HOW MANY MILES ON YOUR L99 CAMARO? ARE AFM ISSUES OVERBLOWN?

[Moto-Mojo]

I know this is hard-ridden, dead horse but I couldn't find much on the title question specifically. The other reason I ask is, I just bought a 2023 Silverado with the 5.3 Eco Tec and DFM. And it has all 8 cyl's of cyl deactivation.

So, bottom line my A6 Camaro brethren, is the PLETHORA of negative internet chatter overblown click bait? Is it a relatively rare issue if you keep good, clean oil in the crankcase?

What has been your experience? I'm at 38K on a 2015 SS with AFM tuned out for several years and so far...NO issues.

[morepowerjoe]

I'm not quite sure. When I bought my first 2012 l99 it had 150k miles on it and it was completely all stock. So, after I got it with my driving style (we'll just call it that) it started to develop a slight tick and got worse and worse over the next few months of driving. That's what caused me to do my first mod which was an afm/dod delete kit with a GPI vvt cam. I just couldn't wait until it failed on me and after the rebuild and a bigger cam, I still ended up with lifter problems that I since had to fix twice. With the afm/dod lifters you just never know. I think if you don't drive it hard and keep the oil clean, I think you're ok for long while like 200k miles. But I would just change the oil religiously.

[Sir Nuke]

been driving one since 2015.....total of 4 cars and as of now a total of 140000 miles on them....and still have no issues at all and have never heard any "ticking" on or in any of my cars.

[Moto-Mojo]

Originally Posted by Sir Nuke

been driving one since 2015.....total of 4 cars and as of now a total of 140000 miles on them....and still have no issues at all and have never heard any "ticking" on or in any of my cars.

Encouraging! As I mentioned, everybody's an, "investigative journalist" now on YouTube - for click pay. So you get a hot button issue and run with it. I also recently got a call from a law firm fishing for people who had issues with various things, but AFM was one of them.

[Rusty Shackleford]

No experience witht he L99, but my '18 silverado with the L83 has the DoD/AFM/VVT crud in it. I've never bothered to disable or delete it, and it's over 250k miles now without issue. I began monitoring the oil closely when it was new and noticed the oil would start smelling like fuel at about 5k miles, so I used that to determine change intervals. The oil still looks new, but being diluted with fuel is never a good thing and seems to be a product of those cylinders deactivating.



My Camaro has the LS3 in it, and the oil coming out of it at 5k miles has no fuel smell at all, which is not surprising since it doesn't have all that stuff in it. I could get more miles between changes on it but better safe than sorry is my theory on it.

[Moto-Mojo]

Originally Posted by Rusty Shackleford

No experience witht he L99, but my '18 silverado with the L83 has the DoD/AFM/VVT crud in it. I've never bothered to disable or delete it, and it's over 250k miles now without issue. I began monitoring the oil closely when it was new and noticed the oil would start smelling like fuel at about 5k miles, so I used that to determine change intervals. The oil still looks new, but being diluted with fuel is never a good thing and seems to be a product of those cylinders deactivating.



My Camaro has the LS3 in it, and the oil coming out of it at 5k miles has no fuel smell at all, which is not surprising since it doesn't have all that stuff in it. I could get more miles between changes on it but better safe than sorry is my theory on it.

Thx, I'm starting to believe this became -mostly- an internet darling. It's been out like 21 years. If hordes of people were left stranded on highways, I can't imagine how GM would have gotten away with it...AND doubled down on the technology. (DoD to AFM to DFM)

But yes, it's seems good, clean oil is key.

[joshnmn]

Our '16 Tahoe definitely has a lifter making noise, but otherwise runs fine. Wife won't let me put the laptop on it to turn off the DOD

[Aqua Blue RS/SS]

My wife’s Yukon Denali has a very similar variant of 6.2 to the L99… 100K on it and no issues, my old SS had 70K with no issues when I sold it, and the current SS is a baby at only 4500 miles so it’s obviously issue free as well. That’s all my experience with AFM, and I’ve not had any issue at all. I religiously change oil at 5,000 miles or less though.

[DirtyDirt]

my 2010 2SS L99 had 72k on it when I sold it and got the ZL1. Never had any issues or odd ticks from it.

[1JEWLDSSRS]

Lets just say, I ran the SNOT outta mine for 98k miles, many many rev limiter hits, lots of high rpms shifts and tons of fun, and never had an issue with them. The tune was stock until I did the LT's at 12k miles, the rest of the mileage up to 98k was with the AFM tuned out, but the lifters were still in there until we did the cam swap build.

[Moto-Mojo]

Welp, I'm going to figger 10 posts is a microcosm of the greater debate. I tend to think people here on C5 tell it like it is. I drive mine pretty 'snotty' at times too. And I also think if people were out of pocket for big AFM repairs - and weren't so much interested in an audience to rant to, (like YouTube) they'd be chiming in here.

And maybe they still will, but I'm going to drive both of these vehicles like I didn't know any better! Thanks for indulging me.

[acutron42]

I think the problems with the dod systems come from neglect for the most part. Sure there are premature failures but once you run dirty oil in them the longevity is compromised.

[TheBrightSide]

I have a friend I know, with 167k miles on his 2011 2SS L99 coupe right now, which he got around 132k or so, and he’s been beating the piss out of the car for the first 20-25k miles or so that’s he had it. Up until recently, I don’t think he cared to maintain it at all, since he wasn’t much of a car enthusiast until I met up with him, to actually go over the car, and show him my personal similar ride (2010 2SS LS3 coupe).

He did start telling me about some concerning “tick” noises, coming from his engine bay, which I assumed were either noisy lifters or fuel injectors; which seemed to be the more common two issues with most “ticking” engine sounds. But the concerning part, is that my LS3 had a similar ticking sound coming from the engine bay (with the cosmetic cover off), and it appeared to quiet down upon warming up the engine… odd.

Both me and my friend tried top end cleaning the engine, spraying Seafoam or whatever other brand, like CRC, Lucas, etc.; and then we would run a bunch of fuel system cleaner through the fuel tank. I, myself, also typically run Marvel’s Mystery Oil formula in my fuel tank, so I thought we could try some in the engine (at our own discretion, of course). We didn’t put much, but I think we each both put roughly ~0.25-0.45 qts or something along those lines (can’t recall the fl oz numbers). It did little to quiet down the engine; and the same occured with adding pretty much any other form of oil additives.

Now, my LS3 probably had the ticking as early as 25k miles of ownership, but I believe it’s quieted down now, with 33k miles on the odometer. My friend sticks to 5w-30, and has been contemplating running 5w-40 (I told him 0w-40 or 0w-30 would work better), and I’ve personally been running 0w-40. At this point, we have no idea what the ticking sounds are, but obviously with his high mileage L99, he doesn’t beat on it nearly as much anymore, now that I’ve scared him (he doesn’t maintain his car well enough)…

Aside from that, both of our cars are relatively healthy, and for maybe 5-10k miles, my friend had his AMF/DOD system in his L99, disabled through a SCT X4 flash tuner. He eventually turned it on, to gain back an extra 1-3+ MPG; but I have another friend who ran the disabled AFM/DOD in his L99 for 2-3+ years, with a DiabloSport inTune i3 8200 flash tuner, with no major issues.

[JamesMyBoy]

My experience may be irrelevant to this discussion, but for the record...
My 2SS/RS is now 10 years old, with just 37,000 miles on it. I've used my Range Device nearly every time I've driven it. No problems with anything at all so far. Other than removing the "cans" on the exhaust, it's pure stock.