General Motors’ Active Fuel Management (AFM) was introduced to make the company’s vehicles more fuel efficient. This wasn’t just some other feature to get vehicles sold, but it had a positive impact on the environment. What’s more, General Motors was quite early to adopt this technology compared to others. Now, while all that is commendable, there’s one issue that arose from the early adoption of the tech — reliability.

The electronics required to switch off half the cylinder of the engine while it’s running are highly complex. It might be amongst the most complicated features to be added to a vehicle in general. A consequence of that and the fact that it was adopted early were reliability problems. When this feature starts failing, it’s known to cause various problems, making the AFM something many drivers are looking to avoid. Continue reading to find out how to tell if a vehicle has Active Fuel Management and what can be done to remedy it, if it does.

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Understanding GM’s Active Fuel Management

As mentioned earlier, GM’s Active Fuel Management is a sophisticated feature that can switch 2 or 4 cylinders, depending on if you own a V6 or a V8. This feature was also designed to reactivate the cylinder seamlessly when required. The company claimed that the feature improved fuel efficiency by up to 12%, but owners have reported that the figure is closer to 5% in real-world conditions.

The company believed that owners had more power than they needed most of the time. The high-capacity V8 engines were only being used to their full potential when towing or being driven in a performance-oriented manner.

During everyday driving though, it was not being used to the fullest and essentially wasting fuel. The big V6 and V8 engines didn’t need all of their cylinders while cruising on the highway and could make do with half of that.

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With the help of Active Fuel Management, GM was able to stop the fuel supply to two or four of the cylinders, depending on whether it was a V6 or V8. It managed to do so thanks to a solenoid system that collapses the valve lifters to reduce the pumping losses. While the electronics were quite complex, there weren’t many additional parts required to make it work. The only parts required were special valve lifters for the cylinder that would get deactivated and a lifter oil manifold assembly. This helped keep costs in check.

In V8 engines, Active Fuel Management switches off cylinders number 1, 7, 4, and 6. In V6, the system deactivates cylinders 3 and 6. When it comes to LTA and LT2 engines, cylinder deactivation occurs on cylinders 2, 3, 5, and 8. That said, how can you tell if a vehicle has Active Fuel Management?

How to Tell If a Vehicle Has Active Fuel Management?

General Motors added its Active Fuel Management to a number of its offerings. This is because several of the company’s vehicles shared the same V6 and V8 engines. Due to the advantages it brought, GM used it widely. Here’s how to tell if a vehicle has Active Fuel Management.

One of the easiest ways to tell is from the driver’s seat. If you want to determine if the V6 or V8 GM vehicle you are in has the tech, simply look for the readout on the digital screen below the tachometer. GM called this display the Driver informative Center (DIC) and it was designed to show a bunch of helpful information. Among them was whether the Active Fuel Management system is in operation or not.

Keep in mind, you might need to toggle through a few screens before you reach the one that shows the Active Fuel Management information. The display will indicate whether the engine is running as a ‘V4’ or a ‘V8’. If you are attempting to get the vehicle to switch to the V4 state, it will require you to stay at a cruising speed below the 2000 RPM mark. Pushing on the gas pedal a little harder will take you back into V8 mode, and when this happens you will notice a unique sound from the exhaust.

An even easier way is checking the owner’s manual. If you have the owner’s manual that came with the GM vehicle, it will have a section dedicated to the fuel-saving tech.

You Can Also Tell by Checking for AFM Parts

Another way to tell if your GM V6 or V8 engine is equipped with fuel-saving tech is by looking at the parts or components that it uses. While some of these parts are common to engines with and without Active Fuel Management, the ones with the system are unique. You’re looking for the following:

• AFM Towers
• Valley Cover
• Unique Oil Lifters
• Notched Lifter Guides
• High-capacity Oil Pump
• Oil Pressure Relief Valve
• Special Camshaft

Which Vehicles Have Active Fuel Management?

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General Motors added Active Fuel Management to the following vehicles sold under the Chevrolet brand.

• Chevrolet Camaro
• Chevrolet Tahoe
• Chevrolet TrailBlazer
• Chevrolet Avalanche
• Chevrolet Silverado
• Chevrolet Suburban
• Chevrolet Impala

That said, AFM is present in other GM products, including various Cadillacs and numerous vehicles that share the following engines.

Which Engines Have Active Fuel Management?

General Motors has made many variations of its V6 and V8 engines. Here’s a list of engine versions that got the Active Fuel Management feature. This, along with the information listed above, should help you answer the highly-asked question of how to tell if a vehicle has Active Fuel Management.

• 3.0 V6 LGW (Twin-Turbo)
• 3.6 V6 LGX
• 3.9 V6
• 3.9 V6 LZ8
• 4.2 V8 LTA (Twin-Turbo)
• 4.3 V6 LV3
• 5.3 V8 Vortec 5300
• 5.3 V8 LS4
• 5.3 V8 L83
• 5.3 V8 Vortec
• 6.0 V8 Vortec MAX
• 5.3 V8 Small-Block
• 6.2 V8 L99
• 6.2 V8 LT4
• 6.2 V8 LT1
• 6.2 V8 L86

Can the GM AFM System Be Deleted or Disabled?

As stated at the beginning, Active Fuel Management hasn’t proven to be the most reliable feature. Unfortunately, the two biggest areas of concern with vehicles equipped with the tech are noisy lifters and oil consumption. Both these problems are a consequence of inefficiencies with the system, and they can be even more severe if the vehicle isn’t well looked after. This is why people consider deleting or disabling the GM AFM system altogether.

Disabling Active Fuel Management is not that complicated as all that’s required is a device called the AFM disabler. It connects to the OBDII port and does exactly what its name suggests — it disables the AFM system. The device also promises to be completely reversible and stops the engine from potentially facing the problem lifter issue.

However, if your vehicle already has the lifter noise and oil consumption problem, it’s a too little too late for the disabling method. At this stage, it is said that you will require a complete delete kit for Active Fuel Management. This includes replacing many of the AFM parts with standard ones.

Shop With Us

Whether you need parts to fix the Active Fuel Management or components required to delete it, it’s a good idea to get your parts from an established company. When it comes to GM’s Active Fuel Management system, it includes important parts concerning the engine which is why quality must come first. Newparts.com sells nothing but the highest quality spares for your Chevrolet at competitive prices. Head to our Shop and check it out yourself!

Source: https://t-tees.com
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