What did you do to your GMT today?

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2001ZR2

Member
Jul 16, 2019
93
Kansas
My wife had the day off yesterday so I took her Envoy Denali in for transmission service. We are adding a tranny cooler in series with the stock one.

We've had the truck for 2 1/2 years and 26k miles. So it was time to establish a baseline and have my mechanic look at the transmission. Been trying for 2 years but the wouldn't give the truck. Long story short the transmission looked good.

He agreed with my diagnosis that the P0449 code was because of a wire run to jump power to soleniod by the gas tank. The scotch lock connector must not like the wet conditions there and corroded.

The front crank seal has become a significant leak so we're addressing it.

Will have address the intermittent codes from the driver side wheel sensor.

I am in the doghouse for all of this as we were going to take my ZR2 4 hours to watch my youngest son's preseason team wrestling tournament but the fuel died as we were leaving. Apparently I should foreseen this. Regardless I have trained on replacing an in tank fuel pump when I did on my youngest son's 2005 Trailblazer.

I would to welcome my friend Murphy and looks like he'll be here all weekend.😀

We'll get her truck back today if all goes well.

I will finish the brake job from hell on my oldest son's truck today. It has involved new rear calipers, new rear axle seals and bearings, a new front differential seal, new e brake cables20191005_193705.jpg

Iowa salts their roads very well as that is the e brake shoe on the passenger side. The driver side looked the same but the brake held the truck.
 

xavierny25

Member
Mar 16, 2014
6,323
Staten Island, N.Y
Added sound deadening and speaker rings to my front door setup.

What I had prior to doing this.
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Sound deadening installed

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Added some deadening to the 6.5 speaker adapters aswell.
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Might have to get a better pic when it's dark and I can use the flash on my phone so its visible how well its sealed to the door panel.
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gpking

Member
Dec 27, 2013
534
Berkeley Springs, WV
I stapled up the sagging bits of my headliner.
Before / After
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Wait a minute... that doesn't look like a GMT360.

Yup, that's right, I've added a GMT800 to the family.
It's an '00 Silverado 1500 LS Z71 regular cab long bed, 5.3L.
Single owner, 147k miles, and not an imperfection anywhere on the outside.
The original owner added a fog light bumper, bull bar, GMTK2XX "premium" rims, GMTK2XX rear bumper, body lift kit, chrome mirrors, tons of LED lights, steps, and a bed cap.
20191026_230843.jpg

I purchased it below KBB value as a "handyman special" from a Chevy dealership in Maryland because the aftermarket equipment and hole in the muffler would fail state inspection.
Evidently any MD resident who bought it would have to either pay the $2k+ quoted to repair it to state standards, or tow it home and accept a rebuilt title.
A loophole allows out of state residents to buy "failed" vehicles and legally drive them away the same day! It's tagged and now my second daily driver.
I think it's a beautiful truck and it just eats up the back roads. I hope to keep it and my GMT360 on the road for years and years to come.
 

Mooseman

Moderator
Dec 4, 2011
25,257
Ottawa, ON
Put some new Bosch Icon wipers. Hope to see how they fare in winter.
 

Blckshdw

Moderator
Nov 20, 2011
10,665
Tampa Bay Area, FL
Making problems worse... I have 2 backup cameras on the EXT. The original one I put in the trailer hitch, and a second one at the top of the lift gate glass, on the interior trim panel. For a while they worked great, then the picture for the lower one stopped working. I didn't use it much anymore, plus the low resolution looked like crap on the 10" screen, figured the camera was dead (I had replaced it once before, and it was cheap) Then months later, the newer one started to flicker, and only seemed to work when the mornings were much cooler :mad:

Got my video adapter for my laptop, plugged in both cameras to it, and got a steady clear picture. Great so something is up with the radio, time to tear into the radio stack again...

