Josh,
It is normal to hear a little ticking noise at idle, it is generally a combination of the fuel injectors clicking and a little bit of valvetrain noise.
If you can hear it inside the cab or it is loud then you need to have it looked at.

 

I have a 2007 sierra with the 5.3 afm. Bought new has 16400 miles. At 16000 miles one lifter has a cold start tick that last till almost complete warm up approx 5 minutes. After break in i used mobil one syn. With a mobil one filter. Took to the dealer they stated to add a additive i refused as no additive should be needed at 16000 miles. They said to change the oil filter to a gm filter which makes ni sinse. So my question could synthetic oil be causing the problem even though i used it for 12000 miles changed every 5k or is it a lifter problem. Truck is embrassing to drive as it ticks really loud. Tick never began till i did the 16000 mile oil change, so i changed it again still with no results

 

Might have dealer check the GM doc that ZX referred to in post #5.

 

I have the exact same thing on my 07 Suburban 5.3L. I have brought it to my dealer many times but the weird thing with this is it is totally random. Some mornings it will be so loud I can hear it tapping from the house and will last until warm up. Other days it does not happen at all. I have been having all of my oil changes done at the dealership and find it hard to beleive they are using synthetic but who knows??? Any ideas how I can get this looked at beings so random??? Thanks!

 

If your dealer is using Mobil 1, you'd know it. They charge about $8/qt for it.

 

I always thought that synthetics were thinner than their conventional counterparts, which made sense to me since they had better flow characteristics. I put in some 5W-30 Mobil 1 synthetic oil into my '02 Tahoe a while back thinking I would go with the recommended oil weight, but man was I wrong. I started to have the same problems that all of you would describe (very bad ticking, almost knocking), so I went back to 10W-30 Mobil 1 Synthetic oil and the problem went away. I've used 10W-30 ever since and now I have 169k on the Tahoe with no problems at all (lifters, bearings, etc.). Now I use synthetic Amsoil 10W-30 and no additives.

 

Thanks for the help! Do you think they will still honor this on an 07? I know sometimes they put a time frame on things like this. Thanks again for your help!

 

Best way to know is to visit your favorite dealership and let them evaluate it and then also let them know of the bulletin... they may prorate it or cover it... they may tell you its something completely different....

 

The thing that sucks is I have told them about it 4 different times and they can never duplicate it. It is so random yet so LOUD and obvious when it does happen. I guess I will need to just leave it with them for a week Thanks again for the help.

 

Thought I would add my 2 cents to the thread cause I just went thru this. I was getting a ticking sound...brought it to the dealer.....pulled the whole top end off and replaced the lifters on the passenger side. Got the truck back and still heard the sound. Brought it back....apparently the bad lifter damaged the cam....so replaced the cam on this trip to the dealer. All is good now. The mechanic said the lifter issue is very common with these 5.3 motors....except mine damaged the cam. Oh yeah...my Tahoe is an 07.