New Suburban

[noco-k5]

I decided to pick up a used Suburban for a tow vehicle and winter driver. It's a 2004 3/4 ton Suburban with the LQ4 and 4L80 transmission. It also has 4.10 gears and the G80 rear diff. Pretty clean truck with 130k on it. I read a ton of reviews on these vehicles and it looks like people are pretty easily getting 200k out of this drivetrain if maintained. Any maintenance issues unique to these vehicles? I'm planning on changing all the fluids next week and it's going to need new rear brake pads. Other than that everything appears in good shape hopefully it will be reliable for me.

[stepside67]

Very nice looking Suburban. My wife has a 2001 Suburban 1500 and loves it. It has 195,000 miles. We have had to make a few repairs but considering the miles it has been very dependable vehicle and has served us well.

I think most of the items we have repaired/replaced are pretty common for these vehicles.

1. Water Pump - From what I understand this is usually just a gasket failure but went ahead and replaced it at 130k
2. Transmission - GM with 100k warranty at 145k
3. Radiator - Hairline crack on plastic tank -Replaced at 150k
5. Knock Sensor - Be careful washing the engine. This sensor is in the intake valley and sensor can go out once it gets wet. replaced at 160k
4. A/C Compressor at 190k

We plan our keeping ours until we hit 245k miles while transmission is still under warranty...

Keith

[kylep]

I second that knock sensor. Be careful washing the motor.

I have replaced the bearings. And the heat relay sensor.

[LEEVON]

Intake manifold gaskets, CV shaft seals, water pump (as noted above). LS engines will go the distance, the timing chains can get sloppy in the upper mileage though. The parking brakes are almost always bad and expensive to fix, we just live without it. That is a super nice find!

[noco-k5]

Appreciate everyones response. I love this thing so far The mileage scares me, but it seems to be in very good shape and was about a quarter of the price of a new one so I'm just going to maintain it, and hope for the best.

[noco-k5]

I've noticed the fuel guage acts a little weird. It seems to jump around quite a bit so not sure it's very accurate. Hope that's not the first sign telling me the fuel pump is going out. It's my understanding the fuel sending unit and pump are part of one assembly?

[badgto]

No, thats just the dash telling you that it needs rebuilt. My 03 Sub has gas, oil, and speedo that need fixed. But they last well, my 99 Silverado 2500, with same basic comba as yours has 229,382, Trailblazer has 202,212, 03 Sub 1500 with 5.3,3:73, 4L60 has 171,832. Only a water pump on 99, 3 thermostats on TB, and nothing to Sub yet. As stated needs dash reworked, and all have had oil changes, tires and batteries. Sub has had rear ac worked on twice.

[clinebarger]

Put a Duramax in it....Just kidding.

Have it scanned for codes, If it has a fuel level sensor code....You need a new fuel pump module.

If not....Dont count out a possible cluster issue