Likelihood of Lifter Failure on 6.2 2020 Escalade???

[Bucketlist]

I have a 2020 Escalade with a 6.2 engine. Vehicle has just over 25,000 miles. All engine oil changes have been performed at Cad Dealer using recommended intervals, oil and filter as I am paranoid about having a lifter failure and then faced with arguing service history with the Warranty Dept. I just re-read BigBore500r's post dated 3/14/16 "So Your GM 5.3 ate a lifter......". I also understand that recently a Class Action lawsuit has been filed against GM for both the 5.3 and 6.2 engine families in the date range of my 2020 6.2 engine.

My question is how many RDPee'rs have had or known someone with a GM family 6.2 engine lifter failure in the 2019 - 2020 date range? I am trying to guesstimate the likely hood of a future failure on my 6.2 and if there are any proactive measures I can take to prevent this without invalidating the factory warranty. Also in addition to the 5 year / 50,000 mi. factory warranty, I also purchased the GM factory authorized extended warranty with the longest mileage / time too. My Cad dealer service manager and service writer said they have not had many failures under warranty, and I an not necessarily believing this is a rare failure.

Thanks for your replies.

 

[DarkHorseRacing]

I think the biggest contributor to something going south in the valvetrain in the gm 6.2 is the dynamic cylinder shutoff.

Go to your dealer and have them disable that. It should improve the reliability because dirty oil won’t fail the system and throw a code.

I think most issues of the cylinder disabling is dirty oil. So for me I don’t wait for the car to tell me it’s time to change the oil I typically go in when the oil life monitor gets down to 20 or 30%.

 

[Big B Hova]

2020 Gm vehicles had bad lifter failure rates. Typically at 5-10k miles from what I read. Something to-do with covid supply issues

 

[brianwhiteboy]

Ughhh. The wifey has a 2020 Escalade with 18k miles on it . This is not news I want to hear.

It was a CPO so we have about four years of bumper-to-bumper.

 

[Bpracing1127]

Friends 2020 had to have all lifters and cam replaced

 

[Drew]

Happens all the time . It’s the fuel management system. There is a problem with it. Happen 3 times to me until I did a obd port delete.

 

[hman442]

I think that if the key, stop the cylinder delete process. When it gives the order to shut off cylinders, it empties the lifters of oil, then it relies on the "outer" coil spring on the delete lifters to keep them from bouncing. I don't think that always works and the lifters bounces, then turns in it's holder "bucket", then, there goes your cam.

 

[CLdrinker]

My buddy had a 2021 5.3 shit the bed. Chevy replaced the whole engine.

 

[mattyc]

The lifters are a multi-piece component. They have a hydraulic chamber like a traditional lifter with a second pushrod seat supported by a spring. There is a latching mechanism actuated by oil pressure fed to a dedicated port by a control solenoid. While I was at the dealer, every failure of an afm lifter was a latching mechanism failure which caused the lifter to get stuck in the compressed unlatched state but not allow independent movement of the two major components. Sometimes this would cause the lifter to rotate in the guide and cause other damage. That was usually when people continued to drive the vehicle despite hearing an obvious tapping noise caused by the additional lash.

The other problem that existed for awhile was what I believed to be improper heat treatment on the cam lobes. Cam would go flat and ruin the lifter roller. This occurred more so on non-afm lifters and is a different failure. I dont think that problem is still occuring on newer models.

The dealer can not and will not disable the active fuel management, that would be an aftermarket deal. Regular oil changes are certainly the best thing you can do to avoid failures, other than simply disabling the feature. The solenoids which control the lifter operation can be affected by dirty oil and not seal properly allowing a partial oil pressure signal to the lifter which can lead to failure.

I believe you are are on the right track for preparation of a possible failure. Proper maintenance, factory warranty and extended warranty, you should be covered. Where are you located?

 

[bk2drvr]

What’s different about the pre 2020 6.2 that makes it more tolerant to the problem? I had a 2012 Escalade with AFM and I sold with 200k miles on it with no lifter issues.

 

[rivrrts429]

We have a fleet of about forty 5.3’s in SoCal and around ten of them have had the lifters replaced. These are all 2019’s and newer. I can’t help with the 6.2’s but if it was me I’d be doing my due diligence as well.

 

[hallett3]

I just do this and it does work. The Range delete won’t work on 2019 on up. I know it’s a pain in the ass but it’s a option. The oils with the engines and transmission have to be very well maintained. I put a range delete on my Silverado because I had issues . Ever since I put it in the range delete, never had a problem. GM take on this issue, is minimum parts replacement until vehicles go out of warranty and it’s out of there hands. Best bet is get a extended warranty on your vehicle. Do some research on the AFM issues and it will piss you off that GM gets away with this shit.

 

[MK1MOD0]

It’s been such an issue, I can’t believe there hasn’t been a class action yet. GM fixes it just enough to get it over the warranty then washes their hands. Some people will get lucky...... but there is a large percentage that has had to deal With this problem for years.

 

[SBMech]

It's a shit design that is prone to mechanical failure, even worse the 19-22 models have absolute dogshit quality parts in them so that's the double whammy.

Service it half as often as recommended and use your favorite high quality parts, no jiffy lube and champ filters. Buy the factory extended mileage warranty and cross your fingers.

I would do just as I recommended along with an AFM defeat tool plugged in, so when it goes into service for any warranty issue you can easily remove it.

At the very least get an after market warranty, so if it does crap out on you, you only pay for a portion of the replacement engine.

