2013 Escalade Hybrid - AFM disabling recommended?

[tengelman]

Hello!
Its been a while....but now I am back.
I sold my 2011 Yukon last year and bought a 2012 Dodge Durango. I was not satisfied with that Durango, so I sold it last week and came back to Full Size SUVs. Now I have a 2013 Escalade Hybrid with 110.000 miles on it. Well maintained and runs great so far.

Currently I am thinking about disabling the Active Fule Management via an OBD-Plug.
(example: https://www.rangetechnology.com/platform/cadillac/escalade/products/afm-dfm_disabler/)

My yukon hat a spun lifter at 70.000 miles with regular oil changes all the time
After repair it only took another 20.000 miles to have a spun lifert again

So I am a little bit nervous with the AFM in my Escalade.
I have all the documentation of the car from the previous owner - it never had any issues with the lifter. And no ticking so far.

Do you recommend disabling it anyway?
I mean - it ran for 110.000 miles now without disabling it.
I definetly wont do a "hardware-disabling" (with cam and so on...).
The only option for me would be the OBD-Plug.

What do you think?
Any experiences?

Regards from Germany
Dennis

 

[j91z28d1]

being in Germany makes it a bit more complicated. I bought mine with no afm issues, but I turned it off on the ecm using hptuners software before the road trip home.

do you have emissions testing where you are, where they plug into the obd2 port to check all emissions monitors are set to pass? in states here that do testing, the plug in dongle to keep the afm from turning on also keeps one of the monitors from completing it's cycle. so to pass the yearly inspection. have to remove the dongle and drive it around a while risking lifter damage.

if you can access a way to turn it off in the ecm that's a better option than the dongle. having access to that in Germany might be harder thou. if something like hptuners ain't available, another tuning type of thing might be. but I don't know which.


I'm always amazed to see how many of these trucks made it around the world.

 

[tengelman]

Thanks. Yes, I need to do emission test every 2 years. And they need that OBD2-port for this. But in that case it would be no problem to unplug the disable-dongle for this. Always made this with my yukon for testing...

I think there is no one here that knows how to disable via ecm...and hardware disabling would be too much....so the only option is that dongle.

How many miles do you have on yours now? How many miles with AFM disabled?

 

[j91z28d1]

I am pretty sure things like the Diablo tuner and black bear tuner can turn off afm in the ecm over with a device shipped to you and then email tune files but I don't know if the hybrid ecm is supported by them.

a dongle sounds better than nothing thou. especially since having a full delete done if the afm fails isn't an option.

 

[tengelman]

ok. i just received a cheap china-AFM-disabler-Dongle for my OBD. It seems to work perfect. I might run into about 0.5 Litre more of gas each 100km, but thats ok for me.

Are there any other "mechanical" disadvantages I could face with always running on V8? (maybe combined with the auto-stop function? or anything else?)

 

[j91z28d1]

not that I know of. only good things.

mine has been turned off in the ecm with hptuners for a good 30k and no issues

 

[Marky Dissod]

Any other "mechanical" disadvantages I could face with always running on V8?

Are you referring to the same disadvantages faced by GM V8s prior to Cylinder Valve deactivation?
As in, what were those?

 

[tengelman]

no...just wondering about the the AFM lifters running all the time, shifting....and so on.

 

[Marky Dissod]

Are there any other "mechanical" disadvantages I could face with always running on V8?
(maybe combined with the auto-stop function? or anything else?)

Are you referring to the same disadvantages faced by GM V8s prior to Cylinder Valve deactivation?
As in, what were those?

no ... just wondering about the the AFM lifters running all the time, shifting ... and so on.

Except that they're NOT running all the time, shifting.
The failure of two-mode lifters is accelerated by:
* chronic deactivations and reactivations / switching between V8 & V4 mode
disabling Engine Half@$$ mode lengthens the two-mode lifters' lifespan
* not changing oil & filter often enough
the cleaner the motor oil is kept, the less detritus in the engine, the longer those lifters will last

Disabling is not as good as deletion, but it's a good start.
I'm always baffled by those who don't disable cylinder (valve) deactivation first chance they get.

