07 Tahoe LTZ lifter issue

[Rywith22]

New to the forum, got an '07 Tahoe LTZ this past Friday with 95,000 miles on it in Ft. Lauderdale, FL. About 2 hours after purchase, I drove it to GA for the weekend. Everything was fine, drove great, had no issues except that the cruise control wouldn't work. So, I found a fix on this forum and got it taken care of.
Monday morning, headed back to S. FL. With the cruise control now working, I could take advantage of the Active Fuel Management option and use less gas on the trip....About an hour and half into the trip, the Stabilitrak/Service Stabilitrak light came on and then about 30 seconds after that the check engine light came on and was flashing. I immediately pulled over and looked at the manual and did what it suggested, turn car off and wait a few minutes and see if it clears. Well, it didn't. As it turns out, I was less than 1 mile from an exit and there was a Discount Auto Parts right there. I drove there, very slowly with my flashers on and it was very jumpy to say the least. Discount Auto hooked up their computer thingy and it said there was a misfire on cylinder 6. I did get an extended warranty with the truck so I asked where the nearest Chevy dealer was and it was also close by so I brought it there.
They came back and told me that I was getting no compression on the cylinder (#6), and that I'd need a new cam shaft and lifters. They spoke to the warranty company and we had them tear it down so the warranty company could determine what caused the issue and see if it's covered under the warranty.
After tearing it down, it was determined that the lifter had collapsed. So, I'm waiting to hear back from the warranty company to see if the lifter is a covered part, crossing fingers....In the meantime, I've been doing some research and came across some TSB's that stated there are some possible issues with the Active Fuel Management causing lifter issues on some of the cylinders (#6 being one of the ones mentioned). Am I barking up the wrong tree?? Anyways, I wanted to see if anyone else had any similar issues or could give me any advice.


Thanks in advance.

 

[Scott2828]

I just had the same issue on my '07 Yukon. The family was headed out of town for a weekend trip when the CEL started flashing and began to idle rough. We happened to be a mile from my dealer so I stopped in and he immediately pulled the same code. He said it was likely a fuel issue and to fill up with premium next tank.

I somewhat believed him simply because of other issues I'd recently had with my boat and atv's thanks to Ethanol. But I also thought it very suspicious I had them change the oil the day before and thought it might be related. He cleared the code and sent us all on our way saying it should be fine with some fresh gas. Whatever!

The next morning while at the hotel the CEL came on and it said no oil pressure, stop immediately. We had it towed to the local dealership in that town and cut our vaca short. The dealer tore into it and a week later said it needed an oil pump, cam shaft, and lifters. Total bill was over $4k. What a joke!

The Yukon only had 74k miles and was only 4 months out of warranty. I called GM and they did work with me simply because I had all maintenance and oil changes recorded through my local dealer and because I was so close out of warranty. And I told them my other dealer looked at it and sent me on my way. I still ended up paying over $2k for it, though. It was 3 weeks before I got the details worked out with GM and the repairs done.

I would love to know how many others have had cam shaft and lifter problems.

 

[Rywith22]

Scott, that's awesome that GM worked with you a little bit out of your warranty. That sort of thing is always good to see that a big company would do stuff like that for their customers. Did you ever get an official explanation as to what caused this??

On a side not, mine finally got taken care of. The warranty company was really trying to give me the run around.....3 days after the incident, the warranty company sent out an inspector to look at everything and he concluded that the lifter had collapsed causing the timing chain and camshaft to go and he recommneded the engine be replaced. He also confirmed what the dealership guy thought in that it was NOT pre-existing, he said it looked like a catastrophic event. Well, it took the warranty company 11 days to finally come to the decision that it was not going to be covered, because in their opinion it was "pre-existing". Well, I called them and seriously WENT OFF. I asked how the person they hired to come out and do the inspection as well as the company that took the engine apart in the first place, both said it wasn't pre-exisiting, how did they decide that it was? Well, they put me on hold and after about 10 minutes they gave me some guy in the claims department who finally told me that he was going to call me back which he did the next morning and said they were going to cover it. So, finally they took care of it....They replaced the engine and I finally got it back....FINALLY.

 

[Tam Lebofsky]

Had the same thing happen to my 07 Tahoe LTZ. Cylinder 7 had a calapsed lifter. Extended warranty company refused to repair both sides. I paid a hefty bit that the warranty company wouldn't pay. 3 weeks later I got the truck back. 3 weeks after that #6 lifter calapsed that was on the side the warranty company wouldn't fix as a preventive measure. The AFM motor is junk if it is engaged. If you are driving, put your window down, release the gas pedal. If your engine sounds like a sewing machine in 4 cyl mode, get rid of the truck.

 

[lamerem]

Going round and round with GM on my 2011. UGH

 

[Tam Lebofsky]

I used to love chevy. But after their unwillingness to do anything about this rediculous problem that is Cleary the engineering of an engine they changed to meet the fuel economy demands. But the system doesn't even work. Owners have reported that with the afm disengaged there is no real fuel mileage difference. Shame on GM.