 

[Bucketlist]

The lifters are a multi-piece component. They have a hydraulic chamber like a traditional lifter with a second pushrod seat supported by a spring. There is a latching mechanism actuated by oil pressure fed to a dedicated port by a control solenoid. While I was at the dealer, every failure of an afm lifter was a latching mechanism failure which caused the lifter to get stuck in the compressed unlatched state but not allow independent movement of the two major components. Sometimes this would cause the lifter to rotate in the guide and cause other damage. That was usually when people continued to drive the vehicle despite hearing an obvious tapping noise caused by the additional lash.

The other problem that existed for awhile was what I believed to be improper heat treatment on the cam lobes. Cam would go flat and ruin the lifter roller. This occurred more so on non-afm lifters and is a different failure. I dont think that problem is still occuring on newer models.

The dealer can not and will not disable the active fuel management, that would be an aftermarket deal. Regular oil changes are certainly the best thing you can do to avoid failures, other than simply disabling the feature. The solenoids which control the lifter operation can be affected by dirty oil and not seal properly allowing a partial oil pressure signal to the lifter which can lead to failure.

I believe you are are on the right track for preparation of a possible failure. Proper maintenance, factory warranty and extended warranty, you should be covered. Where are you located?

MATTYC………Thank you for your time and detailed explanation. I live in Irvine and Tustin Cadillac is my servicing Dealer. I typically drive my vehicles 175,000 to 225,000 miles before I replace them. My biggest fear is that the engine fails outside of the extended warranty. Sounds like you worked in the Service Dept. At a GM Dealer from the depth of your knowledge. Maybe this is another question you can answer……… when the engine fails and the dealer repairs it ( warranty or customer pay), do the repairs or even an entire engine replacement include redesigned parts to prevent another failure in the future?

thanks,

 

[Bucketlist]

Thanks to all who have replied. Addressing some of the comments above…….. a Class Action suit has been brought against GM. I don’t know where it stands and cant begin to guess how it will all be settled. I do have an extended warranty but since i typically drive my vehicles far beyond those mileage limits, I am fearing a failure outside of warranty. As far as comments on shutting off the cause of these engine failures which is the AFM system, the Dealers will not perform this work, and I have decided to Not do this either while the vehicle is still in factory or extended warranty periods. Doing so would certainly invalidate the engine warranty. I have also heard that plugging in an AFM defeat tool will be recorded in the vehicle memory, and if true then upon a lifter failure GM would not honor a warranty claim. Thank you to Hallet3 for the informative “Range Delete video. But as stated it wont work on 2019 models and above. Rivrrats429…….. thanks for posting your 5.3 fleet experience. Which has a staggering 25% failure rate. Please keep xperiencs, ideas and comments coming!

 

[hman442]

So, the way I understand it, after years of installing 8 lifters in the engine, that collapse on command, and can cause issues, and have caused many issues, the new "Dynamic " on Demand installs all 16 collapsing lifters into the engine. I'm a G.M. guy, but c'mon, was that necessary ? Aren't the tranny problems enough, do we really need the DFM issues ?

 

[mattyc]

MATTYC………Thank you for your time and detailed explanation. I live in Irvine and Tustin Cadillac is my servicing Dealer. I typically drive my vehicles 175,000 to 225,000 miles before I replace them. My biggest fear is that the engine fails outside of the extended warranty. Sounds like you worked in the Service Dept. At a GM Dealer from the depth of your knowledge. Maybe this is another question you can answer……… when the engine fails and the dealer repairs it ( warranty or customer pay), do the repairs or even an entire engine replacement include redesigned parts to prevent another failure in the future?

thanks,

No, the service parts have not been redesigned in any way to my knowledge. BUT, my knowledge is somewhat limited since I left the dealer in 2017. I know the principles of the afm system has not changed, but I think it's likely gm made some changes to improve reliability, though it appears any changes were unsuccessful.

There is talk of poor design and lawsuit etc, this problem is not limited to GM, chrysler has had the same problems with valvetrain in their hemi motors with cylinder deactivation. I dont think it's really a poor design as much as there are a lot of hurdles to overcome when trying to accomplish a valve lifter deactivation. The afm system by nature is complex and with complexity comes problems. The manufacturers are having to utilize this crap in order to meet emissions standards.

Going back to engine replacements as a result of this, I made these repairs lots of times while at the dealer and I only remember one instance where the lifter rotated in the guide and got lodged in the bore resulting in an engine replacement. I would argue that those situations are the result of someone not paying attention and or not caring and continuing to drive the vehicle despite an obvious tapping noise. If you shut it off when it happens, there really is no damage and certainly shouldnt leave any debris that would cause problems later. If inspected closely and repaired properly, it should not require repeat visits.

As far as using a device to disable the feature, I'm not sure where a technician would look to see if that has been used. The guys at the dealer dont have the ability to retrieve this information. The only time aftermarket devices or programming came into play was when we submitted a warranty claim for a "major component " replacement, that would be an engine, transmission, transfer case or drive axle REPLACEMENT. If simply making a repair such as lifter replacement, programming was not required to be checked and verified. We had lots of aftermarket shit come through and we looked the other way. We would do the work and get paid, why bother making an issue out of it? Anyway, this is all applicable up until 2017, I dont know if policies have changed since then.

 

[Cobalt232]

Luckily due to the chip shortage, our 2021 with the 6.2 does not have cylinder deactivation. It has the stupid stop/start still though.

 

[attitude]

Luckily due to the chip shortage, our 2021 with the 6.2 does not have cylinder deactivation. It has the stupid stop/start still though.

It sure is going to be fun buying a 2020-2022 vehicle used and figuring out what works and what doesn’t lol.