After never having any engine problems for 100,000 miles, my truck just started the dreaded GM oil consumption. It was 2 quarts short when I changed the oil yesterday. No indicators on the dash to warn of this. Also I've been driving in manual 5 mode to disable the AFM.
On June 24, 2015 SES light comes Oil Life at 15% Oil pressure gauge is at 20psi. Take in for an oil change dealership scans for codes find code P0521. Replace Oil pressure sender/switch. Everything was fine has Oil Changed again on 1/13/2016 Oil Life at 15%. Then 7/12/2016 SES light comes on oil life at 15% call dealership to have oil changed and SES light code scanned. Of coarse as I was driving to the dealership on 7/19/2016 to have the truck serviced the light goes off. Dealership wants me to pay to have it scanned since the SES light was off. On 1/03/2017 SES light comes on oil life at 15%. I buy a OBD II to scan it myself code P0521 again.
Call dealership by the time we could get our schedules to not conflict we get it in on 1/26/2016. Come to find out truck only had 2.5qrts. of oil. Oil that did come out was really sludgy. Service manager said they were going to perform TSB # 10-06-01-008. Replaced Oil pump, Valve Cover and installed Shield to oil valve. Bleed the cooling system. so far everything is working fine it is early though will be checking oil every 1000 miles to make sure everything is working as it should. GM Oil Life monitoring system is a fail also dealership has recommended not going by that but 5000-6000 miles.
This is a known problem the TSB# has updated 13 times. It is time for GM to pony up and recall these engines.
Have spoken with 2 different GM reps and both have stated they will not repair the issue of excessive oil consumption as it falls within their guidelines of use! Many independent mechanics have proven an issue as well as TSB on the problem..my 2012 Sierra with the 5.3 only has 136,000Kms and uses at least a litre of oil between oil changes....I have had other GM vehicles as other people have that do not use any oil..sad that a person spends their hard earned money only to get screwed in the end by companies that don't care once they got your money! I have lost all respect for GM and am going to look into legal action here in Canada like the lawsuit that is going on in Minnesota
- Brad D.,
Edmonton, AB, Canada
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This started back in June - contacted dealer they put me on a consumption watch and document I've been doing that for almost two oil changes and have to add oil every 1000 miles ..I've called GMC who was rude and threw me back to dealer ..they wouldn't even give me their name ...dealer told me we are staying on consumption watch ..so basically they are doing nothing and saying its normal ..dealer was not helpful nor GMC
Excess oil consumption. Add two litres every 2500 km. Frequent dealer visits to document oil consumption. Common complaint online for Active Fuel Management 5.3L engines. Wish we had known about this issue prior to buying GMC for its reliability.
Update from Oct 21, 2014: We ended up having the engine rebuilt essentially. There was a part missing that allowed oil to splash up into the valves. Apparently more common on earlier engines and was to have been fixed on our model year. It took many trips to the dealer who was wonderful to us before the problem was solved. Too many days of lost contract work due to this problem on the work vehicle caused financial hardship. We bought new to avoid this type of issue too. We will never own another GM vehicle again once our Cobalt goes away. Thankfully we don't have the G6 any longer it was a bad car too. Oh the stories I could tell.....
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
After never having any engine problems for 100,000 miles, my truck just started the dreaded GM oil consumption. It was 2 quarts short when I changed the oil yesterday. No indicators on the dash to warn of this. Also I've been driving in manual 5 mode to disable the AFM.
- Will Q., Mobile, AL, US