.

Big_Kahuna · May 29, 2022

On 5/10/2022 at 4:47 PM, SSMUFF said:

As the title says my 2018 GMC Sierra 1500 had a #5 lifter fail and is seized in the block. Not so lucky for me is I have 79,000 miles on the truck and no extended warranty. I did tune out the AFM when I purchased the vehicle new. Dealership has gotten me a price on a GM remanufactured motor and a used motor. Any feedback on how to proceed? Dealership is going to put together a out of warranty request to see if GM will step up. I am also going to speak with the CEM person tomorrow. I can't believe I would need to replace the entire motor because of a GM design issue.

can you please share what kind of oil you use in you engine ?

SSMUFF · June 1, 2022

I had the truck maintenance done at the dealership. The company I work for pays for all maintenance on my truck so there was never a need for me to skip on maintenance or worry about the cost. For the ease of things I would take it in at 5,000 mile intervals to get oil changed and tires rotated. The dealership that still has my truck did all the work on it. Crappy thing is GM and the dealership would only cover 30% of the cost to replace the entire motor.

How is a brand new truck gets 5 yr or 60,000 mile warranty yet I am now going to get a GM remanufactured motor with a 3 yr or 100,000 mile warranty??

Even better was I asked for trade in to buy the truck unrepaired and the dealership could do the repairs then sell the truck at their own time line. They offered me $21,500 for the truck. What a joke since my truck is literally one step below the Denali trim package.

SSMUFF · June 1, 2022

On 5/29/2022 at 12:28 AM, Easymoney said:

My 2014 5.3 the engine took a dump at 68k miles. Truck was maintained properly. Engine was back ordered 6 weeks at the beginning of the year. Here is whats left of cylinder #2.

Did you have it covered under warranty or did you fix out of pocket?

Easymoney · June 3, 2022

On 6/1/2022 at 7:07 AM, SSMUFF said:

Did you have it covered under warranty or did you fix out of pocket?

I had to pay to replace the engine. No assistance from chevrolet. Engine was back ordered 6 weeks. dealership said they had 3 other silverados waiting for an engine too.