Dealership Tells GMC Driver He Needs A $15,000 Engine. Then He Gets A Second Opinion

A man took his GMC to a dealership and says he was quoted $15,000 for a new engine and a transmission. When he took it for a second opinion, the original diagnosis stumped the mechanic. Here’s why.

TikTok account Fix Cars (@fix.cars7) recently reposted a video from popular creator Dave’s Auto Shop (@davesautocenter) last week. Dave, whose shop is based in Salt Lake City, Utah, explains the situation in the initial video.

According to Dave, a man from California sent his 2020 5.3L V8 Chevrolet Silverado in after taking it into a dealer to contend with a strange noise coming from under the hood. The customer claimed that the dealer initially said the truck needed a completely new engine and transmission.

Did This Chevrolet Driver Need a New Engine and Transmission?

While an unfortunate diagnosis, at least the first assessment made sense. That changed when the driver said he received another call from the dealer, who said they could first try to replace “spark plugs and wires” to see if that would fix the problem. The customer reportedly paid $800 for that service.

“Never gave him a diagnosis sheet saying what it needed when he picked it up,” Dave says. “After he got it out of there, the service provider was like, ‘We heard you were going to take it to Dave’s and we don't want you to do that. We made a mistake. We really didn’t scope it, we didn’t diagnose it.’ The guy is like, ‘I’m done.’”

Dave says that he understands that the audience wants to know the specific dealership or shop involved, but that in his view it’s not his place to judge the other shop without knowing their side of the story.

How Dave’s Auto Diagnosed the Real Issue

Both clips are from a full-length video posted to Dave’s Auto Center’s YouTube page last month. The clip that Fix Cars pulled from the video shows the process that Dave and his tech went through to accurately diagnose the truck.

Dave and his tech experiment by unhooking the mass airflow to figure out if there’s a blockage or another cause of the noise, which he says “sounds like it’s gonna hit you in the face.”

After some trial and error, both mechanics suspect an engine misfire. So they decide to scan the truck for codes and use a process of elimination from there. Eventually, the duo determines that the truck needs a cam and lifter replacement. That is still an expensive job, but nowhere near the $15,000 that the customer was quoted by the other shop.

Dave calls the customer to explain, but he first warns the man that the plugs and wires he allegedly paid for at the dealership looked worn. That means the tech over there either used old wires or they didn’t actually do the repair as promised. Either way, Dave encourages the customer to get an itemized receipt.

“But let me go ahead and tell you what we found,” Dave says. “We pulled the valve cover off the passenger side, and you’ve got an intake lifter on that No. 2 cylinder … it’s collapsed. This has Active Fuel Management on it … basically, it has the ability to shut down cylinders at certain times.”

He continues, “We’re gonna recommend that you delete that. It’s a common thing, because they fail. I’m going to have [my tech] put a quote together for you for a cam and lifter [replacement] and a [AFM] delete.”

Why Some General Motors Owners Choose to Delete AFM

As Dave explained, AFM is a fuel efficiency mechanism that deactivates cylinders during certain driving conditions. Obviously, this set-up can become a problem if it malfunctions and one cylinder is permanently or intermittently deactivated. What Dave is recommending to his customer is a full “AFM delete,” which means that the entire system will be removed.

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An AFM delete can cost about $5,000 and the cam and lifter job is generally another $4,000-$5,000. That’s not a cheap repair, but it’s also not spending $15,000 on an entirely new engine for a truck that has less than 90,000 miles.

Motor1 contacted Dave’s Auto Center and General Motors via email for comment. We'll update this if either responds.

 

 

 

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