 

[OBSandaNNBS]

ok. i just received a cheap china-AFM-disabler-Dongle for my OBD. It seems to work perfect. I might run into about 0.5 Litre more of gas each 100km, but thats ok for me.

Are there any other "mechanical" disadvantages I could face with always running on V8? (maybe combined with the auto-stop function? or anything else?)

@tengelman
I have been wanting to do an afm disable too. I was also going to go the dongle route.

I had the occasional habit of running it in M5 instead of D, because the afm does not engage until 6th gear. This was mostly around the neighborhood, I would shift up for higher speeds.

And, I can't make this up. I've had the truck 6 months and had two engine problems, Throttle body and oil sender. BOTH occurred very soon after an M5 session... coincidence? Probably. I guess.

Now that I'm thinking about it, I also had a transfer case output shaft seal go under those circumstances too

I'm kind of scared off at the moment. I find V4 mode supremely annoying, but the paranoid voice is winning out.

 

[j91z28d1]

check your motor mounts. 90% of the time they are broken letting the engine move around. it's harder on things

 

[OBSandaNNBS]

I'm always baffled by those who don't disable cylinder (valve) deactivation first chance they get.

@Marky Dissod
This is a very interesting comment. So there are no downsides in your mind to disabling? Even with a knock off China dongle? (No emissions tests here)

I've searched, not too hard, but never really got an overwhelmingly obvious answer.
Also, see my comment above about weird failures I had, if you'd be so kind. Could be more to do with M5 than the actual disabling though.

Thanks!

 

[j91z28d1]

@Marky Dissod
This is a very interesting comment. So there are no downsides in your mind to disabling? Even with a knock off China dongle? (No emissions tests here)

I've searched, not too hard, but never really got an overwhelmingly obvious answer.
Also, see my comment above about weird failures I had, if you'd be so kind. Could be more to do with M5 than the actual disabling though.

Thanks!

I bought mine used in FL and brought my laptop with me to disable it with hptuners before I drove home. I wasn't going to risk the drive home with it on.

 

[OBSandaNNBS]

check your motor mounts. 90% of the time they are broken letting the engine move around. it's harder on things

@j91z28d1
They look pretty good...I think? Not really sure what to look for besides broken rubber. I'm not noticing any of the classic symptoms. It moves a little when it's idling and you have someone hit the gas. I thought that was normal movement.

I did have a bit of a bouncy idle, but when I cracked the PCV vacuum line when replacing the oil sender, the new one seems to have solved that problem.

 

[OBSandaNNBS]

I bought mine used in FL and brought my laptop with me to disable it with hptuners before I drove home. I wasn't going to risk the drive home with it on.

Ha, 'nuff said!

 

[j91z28d1]

@j91z28d1
They look pretty good...I think? Not really sure what to look for besides broken rubber. I'm not noticing any of the classic symptoms. It moves a little when it's idling and you have someone hit the gas. I thought that was normal movement.

I did have a bit of a bouncy idle, but when I cracked the PCV vacuum line when replacing the oil sender, the new one seems to have solved that problem.

there's a motor mount sticky in the engine;drive train sub forum. near the end is a video clip of broken mounts. to test you gotta be in gear and give it gas while someone watches the engine move. it's the tq of moving the vehicle that makes it lift

 

[OBSandaNNBS]

there's a motor mount sticky in the engine;drive train sub forum. near the end is a video clip of broken mounts. to test you gotta be in gear and give it gas while someone watches the engine move. it's the tq of moving the vehicle that makes it lift

Thanks, I will check it out! Some of the threads are so long it's a real time investment to wade through them...

 

[Marky Dissod]

Disabling is not as good as deletion, but it's a good start.
I'm always baffled by those who don't disable cylinder (valve) deactivation first chance they get.

@Marky Dissod
This is a very interesting comment. So there are no downsides in your mind to disabling? Even with a knock off China dongle? (No emissions tests here)

Long story short: no, no downsides to disabling it.
If a 'dongle' / plug-in does not properly accomplish this, then I judge it by its subpar results,
although I get why Chinesey stuff is prejudged, but again, I judge by results.

