07 afm disable

Disclaimer: Links on this page pointing to Amazon, eBay and other sites may include affiliate code. If you click them and make a purchase, we may earn a small commission.

Bronson357

Full Access Member
Joined
Jul 4, 2025
Posts
157
Reaction score
65
Is it worth disabling the afm, with say like a range or not definitely open to opinions.
Thanks
 

Marky Dissod

Full Access Member
Joined
Mar 3, 2023
Posts
4,227
Reaction score
6,168
Location
(718)-
Your 6L80 will last longer, and so will your engine; yes.
More costly / MUCH better value to tune ecm AND tcm though.
 

Joseph Garcia

Elite Member
Supporting Member
Joined
Aug 2, 2018
Posts
10,521
Reaction score
15,268
Welcome to the Forum from NH.

Lots of knowledgeable folks here who freely share their knowledge, experiences, and perspectives. Knowledge is power.

I hope that you will become a participating member in the Forum's discussions.

Pics of the truck, please.

You did not tell us what you are driving and what its motor is. The 6.2L motors did not have AFM in 2007, but the 5.3L motors did.

If you have the 5.3L motor, then the recommendation is to remove the AFM. You can remove the AFM's physical operation with a fairly inexpensive dongle that you insert into your OBD2 connector. You can also remove the AFM hardware (the best solution), but that is much more expensive and involves some tearing down of the motor.
 

Marky Dissod

Full Access Member
Joined
Mar 3, 2023
Posts
4,227
Reaction score
6,168
Location
(718)-
If you have the 5.3L motor, then the recommendation is to remove the AFM.
You can remove the AFM's physical operation with a fairly inexpensive dongle that you insert into your OBD2 connector.

You can also remove the AFM hardware (the best solution), but that is much more expensive and involves some tearing down of the motor.
In case anyone else reads this, a little more for posterity.

Regardless of displacement, disable / shut off the AFM / DFM at your first opportunity, not after.
For several reasons, the engines that already lack cylinder deactivation to begin with tend to last MUCH longer.

Driving your 6L80 in 'M5' mode / avoiding 6th gear will disable V4 mode in nearly all normal operating cases;
for the 8L90, avoid 8th, & for the 10L80, avoid 10th. The highway MpG penalty will NOT be as bad as you fear.

There's an electrical connector on the brake booster that checks an engine vacuum measurement.
If you're willing to tolerate a check engine light, disconnecting it will disable Engine Half@$$ while allowing all gears.

Some but not all of the plug-ins that go in your OBD2 connector are not as good as others;
you ought to expect seamless / trouble-free operation.
The better of them add other features, such as disabling AutoStopStart (A.S.S.), or code-reading & clearing, etc.

An ecm & tcm tune can not only disable AFM / DFM, several other features can be enhanced or mitigated
(cylinder deactivation that activates just prior to overheating can delay head warpage, for example),
and various engine & transmission behaviors can be customized to suit the driver /owner's tastes.
The stereotype that 'tunes are only for harder-driving enthusiast-types' is, to be kind, ignorant.

If you plan to keep your vehicle for the foreseeable long-term, either physically delete all cylinder deactivation hardware from your engine,
or buy another engine and delete all the cylinder deactivation hardware to prepare for when yours needs replacing.
Yes, this also requires an ecm tune. More importantly, this is an opportunity to upgrade from a 5.3L to a 6.0L, choose a better-suited cam, etc.
 

Dustin Jackson

Full Access Member
Joined
Aug 9, 2018
Posts
1,788
Reaction score
2,065
The Range isn't bad but it needs to be plugged into the OBD2 port all the time and if you remove it you will have to reset all of your emission monitors. I'm in California and it was better for me to just tune AFM out instead of using the Range AFM disabler
 

swathdiver

Full Access Member
Joined
May 18, 2017
Posts
21,317
Reaction score
30,312
Location
Treasure Coast, Florida
Is it worth disabling the afm, with say like a range or not definitely open to opinions.
Thanks
Don't know what you are driving, but I chose to turn AFM off in the tune. In addition, the tuner, BlackBear Performance, tweaked the engine and transmission which delivered more power and made the drivetrain more enduring. Well worth the cost.
 
OP
OP
B

Bronson357

Full Access Member
Joined
Jul 4, 2025
Posts
157
Reaction score
65
Recently just got it no idea what mpg the previous owner got, but installed the afm obd and made almost exactly 1000 miles hand calculated 20.1 mpg mixed driving. So opinions, try the trip home in afm mode I dunno or leave it ad is? Thanks
 

Marky Dissod

Full Access Member
Joined
Mar 3, 2023
Posts
4,227
Reaction score
6,168
Location
(718)-
I'm not enough of a jerquad to recommend using Engine Half@$$ under 230F, so,
leave Engine Half@$$ disabled; engine will last longer.
 

alvocado

Allen
Joined
Feb 18, 2025
Posts
251
Reaction score
370
Location
Cincinnati, OH
Recently just got it no idea what mpg the previous owner got, but installed the afm obd and made almost exactly 1000 miles hand calculated 20.1 mpg mixed driving. So opinions, try the trip home in afm mode I dunno or leave it ad is? Thanks
What's your objective? That's very good mpg so unless you are trying to squeeze out another .1 mpg, there's no benefit to AFM.

I run a $35 Chinese knockoff disabler plugged into the OBDII port with no issues. I leave it for over a week at a time when traveling and have never had a battery drain issue.
 
OP
OP
B

Bronson357

Full Access Member
Joined
Jul 4, 2025
Posts
157
Reaction score
65
I used something similar off Amazon as well. 20.1 hand calculated, granted pretty much all highway was pretty impressive. No idea about in town,I did drive 391 miles in Chicago but did not keep track of that.
 

Forum statistics

Threads
138,040
Posts
1,997,656
Members
102,976
Latest member
Capybarbro

Latest posts

Back
Top