Posted several days ago about failing cam/lifters with my 5.3 (AFM) at 95,000 miles. Always used Mobil 1 changed at 5,000 mile intervals. Along with that my truck has inoperative rear door locks, inoperative cruise control, and now only 2 speakers function when using the radio. Is the 2008 model year just a bad production year? My assumption is yes due to the recession that hit GM so hard.
Any others with similar issues with their 2008s? This truck is "babied" and sits in the garage until driven on the weekends.

 

Not to my knowledge, no. A coworker of mine has an 08 Silverado as well, and his has been fine. I guess it's one of those fluke things. Chances are, the speakers are all that is wrong with the radio, and the rear locks not working, is probably the lock actuators.

The lifters/camshaft issue, well that's plagued the 5.3 since it has been used. Valve springs breaking, lifters failing, camshafts being ground up, the valley lifter oil modules going bad, check valves in the oil pumps going bad, etc. Basically, I wouldn't buy an AFM 5.3 liter engine. My '04 silverado does not have all that garbage, and still gets decent MPGs.

 

That's encouraging. Also a damn good reason to trade up to a Ford.
A 7 year old vehicle that's always been parked in a garage, babied with synthetic oil, and with less than 95,000 miles with these failures is poorly built junk....not a fluke.


Thanks

 

As long as you read what you wanted to hear, I'm glad. Chances are, your ford will have issues too. Nothing is perfect, even at 95 thousand miles. Hope you get what you want out of that ford. A friend of mine couldn't stand his 2013 F350 because of transmission/driveline issues that could not be solved. Just traded his Ford F350 for a Denali 3500 and couldn't be happier. Maybe a little maintenance does more good than bad.

 

Yep. Like the old man told me...If it's got tires or **** its trouble...
The 5.3 AFM issue is the killer. GM could have made this right knowing they had a faulty product. Bottom line is they made their money on this one and that's what they are in business to do...not to make anyone's life better. I worked in a Chevy dealership from 1977 thru 1981 replacing camshafts and lifters because they made junk then. GM introduced the infamous X-body that had 11 recalls before the first batch were dropped off the transport truck. Yep this ones my fault. I am the fool for seeing their junk first hand and went and bought one anyway....cause I liked the look.
Men marry that way too I suppose...it ends in disaster at least 50% of the time.

 

Jeeze Nullhead, you're the first person whose made me happy I have the 4.8L. Despite being a GM man, I was apprehensive to get back into their trucks because, to me, the holy grail was always the 350 (5.7L). My 93 van has one, and it is a sweet engine. My 93 pickup had the old Vortech V-6 (4.3L). Not especially powerful, but one solid motor. Never gave me a bit of trouble.

Although I grouse everytime I fill up, the 4.8L is basic (compared to the AFM) and the GM 4-speed is a proven piece. Honestly, I'm perfectly happy with my truck and it does what I want it to do.

Jcat, good luck, but I've owned 3 Fords (Mercurys actually) and all of them have been plagued by electrical gremlins well short of 100K miles. The best of the bunch (and only one I still own) is a 07 Mercury Grand Marquis with 120K on the odo. It burns out rear window defrosters for sport and has power window issues. If you want radios that blink out, HVAC panels that die, and so forth, Ford's the way to go.

I also have a Jeep, if you REALLY want to spend money, buy a Chrysler product. And My Jeep is a pre-FIAT one.

 

The key point to take away from this conversation is that the Air Fuel Management 5.3L engine has issues. When I say issues, I say it as in I see these issues relatively often because I work at a GM dealer and it's my job to resolve said issues ...

That goes without saying, that unless you have NEVER maintenanced your engine properly, the issues are few a far between for the average consumer. The early production AFM 5.3L engines are more prone to failures than the later production engines, simply because the technology has improved since their initial debut. A broken valve spring is a fluke thing and can happen to any engine made by any manufacturer, not just General Motors. By no means does that mean that a broken valve spring mean that your engine is junk. Simply swapping the spring is typically all that is necessary.

The VLOM and oil pump check valve issues I typically relate to poor maintenance. That is not necessarily always the case, there is always parts that fail for no apparent reason.

I personally wouldn't purchase a truck with a AFM 5.3L engine, but a traditional 5.3L engine is a workhorse that thus far is almost living up to its predecessor's stout reputation.

 

I tend to agree Nullhead, based on what I've seen shopping for tires. I've spent a lot of time on tire sites and consumer reports reading reviews. What I generally found is when a tire had mostly positive reviews and a few generally negative ones, those negative reviewers did not like questions like "have you ever services you suspension?" Maintenance is one area where modern auto buyers tend to fall flat. One huge drawback to the "disposable car" society we live in is, you can basically abuse the hell out of a new car for 2-3 years and get away with it. When someone with that attitude keeps a vehicle or buys used, common with trucks and truck based SUVs due to the cost, they are bad to blame the brand as "bad" due to their own ignorance as to how to maintain a vehicle. I'm not necessarily saying this applies to jcat, but just as a general observation. I burned through several vehicles myself before I began to understand the importance of maintenance. I used to dread 100k as the time the vehicle is used up, and that can still be the case (see Jeep in my last comment��) but now going north of 100k is nothing and I expect to get a minimum of 150k out of a decently built vehicle.

 

I completely agree. Lack of maintenance in a "throw away" society is definitely a large cause of issues in today's automotive issues.

I don't think that's necessarily jcat's case though. Mobile 1 every 5 thousand miles is definitely commitment to a healthy engine. Seems like the dreaded midlife crisis happened to his truck sooner than expected.

 

I have a theory that may contradict what has been so far...

Personally, I have never had a powertrain issue with any GM vehicles that I have owned, but I always am sure to purchase the engines that are "proven" reliable, and the 5.3 Vortec is on that list.

Others include: 5.7 Vortec, 5.7TBI, 6.6L Duramax (NOT 07-10), 3800 V6 Not supercharged, 2.3L Honda Vtec

I don't know much about Active Fuel Management even though my truck has it. What I do know is that General Motors was in trouble starting in 2004 and 05, and being that I work as a tier 3-4 supplier, it's easy to see when an automaker struggles. GM cut corners on their designs starting in 2005 and we saw it in their vehicles from 2007-2012. I personally think that some of the ugliest and crappiest pieces of engineering popped out of the factories during this time including the Chevy Aveo, Sonic, Cobalt, Pontiac G6, etc.
My grandparents had a 2010 GMC Terrain followed by a 2012 Chevy Equinox and now a 2014 Equinox. Common sense dictates these vehicles would be the same. False. The 10' GMC was slow, steering was loose, seats were hard, Cheap hard plastic door panels. I hated that vehicle. The 12' chevy was worlds of improvement with identical options and motor, and the 14' is actually a pretty awesome vehicle.

Bottom Line, I refuse to buy a recession era General Motors Vehicle. They cut corners. They were lazy. They didn't have any money.

On the flip side, I tend to believe that every 100,000 miles tends to be a crossing point in a vehicles life that unfortunately requires you spend about 7-10% of the vehicles current value on a "refresh". This is when you generally have to do quite a bit of suspension work, brakes, ball joints, on some vehicles a timing belt/chain, tranny fluid, U-joints, etc etc etc.

If you bite the bullet and do a refresh, I'd be willing to bet the next 100,000 will be as easy as the first.