5.3 blown lifter @ 85000 km!!

Martiallterrain · January 10, 2018

Hey guys I’m new to the forum but I’ve been a long time subscriber since I bought my 14 Sierra new in feb 2014. So I’ve read lots of horror stories on the site and I thought I’d tell you guys about my experience.

A few weeks ago over 5r holidays, my girlfriend and I were returning a uhaul after moving and she was following in my truck, she called to say that the check engine light was on and the truck had reduced power. We dropped off the uhaul and I hopped in and could tell it was misfiring and had a rough idle. I took it to my local mechanic and he told me cylinder 4 was misfiring and he tried a coil pack but that didn’t fix it, he did a compression test and it was holding compression but he told me this was gonna be a bigger problem.

luckily I still had powertrain warranty so I contacted the dealership that I bought the truck from and they had me tow it there using gm roadside. So my first hats off to gm, the lady I had on the phone from roadside assistance asked her manager to waive the tow fee as I was having it towed to my home dealership that was > than the 50 miles that they cover for free.

Once the truck made it to the dealership, it only took the. A couple of hours to figure out I had a failed lifter and broken rod for cylinder #4. Now I was freaking out because I’ve read horror stories on this site about having to argue with regional managers for warranty work this significant and I’ve heard dealerships arbitrarily saying work isn’t covered under warranty for whatever reason. Thankfully I can say my service advisor set me up with a rental the same day and reassured me that everything would be covered by gm. He did say parts were on backorder and it would take approx 2 weeks. Almost 2 weeks to the day, truck was ready to be picked up with 0 hassle the entire time.

This is my 3rd truck with the 5.3 and the only time I’ve had a significant mechanical issue. The truck only had 85000 km (around 50k miles) sure I was PO’d that my truck was out of commission for 2 weeks but I was extremely thankful that gm stood behind their product and was able to fix the truck for me. The truck seems to run fine now but I don’t know if I will keep it as I don’t know if it will be the same or if the issue will reoccur. I do know that my next truck will definite be another Chevy or Sierra. I can’t wait to see the reveal of the new Chevy this weekend at Detroit!

Jut thought I would post a positive warranty repair story and throw a kudos out to gm for making things right with me

bwilliams22685 · January 11, 2018

Awesome story. Glad to hear GM stood my their product. We always hear or see the bad side of things. Be sure to include the dealer you used so hopefully any one else around can use them for service.

Martiallterrain · January 11, 2018

3 hours ago, bwilliams22685 said:

Awesome story. Glad to hear GM stood my their product. We always hear or see the bad side of things. Be sure to include the dealer you used so hopefully any one else around can use them for service.

Oh yeah that’s the most important part! It was Mills Motors in Oshawa Ontario, I would recommend them to anyone.

mookdoc6 · January 11, 2018

GM did and does stand behind their products which is one reason I keep buying! Glad to hear they took care of you. As for the lifters dropping on these engines and and rod's failing well your luck It would have you. I would not hesitate to keep the truck so a weak link was removed and your back to SOLID! GM having horrible trans tuning to deliver that excellent fuel mileage is absolutely problematic but ecotec 3's dropping lifters absolutely not!