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Checked the connections at the radio, everything was good. Swapped plugs around a bit, tested some more, no improvement, so I gave up. Poked around in the settings to turn off the auto on feature for the camera when shifting into reverse, and looked at a few other things. The touch screen was always just a bit off, you had to tap about a half inch below what you actually wanted to select, so I re-calibrated the display. There were a couple other similarly worded resets, and I ended up resetting the button panel (physical buttons) on the radio face. :confused:

No big deal right? Can still get to everything from the touch screen, so get to the screen to relearn the buttons. Display says to press one of the buttons (same as for steering wheel programming), and then you press the desired function. But the problem is, the radio isn't recognizing when I touch those buttons, so I CAN'T program them! :hissyfit: Nothing in the manual about getting around this issue, so gonna have to find their tech support email, and see if I can get any help there. Not holding my breath.
 

Blckshdw

Moderator
Nov 20, 2011
10,665
Tampa Bay Area, FL
I ended up resetting the button panel (physical buttons) on the radio face. :confused:

No big deal right? Can still get to everything from the touch screen, so get to the screen to relearn the buttons. Display says to press one of the buttons (same as for steering wheel programming), and then you press the desired function. But the problem is, the radio isn't recognizing when I touch those buttons, so I CAN'T program them! :hissyfit:

Had a brain fart last night, later on, decided to Google my issue. And of course there were videos posted of fixing non responsive button controls :duh: It was part of the screen calibration process, after getting the touch screen set, press one of the buttons, and it would ask you to select the function you wanted. Like the steering wheel controls, you had the option for both long and short presses, which was cool. So got that fixed this morning before heading to work.

No dice on the camera issue. Lower camera gave no picture, upper one gave a fuzzy picture before heading out, and a flickering one once I got to work. Has me thinking some internal connection in the HU that separates as it gets warm. :frown:

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Blckshdw

Moderator
Nov 20, 2011
10,665
Tampa Bay Area, FL
Swapped the lines on the aux tranny cooler, as a little experiment. The temps behave like the aux cooler is in permanent thermal bypass mode, driving about 35-45 minutes gets the tranny temp up to matching the engine coolant temp, and it stays there.

What I'm hoping/gambling on, is maybe some clutch material made its way through the line, and since the ports on my cooler are facing upwards, got lodged in the bypass valve with no way out. I dumped the fluid out when I was changing the configuration around months back, but never actually flushed it. So if there IS something on the inbound side, hopefully reversing the hoses will flush it back to the pan, the filter will catch it, and my temps will stay lower like I was accustomed to seeing. Will be out and about today, so that will confirm if it worked or not.
 

2001ZR2

Member
Jul 16, 2019
93
Kansas
Pried the keys out my youngest son's hand and drove his truck to fill it up. Topped off the tire pressures and checked the fluids. He'll be handed windshield washer fluid before he leaves.

I did notice the 4.2L engine clatters when cold by clatters it sounds like my old camaro with solid lifters and forged pistons on a winter morning. Is this typical? Haven't search yet but will.
 

Eric04

Member
Dec 3, 2014
392
West Michigan
Pried the keys out my youngest son's hand and drove his truck to fill it up. Topped off the tire pressures and checked the fluids. He'll be handed windshield washer fluid before he leaves.

I did notice the 4.2L engine clatters when cold by clatters it sounds like my old camaro with solid lifters and forged pistons on a winter morning. Is this typical? Haven't search yet but will.
Yep. The clatter and a mushy 1-2 shift are two things I count on every cold morning.
 

Eric04

Member
Dec 3, 2014
392
West Michigan
I lost one high beam on Friday so replaced both of those today. Deer are getting their freak on and not paying attention to much else so I didn't want to be without for long.

Also (finally) replaced my 4WD switch. It would engage but as soon as I turned it off the service 4WD light would come on. Always disappeared on restart and all seems fine otherwise so I'm hoping this solves the glitch. Also, the set of trim pry tools from HF helped a lot since I always seem to pull too hard. All clips popped cleanly.
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Blckshdw

Moderator
Nov 20, 2011
10,665
Tampa Bay Area, FL
Swapped the lines on the aux tranny cooler, as a little experiment. The temps behave like the aux cooler is in permanent thermal bypass mode, driving about 35-45 minutes gets the tranny temp up to matching the engine coolant temp, and it stays there.