I've unique experience among most of you. Had my GMT900 tuned to INCREASE V4 mode duty cycle,
made it available as early as 20MpH, in 3rd 4th 5th AND 6th.
Changed my oil every 2800-3000 miles. No lifter or oil pressure related concerns.
BUT my piston rings got coked up and oil consumption eventually cost an extra $20 a week in oil.
Problem is the lazy V4's cylinders spend more time colder than the fulltime V4.
Eventually, you effectively have half your engine aging differently than the other half,
which is why I insist on calling it Engine Half@$$, and insist on disabling it even moreso.

HOWEVER
There is ONLY one POSSIBLE codicil to my insistence:
For those who are not willing or able to delete it completely, but are willing to get an ecm tune,

raise the V4 mode enable temp to 221F-230F, effectively using it as a near-overheat mode ONLY.
This would reduce the wear differences, delay possible head warpage,
further encourage the driver to shut down ASAP,
while absolutely disabling it under normal circumstances for nearly everyone nearly always.

Since most people don't overheat to the point of head warpage or worse,
disabling the feature entirely is better than keeping it operating as GM intended.

IT IS NOT AN EMISSIONS ISSUE.

There is supposed to be a vacuum line that can be unplugged to disable it?
Used a '?', because I don't KNOW for sure.

 

[OBSandaNNBS]

I've unique experience among most of you. Had my GMT900 tuned to INCREASE V4 mode duty cycle,
made it available as early as 20MpH, in 3rd 4th 5th AND 6th.

Gotta ask, why did you do that? ^^^

Good point about half the engine wearing at a different rate too.

I would really like to get it tuned, but right now my bank account says get the Chinesium dongle...[sad chuckle]

 

[Marky Dissod]

Had my GMT900 tuned to INCREASE V4 mode duty cycle, made it available as early as 20MpH, in 3rd 4th 5th AND 6th.

Gotta ask, why did you do that?

I was (and very occasionally still am) a taxi / livery driver / chauffeur for hire in NYC.
Clients occasionally asked for a different vehicle, but I leased a 2012 GMC Y-XL 4WD then.
I'm a somewhat talented leadfoot (pleasantly surprised some clients when asked to 'step on it'),
most riders cannot handle enthusiastic driving without a hissyfit ...
so, to invent a reward for taking it easy on the hoipolloi, asked my tuner to TRY to improve my MpG.
'Obviously, 'you mean WHEN you drive conservatively, right?' I said 'of course'.
Once he got it was a lease I'd NOT keep, he suggested 'how about a lil bit more V4 mode?'
3 days worth of test-driving to get it so that only he & I'd BARELY notice the sound or feel, but not other riders,
then only when driving expressly to improve MpG and put riders at ease.
Basically, ANY iota of acceleration, or even the gentlest incline = Engine Full @$$, but
cruising, coasting, deceleration, or decline, = Engine Half@$$
(think of 'TPS % angle' and 'engine load by MAF AND MAP' as chief determinants)

Despite changing oil & filter 1.5x as often as most of y'all (every 2800-3000 miles),
despite slightly raising the minimum coolant temp for Engine Half@$$ for safety,
(early Hemis with 'MDS' would CRACK CYLINDERS),
13MpG in Manhattan, 14MpG in Brooklyn & Queens was best I could get;
19-20MpH on the highway ... and only for two years.
MpG gains faded away by the 3rd year. In the winter of the 4th year,
oil consumption went from zero to 'hwatndahell'? An extra 3-4 qt between oil changes every 2800-3000 miles.
Disabling Engine Half@$$ did not reduce oil consumption.

Winter of the 3rd year, there was a slow coolant leak.
Extra V4 mode gave me an extra SIX MINS, just enough to use the shoulder to get off the highway
(highway roadside assistance costs extra for TLC drivers, and the wait is over 2hr for a flatbed)

Before turning it back in, had tuner leave all other V4 mode parameters be,
but raised minimum coolant temp for V4 mode to 221F, a coolant temp only ever seen the day of the slow leak.