Talk about disappointment.... Suburban content inside....

it happened to my 08 burb, right at 100k. the warranty would only cover what broke, so they would only pull one head and change 4 lifters and carriers. the other side failed 3 weeks later. i sold it off and bought my ford. that was, and will always be, the LAST GM i ever own.

-J0N

Knurled wrote:

NickD wrote: It's not as common as sayyyyyy, pistons and rings and timing chains in the Equinox/Terrain 2.4L. Literally they need new pistons, rings and timing chains every 50K, unless the owner blows it up from running it out of oil or it jumping timing, in which case it gets a new engine.

I have never once seen that happen, and I've had plenty of 2.4 engine customers since new. Curious. On the other hand, we do 3000mi oil service intervals, too, now with semi synthetic oil. No extended intervals unless the customer ignores the sticker. Oil life is usually in the 40-50% remaining range at this point.

I work at a fairly small dealership (Largest in the area, but small in the grand scheme of things) and one of our techs went 10 weeks straight where he was overhauling at least 1, sometimes 2 Equinox/Terrain engines a week. And it's rare for him to go more than 2 weeks without rebuilding one. We have also had upwards of 3 2.4Ls getting timing chains and/or pistons. When you consider we have 10 techs, that means they take up a sizeable majority of our work.

There is a special coverage/warranty extension from GM on 2.4Ls for oil consumption (I once had one that near the end was burning 3 quarts of oil every 1000 miles) as well as a warranty extension on timing chains. Despite the number of timing chains we do, we have yet to see cash timing chains on a 2.4L, thanks to that. And oil change intervals don't seem to affect if they need all that work, it just seems to change when they need it. Seen ones that have been meticulously maintained with 3000 mile OCIs and they need it at 80-100K. By and large though, they are all rattling like diesels by 50000.

In fairness to the board, "i'll never buy another gm E36 M3box ever again look at my new ford" was warned, as soon as he posted his suburban purchase, to get the module that disables AFM by several people and I believe the answer was something to the effect of "blah blah warranty blah blah." Then came the "holy carp it broke" post, at which time I didn't have the heart to say I told you so. Well, we told you so. When you cover your ears and go "lalalala I can't hear you " it's on you.

The system is crap, but you can stop it from happening. I didn't know until it was too late and had to put an engine in my wife's 9-7x. I replaced the AFM 2007 5.3 with a regular old 2010 4.8 LY2. Same HP, less torque. Can feel the difference if you mash it from a stop but otherwise feels like the same thing. Better mpg too.

In reply to patgizz:

And for all the Ford people, I can't count how many people I've known with Ford Modular-engine trucks that were sidelined for camshaft phaser failures and din't want to pony up the $3000 to have them fixed. All vehicles are junk, they all break, they all have their particular pricey issues.

And as for the "They said there was only problems with one side" that's just E36 M3 service from that dealership. Whenever there's one of those in our shop, we tell GM that both banks had issues (even if it was only one side) so that we can get both sides covered and then what happened to jmthunderbirdturbo doesn't happen.

patgizz wrote: In fairness to the board, "i'll never buy another gm E36 M3box ever again look at my new ford" was warned, as soon as he posted his suburban purchase, to get the module that disables AFM by several people and I believe the answer was something to the effect of "blah blah warranty blah blah." Then came the "holy carp it broke" post, at which time I didn't have the heart to say I told you so. Well, we told you so. When you cover your ears and go "lalalala I can't hear you " it's on you.

i remember that. YEp... nothing like ignoring information then goin all "I'll never buy [insert make here] again." I think Ron White describes it best....

NickD wrote: In reply to patgizz: All vehicles are junk, they all break, they all have their particular pricey issues.

This thread's executive summary.

maj75 wrote: Did you do a compression test? That porcelain could have messed with the rings, cylinder or valves. Did you refresh the valves and seals?

You'd be surprised how often this happens with no ill effects.

I've also seen a head off for other reasons and it looked like a bomb went off in the cylinder. But good compression before and after.

I hate to bump and old thread but just buy a 6.0 and not worry about DoD issues? These all seem like 5.3 problems.

IE: I'm starting to look at this era burb now.