What I'm hoping/gambling on, is maybe some clutch material made its way through the line, and since the ports on my cooler are facing upwards, got lodged in the bypass valve with no way out. I dumped the fluid out when I was changing the configuration around months back, but never actually flushed it. So if there IS something on the inbound side, hopefully reversing the hoses will flush it back to the pan, the filter will catch it, and my temps will stay lower like I was accustomed to seeing. Will be out and about today, so that will confirm if it worked or not.

Well, the results are inconclusive. Temps were considerably cooler today, than all year (when it comes to monitoring tranny temps) After an overnight cold start, temp got up to 180. This afternoon's return trip had a warm start temp of 114, and it got up to 190.

Checking Torque when I was stopped at a light, I did see the max temp was higher than the current temp at one point, by 2 degrees. Previously, the temp would NEVER decrease, it would always stay the same, or get warmer. We're supposed to warm up a bit more during the week, so a mid week evening drive my be in order before I decide what to do with my setup.
 
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Mike534x

Member
Apr 9, 2012
894
Took a road trip to Grand Rapids and then to Detroit for the weekend. Envoy performed great, until the return trip.

Stopped for gas around Kalamazoo and noticed an odd burning smell, there was a beater parked on the pump behind me so I figured it was coming from that. Got home, parked her overnight and it seemed fine until I ran errands this morning. Looked under and saw the driver side cat coated with what looked like oil, and the left side of the skid plate was drenched. So I drove her back home, and inspected it again. I thought the problem was my rack and pinion, or the PS high pressure line. They appear to still be in tact, but it looks like the axle shaft seal failed.

I'm also stumped about my MPG, I was averaging 21.85 going there but on the way back I was hitting 18.5-19.0. She also seemed a "little" low on power, and I noticed the temp gauge was reading 180-185 (Torque was reporting 184*) so it seemed like she was running a little cooler as well. Though did have a slight concern, I did the oil change about 1000 miles ago, and the dip stick was full when leaving. Once back home she lost a quart of oil, so it looks like I'll need to keep an eye on that since it seems excessive....

So new to-do list;

- Order a new axle shaft seal

- Take her in for an exhaust back pressure test, I'm wondering if one of the cats may be clogged.

- Replace (???) the Motor Rad thermostat with a Delco one (only used it because I kept receiving bad ones from Amazon).


I'm having a tough time getting a few months rest of having to do work on her haha.
 

Mooseman

Moderator
Dec 4, 2011
25,257
Ottawa, ON
Installed the 5100 shocks. Not driven yet but just coming off the Tampa, she's got better bounce control.
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Mooseman

Moderator
Dec 4, 2011
25,257
Ottawa, ON
Yes, RAMPS! damn auto-correct! :laugh:
 

xavierny25

Member
Mar 16, 2014
6,323
Staten Island, N.Y
Got around to installing sound deadening and speaker rings to the rear doors.20191105_132641.jpg

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I also wrapped the door lock rods. They've always made some racket in my rear door panel.20191105_123417.jpg
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While I had the door panels off I greased the window tracks and where I saw nessacary.
 

Mooseman

Moderator
Dec 4, 2011
25,257
Ottawa, ON
Mooseman thought the 4600 vs the 5100 was the 5100 could be adjusted for lifted truck so were your 4600 worn out?

The shocks aren't adjustable AFAIK. They're valved better for lifted trucks and bigger tires (unsprung weight). The 4600 were worn as they had not much compression resistance but I always found them bouncy even when they were new on the EXT. These 5100 are FIRM and a great shock. Now I'm not bottoming out the rear. Next year I want to install the front 5100 adjustable struts for either a mild lift or levelling. I kept the EXT springs so might be able to left the rear a bit.
 
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HARDTRAILZ

Moderator
Nov 18, 2011
49,665
The rear 5100 shocks are not adjustable. The ones the lifted guys use are longer, but technically for a tahoe i believe.
 

