Hi all - newb member here.

After reading the following, I'm hoping someone might be able to lend some advice on how to push Chevrolet customer service into helping me under warranty.

I have what appears to be a fairly common problem out there: mysterious oil consumption in the Vortec 5.3 engine on my 2007 Suburban.

The Chev. company line has been "Chevy says its normal and expected for this engine to 'use up / consume' 1 qt oil in 3K miles" I say no way! I started accepting this at around 50K miles, but now we're at the point that 1 qt is gone in 1K miles. No leaks, puddles, etc. Just once in a while a puff of smoke and occasional smell - so it is definately burning slowly.

Latest experience is that we used 2/3 qt. of oil on a 400 mile trip! This has led to additional complications: the "service stability" alert came on several times as we experienced choppy idle. Vehicle was brought in for service where they indicated that there were multiple cylinder mis-firings causing the idle issue as well as a signal to the Stabilitrac system. Their diagnosis: Need $200 spark plug replacement at 78K miles. I refused, so they cleaned them up and problems are all gone for now.

Obviously, a properly tuned vehcile with properly functioning valve seals would not permit oil to seep where it can be burned and carbon-foul the plugs.

My dealer's service department refuses to contact Chevrolet and expects me to do it. So I will ... but I'm hoping others might have been through this and can lend advice for dealing with Chevrolet under warranty?

Any other data available from people who might have gone through this: such as part numbers of warranty repair kits or TSB numbers related to the issue?

Any GM service techs out there with insider information?

Really appreciate any help you can offer!!

 

there's nothing your dealer can do about it. i promise you that. chevrolet will NOT reimburse a dealer for anything involving that. we see lots of problems in these nbs trucks burning oil, and chevrolet has issued two statements about them

1. 1 qt in 3000 miles is normal
2. 1 qt in a continual 500 mile trip is normal (HOLY ****)

but like i said, nothing your dealer can do... oh and you didn't hear this from me!

 

Would you agree that the dealer can do something once GM corporate authorizes it, or are you suggesting that everyone at Chev/GM would just blow this off.

 

Wow I was just going to post a thread about this. My wife's 2002 Yukon with a 5.3 has just started doing this. We took the truck to Daytona which is about 600 or so miles from where we live. The truck passed it's scheduled 3000 miles oil change on the way there and since I like doing my own maintenance I just figured I would wait till we got home to change it. When we got back (so that is over a 1200 mile round trip pulling a trailer) her truck was almost 2 quarts (1 3/4 to be exact) low on oil. This truck has never been a drop low since we have owned it. It is completely dry underneath which means it is burning it. I changed the oil and we had to go down to South Georgia for a funeral (about 900 mile round trip) this past week and when I got home yesterday it was a 1/4 of a quart low again. So is the answer to replace the valve seals? Has anyone done this job? I have done them on older Chevy V-8's but not on a newer Vortec motor. I assume it will be a similar job if that's the case.

 

well yeah im sure there's a way to fix it, im not sure where its getting out, because we can't diagnose it without either customer pay or gm pay, and gm is refusing to pay for it

 

How many miles are on ya's vehicles? My Sierra has 105K and it only uses a half a quart between oil changes and that is every 5K miles.

 

102K on mine.

 

I just did a little research and some have had their issue resolved by replacing the PCV with the fixed orifice type (basically a hollowed out PCV), others have had it fixed by changing the valve covers (supposedly there is a different design in the replacement ones in the PCV area), while others have had their valve seals replaced, and lastly some have had new rings installed. WOW! I don't want to go through that. Since mine did it for the first time on a trip pulling a trailer and another trip that was continuous high speeds I am going to monitor it now that we should be just around town driving for a while. For GM to say that 1 quart every 2000 miles is normal is ridiculous. I guess they should start including some spare oil along with the spare tire. I am going to stash a spare quart or 2 in the truck with me.
I wonder if it is caused by the "normal" piston slap that the newer Vortec motors have been plagued with!?!?!!?

 

we're putting valve covers on the newer style (07 up) 5.3s now. the problem is in the pcv valve as mr shamrock has said. im unsure about who's having to pay for it, but surely its covered by warranty.

 

My neighbor had same problem on his 2 yes 2 Avalanches took it to another dealer and put in the next weight oil, as in same as Duramax 15 40 ? Chevron Delo. Solved problem.