2013 Silverado cooling problem

[robshu145]

I just bought a 13 Silverado and when setting at idle the low speed fans don't kick on until 226. I've replaced the coolant sensor and the relays. Does anybody know if this is normal? By the way, I'm looking at the temp with a scanner.

 

[Kira]

With the correct scanner, can the fan controller be adjusted temperature wise?

If you let it set and idle as above but with the AC on, does the fan operation change?

 

[JavierH19]

I believe it is normal for them to kick on at 224 or somewhere around there.

 

[meep]

If I understand correctly, they really want to give margin for the coolant thermostat to fully open and utilize the radiator now prior to putting energy and wear into the electric fans. It kinda makes sense … why run the fans when the T-stat hasn’t reached 100% open? It prolongs the life the of the fans, saves some %mpg, and doesn’t reduce the cooling system total capacity, it just offsets when “full tilt capacity” kicks in. Come to think of it, I haven’t had to replace an e-fan since the mid-90s.

That said, I think variable speed drives are a more elegant way to go. I know ford and Chrysler do this, and Volvo. My new Tacoma acts more like on/off and includes some speed logic where it’ll kick on as I slow down and turn off as I speed up.

 

[DuckRyder]

It is probably normal.

Wayback in the day one fan came on around 224, the other slightly after or anytime the AC was on. I'm sure its more sophisticated now but warmer is more efficient generally so i would not be concerned unless there was an external symptom of overheating.

You got access to repair information? AllData or similar?

 

[redhat]

Here are the fan configs for a 2013 Silverado, 5.3/6L80E. Stock calibration.

On your left you have percentages, Anything above 44% of Fan desired, the low speed fan kicks on, anything above 90% fan desired, the high-speed kicks on. In reverse, anything below 85% fan needed, the high-speed kicks off, anything below 40% fan, the low-speed kicks off. To the right, you will see Fan Desired vs. Coolant Temp and Fan Desires vs. AC Pressure tables. The coolant temps align with amount of fan desired.

GM interpolates a lot of these cells for the Fan Desires vs. Coolant Temp/AC Pressure tables. So 226 for high-speed looks to align pretty well with what the factory calibration calls for.

 

[robshu145]

With the correct scanner, can the fan controller be adjusted temperature wise?

If you let it set and idle as above but with the AC on, does the fan operation change?

Yes it does

View attachment 265824

Here are the fan configs for a 2013 Silverado, 5.3/6L80E. Stock calibration.

On your left you have percentages, Anything above 44% of Fan desired, the low speed fan kicks on, anything above 90% fan desired, the high-speed kicks on. In reverse, anything below 85% fan needed, the high-speed kicks off, anything below 40% fan, the low-speed kicks off. To the right, you will see Fan Desired vs. Coolant Temp and Fan Desires vs. AC Pressure tables. The coolant temps align with amount of fan desired.

GM interpolates a lot of these cells for the Fan Desires vs. Coolant Temp/AC Pressure tables. So 226 for high-speed looks to align pretty well with what the factory calibration calls for.

View attachment 265824

Here are the fan configs for a 2013 Silverado, 5.3/6L80E. Stock calibration.

On your left you have percentages, Anything above 44% of Fan desired, the low speed fan kicks on, anything above 90% fan desired, the high-speed kicks on. In reverse, anything below 85% fan needed, the high-speed kicks off, anything below 40% fan, the low-speed kicks off. To the right, you will see Fan Desired vs. Coolant Temp and Fan Desires vs. AC Pressure tables. The coolant temps align with amount of fan desired.

GM interpolates a lot of these cells for the Fan Desires vs. Coolant Temp/AC Pressure tables. So 226 for high-speed looks to align pretty well with what the factory calibration calls for.

Ok ty I really appreciate it

 

[Chris142]

Normal!

With the AC off the fans should come on low speed @226.... Then ramp up to high speed @235.

 

[redhat]

Yes it does



Ok ty I really appreciate it

You're very welcome.

 

[CapitalTruck]

I just bought a 13 Silverado and when setting at idle the low speed fans don't kick on until 226. I've replaced the coolant sensor and the relays. Does anybody know if this is normal? By the way, I'm looking at the temp with a scanner.

On my 13 4.8 the needle would move well past the midline of the gauge. Perfectly normal. This applies only to the 4.8 V8 of that era.

 

[barkingspider]

Are you going to flush out the coolant and replace w new dexcool?

 

[meep]

View attachment 265824

Here are the fan configs for a 2013 Silverado, 5.3/6L80E. Stock calibration.

On your left you have percentages, Anything above 44% of Fan desired, the low speed fan kicks on, anything above 90% fan desired, the high-speed kicks on. In reverse, anything below 85% fan needed, the high-speed kicks off, anything below 40% fan, the low-speed kicks off. To the right, you will see Fan Desired vs. Coolant Temp and Fan Desires vs. AC Pressure tables. The coolant temps align with amount of fan desired.

GM interpolates a lot of these cells for the Fan Desires vs. Coolant Temp/AC Pressure tables. So 226 for high-speed looks to align pretty well with what the factory calibration calls for.

Where do you source this magic, @redhat? I’m having to wipe drool stains off of my shirt now. (PS, I cut my teeth on Cisco).

-m

 

[redhat]

Where do you source this magic, @redhat? I’m having to wipe drool stains off of my shirt now. (PS, I cut my teeth on Cisco).

-m

I am no big-time or pro-tuner, but have been getting more and more comfortable with HPTuners and tuning some of me and my friends Gen 3 LSx vehicles.

This is a stock calibration for a 2013 Silverado, available many places online in a HPTuners (.hpt) file format. Shows all powertrain parameters that can be read/edited by the software.

IT has always been something I've been good at, fortunately some of that translates to vehicle electronics. I've been a big fan of Fedora as of late for Linux-based server OS. Used to use Ubuntu for a while also. Also, a lot of Windows. Never have owned many Cisco switches myself, nor managed a ton of them. I could fight my way around one... always been at places that had HPE, Aruba or other makes/models... that or it was someone else's role.

 

[meep]

I love this, all of this - thank you @redhat. Similar here. I was quite comfortable finding my way through Forscan, though theres a lot in your GUI displayed above that simply wasnt what forscan was designed to do.

And to shed light, I was still running Forscan on windows 7, on a VM hosted on a white body MacBook Pro circa 2009, until just recently. That laptop simply won’t die, but the OS is aging out of modern browsers, etc.. I just bought a dell outlet replacement for it, installed an older version of Toyota’s ISTA, bmws tools, of course Forscan (didn’t keep the bmw, just sold the ford), and hope to find a solid bi-directional OBD tool… got any recommendations on that?