John M
Well-known Member
- Location
- Nunyafn business
I posted the other day about the issues with my 13 Silverado with the 5.3 and wanted to follow up. SO I droped it off at another trusted mechanic in the area. He wasted no time and plugged up his scan tool while I was there. after 15 minutes or so, he agreed with the Chevy tech that neither the sending unit nor the gauge was the problem. By his scan tool both passed the tests, until at random the sending unit failed for less than 3/4 second and the CEL came back on. He stopped at that point for the day, but it was really more or less for me to show him, or hm to show me what was wrong. Calls me the next day, and breaks the news that he has changed the sending unit, and the tiny filter under it, and checked all the wiring, and has determined it was NOT the sending unit and wanted to go deeper. I approved but gave him a budget as I didt have much to invest in repairs due to ever increasing doctor bills! Simple thing forst, oil and filter - no change, pulled pan because there is a history of the pickup tube o ring going bad - No fix with a new ring. Finally pulled the new sending umit and piped in a manual gauge, no more pressue than what was being shown on the dash. Compression test was next and was, what he said, great. It was at that point he stopped because he personally doesnt go deeper than that, after all he is just a small shop that mainly does oil changes, brakes, etc., but did recommend a different place close by. I dropped it off there, and they looked at it Thursday. They concluded after several hours of diagnosis that the only possible cause was the cam bearings were wore due to the AFM system. Im not sure how they verified the issue, but he did say something about pulling the intake. A that point my budget was all but gone, so I told them to reassemble it. We arrived to pick it up and put it in the garage until money was better, and he showed me some very fine metal particles he wiped off of something and siad it was cam bearing material and he had seen it before and quoted me well into the $3000 range to simply repalce the cam and bearings, timing chain, tensioner and oil pump while he was there. We got it home fine, and in fact it ran very well on the way home. Friday morning I got up and called several other places all telling me close to the same price, a few even more. I got all kinds of recommendations from a new enigne to a AFM delete, etc. but in the end it is now someone elses problem. The truck was given to my son, just as the OP issue came up, and I felt extremely guilty about it. He had planned to keep it for at least a year, then upgrade, but that plan fell through. The delaer who had looked at it originally called, after I left a very negative review, and offered to buy the truck at fair market value minus the cost to repair, which came in at $26000 for him. ('Ell of a deal considering the problem, but Ill bet it goes to auction before they do anything.) Since his girlfriend is patially disabled, missing one of her legs, he got himself a 2019 Charger and is happy with his purchase, and so is she since she can get into it easier than a truck.
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