A body without a speck of rust, a gearbox that shifts like silk, honest mileage — on paper, the perfect used Chevrolet Silverado. And yet, don't celebrate just yet. The real weak spot on these trucks often hides deeper — under the hood. Experts have singled out three engines that give owners the most grief: the 5.3L V8 on 2007–2013 and 2014–2018 trucks, and the 6.2L V8 on the 2019–2024 Silverado.
Let's start with the elder — the 5.3L V8 built from 2007 to 2013. Its biggest headache is familiar to thousands of owners: the engine drinks oil. And that's when the dominoes start to fall. The level drops, and suddenly the lifters, the camshaft and the spark plugs are all under suspicion. A risk category all its own is Active Fuel Management, the system that shuts down half the cylinders to save fuel. Clever on paper — but in practice it's the prime suspect behind the priciest repairs.
You'd think a new generation would bring new hope. But the 5.3L V8 in the 2014–2018 Silverado largely repeated its predecessor's fate. The engine already belongs to the Ecotec3 family, yet the weak link is once again that same AFM. The complaints read the same: an appetite for oil, failing lifters and the risk of far more serious engine damage. The takeaway is simple — before you buy one, study the service history, check the oil level, listen for noises on a cold start and look for signs of timing-chain repairs.
But the loudest story of all surrounds the 6.2L L87 V8 in the 2019–2024 Silverado. This is no longer about quirks — it's a full-blown recall. GM has admitted that on some of these engines the connecting rods and crankshaft could fail — a straight road to engine damage and a loss of power on the move. The campaign swept up the brand's big pickups and SUVs, and dealers are obliged to inspect the vehicles and replace the engine if needed.
Now for the numbers. GM's official recall is registered with the NHTSA under number 25V-274 (the manufacturer's internal code is N252494000) and covers roughly 597,000 vehicles from the 2021–2024 model years fitted with the 6.2 L87: among them the Silverado 1500, Tahoe, Suburban, GMC Sierra 1500, Yukon and Cadillac Escalade. There are two causes — contamination on the connecting rods and in the crankshaft oil galleries, plus deviations in the crankshaft's own geometry. Under the procedure, the dealer first inspects the engine: if it fails, the motor is replaced; if it passes, they fill it with thicker 0W-40 oil instead of 0W-20, fit a new oil filler cap and extend the engine warranty to 10 years or 150,000 miles. One detail that matters for buyers: the 2019–2020 trucks didn't make it into the recall itself, but the NHTSA is running a separate investigation into them — so this engine deserves an especially close look, whatever the model year.
Earlier it was reported that the Chevrolet Corvette received a limited Stars and Steel series.
