I started to worry about having these problems and I was experiencing high oil consumption. I did a little research and found the best thing to try to do now is bypass the V4 function. I bought a little gizmo made by Range Technologies that just plugs into the OBD connector. Through the black magic of electronics, the thing tells my motor not to slip into V4 mode.
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Look again. That's a bacon covered doughnut. I didn't eat one but the guy that did (Al) had a huge grin on his face. |
The whole point of Active Fuel Management is to gain fuel economy. I think GM claims something like 5-12% depending on the vehicle. Since adding the V4 delete I've calculated my mileage and its dropped from a high average of 17.7 to a steady average of 17 mpg.
Now dropping from 17.7 to 17 isn't a concern. If it were I'd be driving something a lot smaller than a Yukon XL. What was a concern was that high oil consumption. It seemed directly related to how much hiway use I had, meaning more V4 use. Two weeks with a lot of hiway miles used almost a quart each week. Now with the little gizmo plugged in I'm seeing more like a half quart every two weeks. Ya that still sucks but it is a definite improvement. I should note that some of that oil is dripping from a valve cover leak and not all being burned.
So I guess the point of this post is to give The Greasy Shop Rag stamp of approval to the Range Technology AFM delete module. If you're experiencing the kind of issues I was then it may be worth the $100-$150 investment. As always, your mileage may vary.
Later.