GM 6.2L L87 Lifter Failure: Symptoms, the Recall, and What It Costs to Fix

Which Trucks This Is About

The L87 is GM's 6.2-liter V8 in the 2019 and newer Chevrolet Silverado 1500, GMC Sierra 1500, Tahoe, Suburban, Yukon, Yukon XL, and Cadillac Escalade. It is a good engine with one well-known weak point: the Dynamic Fuel Management lifters, which shut off cylinders to save fuel and sometimes collapse instead. The 5.3-liter L84 in the same trucks has the same lifter design and the same problem, so most of this applies to it too.

We see these trucks from all over the North Shore, and the story is usually the same: a tick that showed up at idle, then a flashing check engine light on the highway a few weeks later.

Symptoms of L87 Lifter Failure

• A tick or tap from the top of the engine at idle that does not go away once it is warm. A collapsed lifter leaves clearance in the valvetrain and you hear it.
• Check engine light with misfire codes: P0300 (random misfire) or P0301 through P0308 pointing at one cylinder. On the L87 it is very often cylinder 1, 4, 6, or 7, which are the cylinders DFM shuts off.
• Flashing check engine light. An active misfire that is dumping unburned fuel into the catalytic converter. Get off the throttle and get it looked at; a few hundred miles like this adds a $2,000 converter to the bill.
• Rough idle, a shake at stoplights, hesitation when the engine drops into four-cylinder mode.
• "Engine Power Is Reduced" on the dash once the computer decides to protect itself.
• Metal in the oil. On the worst ones, the lifter roller fails and scores the camshaft lobe, and the oil comes out with glitter in it.

What the 2025 Recall Covers, and What It Does Not

This part confuses people, so slowly. In April 2025 GM recalled about 600,000 trucks and SUVs from the 2021 to 2024 model years with the 6.2-liter L87 (NHTSA recall 25V-274) for a different problem: a manufacturing defect in the crankshaft and connecting rods that can cause the engine to seize. The dealer inspects the engine. If it fails the inspection, the engine is replaced under the recall. If it passes, the remedy is an oil change to a thicker 0W-40 oil, a new oil cap, and a software update.

That recall is not the lifter recall, because there is no lifter recall. Lifter failure on the L87 and L84 is covered by a string of GM service bulletins and by the powertrain warranty (5 years or 60,000 miles), not by a safety recall. Inside the warranty, the dealer replaces lifters at no charge. Outside it, you are paying, whether the work is done at a dealer or at a shop like ours.

If your truck is a 2021 to 2024 with the 6.2, check the recall status by VIN at nhtsa.gov before paying anyone for engine work. A free engine is a free engine.

The Oil Question

A lot of the searches that land here are about oil, and for good reason. The L87 originally called for 0W-20 meeting GM's dexos1 Gen 3 spec. As part of the 2025 recall remedy, GM moved these engines to 0W-40 meeting the dexos R spec, the oil that was already in the Corvette. Thicker oil, more film strength on the bearings. If your truck has had the recall done, it should say 0W-40 on the new oil cap, and that is what we put in it. If it has not had the recall done, 0W-20 dexos1 is still the spec, and the interval that matters is 5,000 miles, not the 7,500 the oil life monitor will let you stretch to. Dirty oil and long idling are what kill DFM lifters.

What the Repair Costs

Job	Typical cost	Notes
Diagnosis	$100 to $160	Scan data, cylinder contribution test, then valve covers off to find the collapsed lifter. Applied to the repair.
Lifters, one bank (8 lifters, pushrods, gaskets)	$1,800 to $2,800	Some shops do only the failed side. We do not recommend it; the other bank has the same lifters with the same miles.
Lifters, both banks (all 16)	$2,500 to $4,000	The right repair. Includes new pushrods, valve cover and intake gaskets, oil and filter.
Lifters plus camshaft	$4,000 to $6,000	When a lifter roller scored the cam lobe. Requires pulling the front of the engine.
Catalytic converter(s) from a prolonged misfire	$1,200 to $2,500	The avoidable part of the bill. Stop driving on a flashing light.
Dealer, same work	$4,500 to $8,000	Dealer labor rates north of Boston run $200 an hour and up.

Written estimate first, 12-month / 12,000-mile warranty on the work. More on how we approach a job like this on the engine repair page.

Preventing a Second Round

New lifters are the same design as the old ones. Three things make them last:

• Oil changes every 5,000 miles with the correct spec. Not the oil life monitor's number.
• Less idling. An hour of idle is a hundred miles of lifter wear with almost no oil pressure. Remote start every morning in January is hard on these engines.
• A DFM disabler. A plug-in device that keeps the engine in V8 mode so the lifters never cycle. It is the single most effective thing you can do, and it costs about $200. It can also be an argument with a dealer on a warranty claim, so we tell customers to run it after the powertrain warranty is up, not before.

Is It Worth Fixing?

Almost always. These are $50,000 to $90,000 trucks and the rest of the engine is sound. A truck with 80,000 miles and new lifters has a lot of life in it. A truck at 150,000 miles with a scored cam and a dead converter is the one where we sit down and do the math with you before anything starts.

We service Chevrolet, GMC, and Cadillac trucks with GM's factory-level scan tool, which is what it takes to read cylinder-by-cylinder data on a DFM engine instead of guessing. If the light is on and you are not sure what it means yet, start with the most common check engine light causes.