One of the most serious problems you can face in an engine, and one that brings with it an extremely high repair bill that can get up to around $1,000, cracked cylinder heads were an issue that popped up with some Chevy 5.3 litre engines. In conjunction with this there were also symptoms related to engine misfires as well as some rough idling that would indicate this was the particular problem that this engine was facing. Not only did this lead to that excessive oil consumption problem but the number 1 and number 7 spark plugs would fail prematurely. Regardless of which one was the cause of it, one of them ended up spraying oil around the piston ring grooves that led to carbon buildup. In general, this was caused by either the active fuel management system or a problem with the positive crankcase ventilation system. Carbon build-up caused by the PCV valve and the valve cover could end up causing the spark plugs to fail. This typically happens in engines manufactured from 2007 to 2011. The 5.3 L Vortec engines also had a problem with carbon buildup around the spark plugs. That buildup of oil and burnt fuel led to carbon buildup that ended up decreasing the volume of air through the intake in these engines. Since Ecotec engines don't use high pressure fuel flow they tended to get gunked up a little more easily. The 5.3L Vortec engine used port injection fuelling and the Ecotec3 engine used direct fuel injection. Considering that the AFM only managed to improve fuel economy by about 10%, it wasn't that big of a loss and the hassle it saved by ensuring you didn't have to frequently buy new oil and do oil changes was probably worth it to just shut down.
#Type 3 engine drivers#
The same fix applied for the Ecotec engine as works for the Vortec engine where drivers had to shut off the AFM system. In fairness, it seemed to be reported less often than it did in the older 5.3 L Vortec engines, but it still popped up for some drivers who had the newer engines as well. Ironically, the Ecotec3 engine did not really solve this problem with the AFM system. As will see however the Ecotec3 5.3 L engine also has had its share of problems. Unfortunately, if you're experiencing excessive oil consumption, you're going to run out much sooner than you would think, and without this monitoring system in place then the risk of damage to the engine was severe.Ĭhevy retired the Vortec 5300 engine in the year 2013 and it was instead replaced with an Ecotec3 5.3 L engine which was supposed to have solved this problem. Normally if the low oil warning doesn't pop up you would still have a rough idea of what to expect because of the standard amount of time between oil changes. The result of this was their engine essentially running out of oil causing serious damage as a result. Unfortunately, in some of these engines that system doesn't work properly, and some drivers reported some serious engine problems because they weren't warned that they needed more oil. This relates to the sensors that let you know when you're running low on oil so that a warning light will come up on your dashboard to alert you to this fact and you can do something about it. There were also problems with the oil life monitoring systems in these engines. Normally in a vehicle like a Chevy Silverado you should be changing the oil every 3,000 miles to 5,000 miles.Ī temporary fix for this was that you could actually turn off the active fuel management system in your vehicle, but it didn't really address the base cause of the issue. Unfortunately, this ended up putting some drivers in a position to use a new quart of oil every 1,000 to 2,000 miles or so. Effectively what this does is turn your 8-cylinder engine into a 4-cylinder engine while you're driving in an effort to use less fuel and save you some money at the pumps over time. Chevy uses the active fuel management system to turn off cylinders while driving to optimize fuel efficiency. The problem is linked to an active fuel management system problem. These were definitely more than what you would expect to be using up in a normal engine, which does make it a stand out problem and one you should be aware of if you're looking for a vehicle that was made between those years using this engine. Generation 4 Chevy 5.3 L engines, the ones that were made from 2010 through 2014 had some notable issues with excessive oil consumption. If you're wondering if the 5.3 V8 is a good engine, here are some of the more common problems that drivers have faced with their 5.3 litre Chevy engine.Īs we said, the 5.3 L Chevy engine has been mostly reliable but there are a number of problems that are more specific to these engines that you may want to be on the lookout for. Unfortunately, no matter how reliable an engine is, they're always going to be problems if you pop up.
0 kommentar(er)
