Scotty too hotty!
I live in Minnesota, I don’t do any off road driving, and I have a 2010 GMC Yukon XL, SLT, 5.3L. With 180,000 miles.
This is our every day driver family hauler, and my wife says she wants me to figure out how to make it last “forever” cause she likes driving “a couch” haha.
I change oil every 3,000, and keep all fluids clean.
Will getting an aftermarket
“AFM disabler”
make this engine last forever ?
It burns a little bit of oil right now, and I keep it clean so rust doesn’t kill it. Should I disable the AFM with a plug in disabler to guarantee it will last for a longer time?
We now have an excellent cylinder deactivation section in our Frequently Asked Questions topic (FAQ, top of the page). I highly recommend you check it out.
With the age and mileage on your vehicle, it may or may not be worth it, so find out the costs and decide if you'd rather ride it out.
In order to disable it, you can install an aftermarket dongle from Range Technology made for GM vehicles: It’s one of the best out there for those vehicles and is true and tried.
Go here and enter your vehicle information to make sure it is supported. If so, I recommend your order from them directly to get the latest firmware:
https://www.rangetechnology.com/products/afm-dfm_disabler/
Keep in mind the actual AFM hardware within the engine is still there, i.e. the lifters, cam, lifter oil manifold assembly (LOMA), oil pressure relief valve, signal path to the LOMA and while the Range Technology ODB-II dongle will prevent the engine from entering V4 mode any of those parts can still potentially fail, but at least the risk is mitigated now. A full proof solution would be to replace the lifters, cam, etc. with non-AFM ones and retune the ECU but that is thousands of dollars from a reputable shop.
We have an excellent sticky on this: just look for GM vehicles further down.
https://carkiller.com/scottykilmer/qa/all-about-cylinder-deactivation/#post-71282
' she likes driving “a couch”' Perhaps she could try this 😂
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nx2436PcNUQ
The disabler will probably make the engine last longer because if the system isn't being used, it can't wear out. I think the AFM systems used to day are about as useless and auto start/stop. The less STUFF there is to break, the less STUFF will break. I seem to remember they tried this idea with Cadillac back in the 80's and it flopped badly.
