Bought a 2005 Tahoe Z71 - These forums are invaluable

[David Staines]

I bought the Tahoe in February. I've had the very good fortune of being "essential" since the purchase. As I drove the Tahoe, I began discovering the plethora of little things that needed to be fixed. With the help of these forums, youtube and Amazon I've been able to do a remarkable amount of repairs and upgrades for relatively little money:

1. Trunk release lever: Found this part on Amazon before discovering this forum. ($7)
2. Radio buttons scratched/melted: I was able to find the buttons on Amazon and instructions on a radio rebuild (referenced from here) to fix the buttons ($24)
3. Steering wheel button lights: I was able to find resources here and on Youtube to guide me towards replacing these buttons. ($68)
4. Key Fobs: Instructions here on how to program 2 at once and pointing me to Amazon for the purchase. ($14)
5. Rubber bumper stops for gas cap: You don't really need help for these ($10)
6. Door latch actuator assembly: This I figured on my own and confirmed here. Youtube provided the instructions and Amazon the parts. ($48)
7. Cabin Air Temp Sensor Aspirator: This was a big one for the forums. I was worried I was going to have to replace something in the dash. A quick search on the symptoms and I hit Amazon and youtube again. ($28)
8. Driving lights: one was bad, but videos showed how much damage could occur to the socket and these forums referred me to some decent LED bulbs. ($5)

This seems like a very common laundry list. I'm fortunate enough not to have trouble with my 4x4 buttons nor my cluster. I'm ready for when those do pop around.

What amazes me is how much information I could find on each of these issues and how cheap they were to fix. Less than $200 for that list. Most of the fixes took a matter of minutes.

Emboldened... I decided to upgrade a few things:

1. Healight buckets: $125
2. Tail Light buckets: $80
3. Driving light/turn signal buckets: $50
4. Radio (and installation parts): $573

The radio was the most daunting. I was able to use these forums to identify the right path as well as some youtube surfing. I ended up going with a Sony XAV-AX5000 with a backup camera, seriusXM tuner and RP5-GM11 harness interface. I was able to build the harness in my shop and the installation was relatively painless. Even routing the backup camera cable from the tailight to the radio was made SIGNIFICANTLY easier (no drilling) thanks to these forums. That was a tip I did not see on youtube anywhere.

For those new... I highly recommend patiently learning to use the search function. For those who've been around a while: thanks for taking the time to help out others.

 

[Antdogbmx]

I AGREE!! I have learned a few things since joining, and there is no drama no bs

 

[Joseph Garcia]

This Forum is invaluable!

Great folks, willing to share their knowledge, experiences, and perspectives. The knowledge base increases every day.