Mooseman

Moderator
Dec 4, 2011
25,257
Ottawa, ON
Replaced the thermostat. She was running cool, gauge one tick to the left of 100, Tech 2 confirmed running at 80c (176f) while moving and maybe 85c (185f) at idle. Did it the long way, removing the fan and alternator. Two spring hose clamps broke so used worm gear clamps. I installed a Mahle, which from what I can tell, is the same as ACDelco but at lower cost.

So after the refill and burp, ran it a bit. Got to 95c (203f) steady at idle and 92c (198f) while driving in 4c (39f). Gauge is steady at 100.

And it needed a coolant replacement since I think it was still the original fill at 140k km. Old Dexcool still looked good so didn't opt for a full flush since the majority of it got replaced.
 

Drec

Lifetime VIP Donor
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Member
Jan 29, 2018
216
Yakima, Washington
Still moving and while driving up Snowquamie Pass (elevation 2700’)we were doing almost 20 MPH at the summit. Got the Envoy and trailer home and checked the codes. The car through a P1171. So I installed a new fuel filter today; which seems like it fixed the problem. I still have some issues with a P0420. But I’ll talk about that later.
 
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Blckshdw

Moderator
Nov 20, 2011
10,665
Tampa Bay Area, FL
Last night, tore my dash apart again, to mess with my radio, troubleshooting why my RCA cameras aren't working. Had previously disconnected the cameras at the rear of the truck, plugged them into my laptop and got a good picture. So assumed the HU was at fault.

This time, pulled the connections from the HU, into the laptop... "No input signal" :mad: What are the chances I have 2 separate RCA cables, that happen to be running up opposite sides of the truck, both being damaged and causing signal loss? Couldn't immediately find any RCA cables that long, in my rat's nest box of discarded cords and cables, will have to do some more digging. Pretty sure I used all of my long ones for the 5 channel amp. Something tells me, this black Friday could be an expensive one for the EXT 💸
 

Maverick6587

Member
Dec 16, 2018
730
Sterling Heights, Michigan
You could run a resistance check on them as well as a set of good ones and see if there's a loss.
 
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TollKeeper

Supporting Donor
Member
Dec 3, 2011
8,047
Brighton, CO
Last night, on my other GMT (Buick Rendezvous), tore apart the dash so I could send my speedo cluster out for new stepper motors, and new lens. Put on some new tires. Checked over the brakes (car hasnt moved in over a year prior to my purchase). A bit rusty on the surface, but all was in good shape. Bought a new set of headlights, fender, bumper cover, header panel, and the last Bluefusion that I can find new, all to be delivered this weekend or Tuesday next week.

Growled at the Envoy, as another thing got added to the list. The drivers front door, door check, broke. GRR!
 

Eric04

Member
Dec 3, 2014
392
West Michigan
I need to fill up soon and didn't want to be a molotov cocktail so new filler neck. Crusty old bugger, snapped at first hose connection with a little wiggling. Thanks to the site as always for insights on bad replacement brands. I went with Spectra and the cap fit. 👍20191107_164430.jpg
 

Sparky

Member
Dec 4, 2011
12,927
Officially have more miles on the Silverado than I did on the Trailblazer. The last odometer reading record I have for the old TB was 215083. Now unofficially the speedo and odo were 10% slow due to the oversized tires put on around 180k ish if I recall correctly, so actual miles on the TB would be closer to 218k.


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Blckshdw

Moderator
Nov 20, 2011
10,665
Tampa Bay Area, FL
Got up this morning to do some tinkering. Disconnected both of the camera cables to ohm them out. The line on the newer camera tested open, the one on the older camera gave readings all over the place. :undecided: Found a long single RCA cable in my box, and tossed it in with the old camera, got a pretty good image on the head unit considering it's not an HD camera. Pulled the lift gate glass trim and fished out the newer camera connector, fed that directly into my laptop, flickering picture. :mad: Pulled that out, and fired off an email to the seller (they say they have a 24 month replacement guarantee) So we'll see how that shakes out.

