Lifter Issues on ‘21s Being Delivered to Dealers

[wsteele]

I was an electrician who worked trouble shooting these very systems. If it is just a bad batch of lifters then GM has done a terrible job of finding and fixing the problem or they placed production and profit above all else sacrificing quality and reputation. Either scenario is extremely troubling. It would require a very long time of no reporting these problems before I would ever buy one and that is coming form someone who had anticipated the redesign for two years before they came to market.

One other thing, these lifters failure have been occurring since the introduction of AFM.

It took GM over two years to determine what the root cause of the AFM oil consumption problem actually was and how to remedy it. It has been what, 12 months since the first big wave of lifter failures started in the 21 MY? I guess even ISO 9000 has its limitations.

I agree AFM/DFM lifters can fail, but conventional lifters fail as well. Long before the MY ‘21 issues cropped up (and I had bought a MY21 truck), I had read all about the dreaded AFM lifter failure problem (guess where? You got it, the Internet).

I went into my guy at the local dealer and asked him point blank that I had been reading all about AFM lifter failures, that he knew my Yukon was pretty long in the tooth and if we should replace the AFM lifters or maybe do an AFM lifter delete? His response was, I have never had a customer truck that had an AFM lifter fail, zero. Just drive it and keep maintaining it like you do and you will be fine.

I will say, after his recent episode of dealing with these nightmarish lifter issues in the early 21MY, he also is no fan of DFM, but he is not worried about the engines they have done the full 16 on.

I couldn’t agree with your more that GM has done a terrible job of managing this issue, but I don’t believe it is anything more than a batch of crap Covid pandemic quality control parts that an otherwise trusted supplier shipped to GM. Do I think Melling or whoever else supplies these lifter to GM can screw up again? Sure. Do I think my engine might have a lifter failure sometime in the future? It might. Am I going to lose sleep over it, even when if it gets to out of warranty status, nope. If I end up having to replace the lifters in my truck at 61K miles, I won’t be thrilled, but It also won’t impact my lifestyle.

Crimany, by the time I have 61K miles on this beast, they likely will be chasing me down the road with scythes and torches, for despoiling the environment. My daughter calls my truck the Exxon Valdez…

 

[Tayers]

Cross-posting in this thread as I saw it after the other thread:

Their Corporate response to me in addressing my lifter failure at 12,995 miles on my 21 Denali, which stranded me 400 miles from home is “we’re sorry you were inconvenienced and understand your frustration. Please accept 200,000 My GMC Rewards points to feel better.”

My repeated requests for an extended powertrain warranty were denied as was my request to have the remaining lifters in the engine replaced. I’ll get a sweet deal on some OEM GM accessories though, oh boy!!! I emailed a link to the GM Authority to the rep handling my case and said my demand still stands I get an extended powertrain warranty. Have any of you here with lifter failures received an extended warranty?

After almost 6 weeks of calls to GM, I did get an extended warranty.