Lift Kit - Warranty Voided

[BlackTrailBoss]

He has a '21 that had the issue at low mileage which means his truck was part of the "bad batch' period...those trucks see their lifters break at REALLY low mileage. The "regular" trucks generally breaks in the 60-80k range. Furthermore, if you don't have one of the "bad batch" trucks, there's really no need to replace both banks. It's not like the replacement lifters are anything new (they haven't done any redesigning or fixes) so they're just putting in the same lifters. One could argue that it's smarter to hang onto lifters that have XX,XXX miles on them without breakage than to roll the dice on a new unknown set.

I’ve heard about the bad batch period of course. Luckily my 2021 wouldn’t be considered that since I’m over 50k miles and no issues. However, if they’re simply replacing the bad lifters with the same exact lifters, then why did they break in the first place? I was under the impression that these bad lifters were faulty in some way or another.

 

[The Raven]

I’ve heard about the bad batch period of course. Luckily my 2021 wouldn’t be considered that since I’m over 50k miles and no issues. However, if they’re simply replacing the bad lifters with the same exact lifters, then why did they break in the first place? I was under the impression that these bad lifters were faulty in some way or another.

Yes - the "bad batch" lifters had a defect. But that's only the 9/20-3/21 built engines...and as we all know, those aren't the only ones breaking, they just break earliest. But if I recall, the SOP for engines with those build dates is to just replace both banks regardless of which one broke. It's all the other trucks that we're talking about here...the ones that didn't get the "bad batch". They have lifters break simply because of physics - more stuff equals more stuff to break (this is why the DFM trucks have more failures than the AFM trucks - they have more of the stupid lifters). There is no fix for these lifters because there's nothing "wrong" with them per se. Certainly one could argue that since the engines without DFM/AFM don't break, clearly there is a problem with the lifters...but really the problem is the inclusion of the system itself. It's a poor design choice brought on by the continued insistence by our government to try to legislate technological advancement.

I will soon be weighing the cost and complication of removing the system altogether on my truck vs extending the powertrain warranty as far as possible. If there's anything useful to be learned from my research, i'll create a thread about it here.

 

[PHXPHOTOG]

I'm not so sure they are the same lifters. General Motors has been incredibly tight mouthed about the entire lifter issue. Replacement liffters are sometimes very hard to come by. At first they told me my truck would sit for an indefinite amount of time before the parts came in. Once everything got approved they arrived in two weeks. I'm not so sure they are putting just any old lifter from inventory in trucks that break. I asked both my local guys and national representative that question. Are the replacements the same lifters? Everyone gave me the same company answer "All I can tell you is we have never seen a truck come back with a broken replacement lifter."

 

[The Raven]

Are the replacements the same lifters? Everyone gave me the same company answer "All I can tell you is we have never seen a truck come back with a broken replacement lifter."

They definitely are. We've seen several posts here from guys who have had replacements break. Furthermore, there are only two lifter designs out there - and they are the same design except for outer shell length. GM uses the shorter shell and FCA uses the full-length shell. My dealer fixed the same escalade three times...however, interestingly enough...they have yet to do a 5.3 lifter replacement. I dunno if that's because they simply sold a lot more 6.2's or perhaps the extra power the 6.2 makes or the type of driver it attracts could be explanations for that.

 

[OhighoTB]

Bought my 21 tb w/ 6.2 with 19k miles in November. Was checking at another dealer for something. They told me the engine had been replaced at 15k. Any idea why? Unless guy just drove it with lifter failure until damaged more. The dealer I bought it from and did the work, said the guy complained of a ticking noise and GM reps were around. That's all they would tell me. But got a newer engine.