Decided to test it again in the house, and was almost baffled, cuz the camera gave a crystal clear picture for about 30 seconds, and then started doing this again :hopeless:

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After that, decided to try and get eyeballs on my exhaust manifold. Have had a hit to my MPGs for a pretty long time, noticed a ticking sound after troubleshooting my water pump earlier in the year, and combined with the funky behavior of my upstream O2 sensor even after replacement, had the educated guess that I may have an exhaust leak somewhere. Secretly hoped for a crack, cuz it would be obvious...

Fought like hell to get the heat shield out. With heater hoses both above and below the firewall end, and the big AC line on top of the front end, it was a royal pain to wriggle it loose. No obvious issues though, outside of the surface rust... Decided to spray all the bolt heads with PB blaster, just because I was in there already. And of course, putting everything back together, heat shield went in, in like 2 seconds. Funny how that always works.

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Did have an "oh shit" moment at the end though. Got ready to close the hood, and had a 10mm bolt sitting in my little pan. Couldn't for the life of me remember where it came from. After 5 minutes of retracing my steps, realized it came from the alternator bracket, to give me more room to move the AC line. Crisis averted! :laugh:
 

Mooseman

Moderator
Dec 4, 2011
25,257
Ottawa, ON
Saab won't crank. Jumped the relay, nada but there is a spark so power is getting to it. Tried to smack it with my "Gordon Freeman" bar, nothing. Jumpered the posts on the starter. Motor spins fine but the solenoid just won't engage. Of course, being a V8, it's a bitch of a job to replace but I may have it a bit easier since I don't have the front axles in it. Pulled the disco and maybe with some tweaking of the tranny cooler lines, might be able to ssqueeze it out that way. Ran out of time to try pulling it out but ordered a new starter on Amazon.ca ($87CAD). Should be here on Tue. If it's easier that way, I may do a write up as a possible option on replacing it.
 

Sparky

Member
Dec 4, 2011
12,927
Exercised the 4x4 this morning on the way to work. Works excellent as usual.
 

Mounce

Member
Mar 29, 2014
13,667
Tuscaloosa, AL
Got a couple mods done on the Silverado over the weekend. Finished up the projector retrofit, turned out pretty decent but still need some fine tuning on aim and some bulb shimming to perfect output. Also still need to bake & re-seal the new turn signal housings that came with the headlights and notch the DRL bowl to accept the added three-wire socket for my dual drl/turns.

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And no I don't drive at night with the bars on.

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Also got some aux reverse lights and new led tag lights put in. Spliced feed wire into BCM reverse output and also tied into my extra toggle switch I went ahead and put in back when I did the front bars and DRL mod. Ran a dedicated wire down the frame following the factory frame harness, loomed inside and out, passing through the ebrake cable grommet. So they come on with perimeter lighting, in reverse, and anytime via switch while ign on and as a side effect of tapping the BCM output, regular reverse lights are also activated in the same three states. As for the tag lights, standard operation, only one installed due to pigtail connector failing upon disassembly on passenger side from water ingress. Going to a salvage yard today to get a replacement as I refuse to pay $20-30 for a 194 pigtail.

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Mooseman

Moderator
Dec 4, 2011
25,257
Ottawa, ON
Took it to the body shop for a quick estimate on some rust spots to have fixed up. Next week it should be going in.
 
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Mounce

Member
Mar 29, 2014
13,667
Tuscaloosa, AL
Went to a junkyard for my first time, picked up a pigtail for the tag light, two gas door bumpers that my truck was always missing, and a factory tailgate cap to replace the bland one that's on there now that's coming unglued.

No good TB center console lids to be found.
 
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BrianF

Member
Jul 24, 2013
1,192
West central Sask.
Took my C1500 to pick the kids up from town and fill the jerrys with gas. Roll into the yard and see my rear driver side tire is half flat. I put her on a jack stand and zipped off the lugs. Looks like another rock puncture but the tire is salvageable. I lost count on how many tires I have go flat on the grid roads. 3 on the Ram 1500, 2 on the 3500, 1 on the C1500, a pile on the Traiblazer and a couple on my work vehicles.
 
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