Son looking at trucks of this era. Tips?

[hounddogs!]

He's needing to get familiar with them in order to recognize a good deal as he's shopping around. What are the gotchas that he (we) need to keep an eye out for?

He thinks he wants 4WD. Are there years where the pump rub on the transfer case is less of a concern?

Any driveline combos to avoid or jump on? He's doing well with the granny 4-speed on the '68, so I don't think manual/auto will limit him.

My most recent GM truck was an 89 Suburban, so I'm sure I'll be back with questions about these newfangled vehicles.

TIA
Loren

[KevH]

I had a 2002 GMC Sierra regular cab stepside 4x4 with a 4.8 V8 motor for fourteen years. I bought it new and put a 198k miles on it and the only parts I had to replace outside of the normal maintenance were the fuel pump, water pump, and a front axle seal. Like a complete moron I sold it.

My mom has a 2001 Chevrolet Tahoe 5.3 V8 that is still completely original (70k miles on it) with only regular service. She bought it new and it lives in the garage, but she has already said that she will drive it until she can drive no more.

My dad has a 2000 Sierra Z71 extended cab with a 5.3 V8 that has only had the normal service, a broken window regulator, and the fuel pump changed.

I currently have a 2006 Sierra 2500HD with a 6.0. Great truck, terrible gas mileage and a pain to park in suburbia. I'm contemplating a brand new regular cab this next year if I can afford it.

When they're taken care of the GMT800 is fairly bulletproof. The stuff my family and I have experienced is the norm. Fuel pump is located in the tank so you'll either have to drop the tank or lift the bed to change it. Not that hard, but plan on having to replace it from time-to-time.

Front axle seals will go out so plan on having to replace those. The 4L60E transmission can go bad depending on how the truck is taken care of. Pump rub on these is more of 2500HD issue and even then it seems to be more on trucks that get wheeled and abused than those that are treated well. There are several companies that make kits to take care of the issue.

The 5.3, and sometimes the 4.8, can make some lifter racket on startup. Having owned a 4.8 and driven plenty of 5.3's I would honestly say there isn't much difference between the two engines. They are both great engines. Look on youtube and elsewhere online and you'll find quite a few 500k plus LS motors running around.

I live in CA where we don't see a lot of salt corrosion, but I hear folks elsewhere in the country complain about that. Someone else will have to chime in, because all of our trucks have stayed pretty clean.

[KrazyRay]

I see a lot of transmissions go bad around 170,000 miles. If you buy one north of 150,000 miles, plan on a trans rebuild soon. The engines are good for 300,000 miles plus.

[izzy_Britton]

I have now owned a good sized handful of these trucks. I would say that the single most import thing that you need to keep an eye on is how the previous owner(s) kept the truck.

my 3 most recent trucks are 2003 GMC 2500HD, 2005 z71 x-cab, and a 2006 crew cab. all three looked like good trucks when i bought them and i jumped all over buying them as a LOT sale without actually looking hard at the trucks. my mistake.

all 3 of these trucks came from the emerald triangle (marijuana growers), all three where beat on pretty good and all 3 need lots of love. these people beat on their trucks, they are ugly, they drive them into the ground.

so find one you like, pull a carfax report, yeah they are not always complete car fax reports but if there was anything reported in the past it will pop up and you can make an informed decision about mileage and parts replacement ...

and lastly, when you find the one you like, ask if you can have your mechanic or an independent mechanic check it out, most people are ok with this unless they have something to hide.

but yeah as mentioned regular maintenance and simple basic parts will keep these on the road for ages. i bought a rolled over 2003 suburban just for the engine to put in my 86 c-10. when i pulled the heads off, you could still see cylinder hone marks, so i am a believer that these things, when properly maintained, will run forever.


-Izzy, just my $0.02 my 2003 2500HD bit me in the arse pretty hard, lesson learned.

[Flying Hamster]

Take a good look at the frame. Crossmembers hold water and dirt, and rust. Brake and fuel lines were made from rust (bypassing the steel-making process entirely).
Transfer case pump rub happens to all the manual t-cases, I don't think it was ever corrected from the manufacturer.

[hounddogs!]

That's what I was looking for, thanks guys. Keep it coming.

[gmachinz]

You need to inspect the very bottoms of the rockers and the rear quarters-these trucks rot out there first and they go quick when they start! I have a really clean and well taken care of 'O4 Tahoe and this summer I need to replace both rear lower sections and knock the rockers down to bare metal and prep from there up. I'll be brushing POR15 on the inners of the rears quarter repair sections that's for sure!

Also, get up underneath and inspect the actual rear bumper bar and extension brackets/braces!!! Holy hell them things go to **** in a hurry too! I did a complete repaint on my wife's '05 Denali XL (rust free mind you...at least on the body and underneath!) BUT--when I started popping the rear bumper cover off, big flat pieces of rusty scale was falling all over the place!! After removing the cover, the top bumper reinforcement bar section was so rotted the plastic loom containing part of the rear lighting harness was all that was keeping it from folding in half on itself!! I was pissed-the brackets I got from GM but the damn reinforcement bar was not available so I had to go with Keystone on that part. You'd never know all that cladding and nice bumper cover was holding together a crumbling rear bumper section-I was in panic mode getting all the right parts! Being a fairly aging 2005 I was hoping the bumper hardware was still available from GM!

[Hoods69BadBowTie]

Front axle shaft seals leaking is a very common issue working at a dealership I would say at least 40% of trucks and suvs coming in have it leaking not a big issue unless it's leaking very badly. Transfer case pump rub seems to happen to a wide variety of vehicles but it's not nearly as common maybe 10% of trucks and suvs coming in to the shop. The biggest thing I can stress is try to make sure they stayed up on regular maintenance the most common issues I see are sludged up motors cause people go off their oil light life instead of miles and coolant systems corroded out because they never get a coolant flush done. 6.0s are a great motor but like to suck gas so I would stay away from them unless he needs a 3/4 ton truck. Knock sensors commonly go out cause they get water down in them pretty easy and fairly cheap to replace. As stated about I see a lot of great running trucks of this era with 160k-220k miles on them but a lot of these with the 4L60E in them is getting tired by this point just keep that in mind.