New-to-me 2011 Yukon XL Denali

[Professor L Gee]

Good afternoon all,

Yesterday I drove from NC to TN to pick up my 2011 GMC Yukon XL Denali, which I bought sight-unseen (never did that before!) from a big dealer in East Tennessee. 174,9xx miles, paid $14850 for it.
Drove the truck home afterward and said to myself "this feels right."
It's like... every time I say I'm done buying GM vehicles, another one pulls me in.

Drove great across those freeways, and I'm especially glad I went for the 6.2. Between that long drive and some short jaunts upon getting home, I'm averaging 17.8 mpg.

I have a few quibbles with it though, mostly due to its age, some due to the salespeople not noticing. Any quick advice y'all might have for me would be appreciated.
1) The passenger side mirror doesn't move with power. Upon quick inspection, it's not even an original mirror. I plan to replace it.
2) While the stock radio comes with a USB input, it can't read all the songs on my flash drive. I'm guessing it's because 16 GB flash drives weren't invented when the truck was built. I do plan to upgrade the head unit, but is it possible to do so and keep the rear entertainment?
3) Went for a drive today, and when I turned the vehicle on to come back home I got the "SERVICE SUSPENSION SOON" message. No difference in ride height or quality though.
4) Why did GM change their garage door opener system starting with MY2011?
5) The reverse camera activates, but there's no image. I hear this is a common issue.

Other than that, so far I'm enjoying the big family/equipment/furniture/trash hauler. Looking forward to participating for (hopefully) years to come.
Obligatory photos below.

 

[Miami-Dade]

Welcome from Miami Beach!

I would not buy anything sight-unseen but thankfully seems you did okay. Hopefully you got some service records with it.

You came the correct forum to sort out any issues.

 

[intheburbs]

On the USB drive issue, I would guess the USB has to be formatted in FAT32, which is an older file system. Likely your USB is formatted in ExFat. Re-format it, re-copy the files onto it, and I'd bet it works.

I actually had to do that for my 2020 Fusion.

 

[Professor L Gee]

Welcome from Miami Beach!

I would not buy anything sight-unseen but thankfully seems you did okay. Hopefully you got some service records with it.

You came the correct forum to sort out any issues.

Thanks! I'd never bought a vehicle sight-unseen before, but there was no time at which I could have made the trip to test it out first. Fortunately, I do have a decent service history, which helped tremendously.

The multitude of search results while I was researching led me to join once I bought the truck.

 

[Professor L Gee]

On the USB drive issue, I would guess the USB has to be formatted in FAT32, which is an older file system. Likely your USB is formatted in ExFat. Re-format it, re-copy the files onto it, and I'd bet it works.

I actually had to do that for my 2020 Fusion.

That's what I suspected. I'll try that (actually right now while I'm sitting here!).
Surprised you had to do that for your '20 Fusion... but now that you mention it, that may solve some file reading issues we've had with my wife's '13.

EDIT: just checked, and it is FAT32.

 

[avalonandl]

Service suspension probably means your air shocks in back are blown and the air compressor MAY be dead. If the compressor comes on after you start the Denali then you don't need t replace it At 174 k miles and if it has the OE shocks I can garuntee they are blown. Rock Auto has the replacements- probably- and has a 50 buck core return rebate.

The Denalis' are very comfortable vehicles... at that price you did OK....

 

[swathdiver]

Good afternoon all,

Yesterday I drove from NC to TN to pick up my 2011 GMC Yukon XL Denali, which I bought sight-unseen (never did that before!) from a big dealer in East Tennessee. 174,9xx miles, paid $14850 for it.
Drove the truck home afterward and said to myself "this feels right."
It's like... every time I say I'm done buying GM vehicles, another one pulls me in.

Drove great across those freeways, and I'm especially glad I went for the 6.2. Between that long drive and some short jaunts upon getting home, I'm averaging 17.8 mpg.

I have a few quibbles with it though, mostly due to its age, some due to the salespeople not noticing. Any quick advice y'all might have for me would be appreciated.
1) The passenger side mirror doesn't move with power. Upon quick inspection, it's not even an original mirror. I plan to replace it.
2) While the stock radio comes with a USB input, it can't read all the songs on my flash drive. I'm guessing it's because 16 GB flash drives weren't invented when the truck was built. I do plan to upgrade the head unit, but is it possible to do so and keep the rear entertainment?
3) Went for a drive today, and when I turned the vehicle on to come back home I got the "SERVICE SUSPENSION SOON" message. No difference in ride height or quality though.
4) Why did GM change their garage door opener system starting with MY2011?
5) The reverse camera activates, but there's no image. I hear this is a common issue.

Other than that, so far I'm enjoying the big family/equipment/furniture/trash hauler. Looking forward to participating for (hopefully) years to come.
Obligatory photos below.

Welcome to the forum. A truck with those miles and at about 10 years old is going to need a few thousand in repairs. Then she'll be as good as new and continue to provide years of valuable service. Get a Tech-2 so you can work on it or at least diagnose problems and not be ripped off. You can buy a pdf copy of the service manual off of sellers on Ebay and or sign up for a subscription to it on AllDataDIY that is more friendly to use.

Examine the service records to see what has been done and not done. Check all the fluids anyway, inspect the brakes anyway.

At this mileage and time, it's usually time to rebuild the front and rear suspension. By wary of changing the type of oil that the previous owner was using, if you know it. Keep the OCIs at 5K miles or so, dirty old oil is AFMs worst enemy.

 

[Professor L Gee]

Service suspension probably means your air shocks in back are blown and the air compressor MAY be dead. If the compressor comes on after you start the Denali then you don't need t replace it At 174 k miles and if it has the OE shocks I can garuntee they are blown. Rock Auto has the replacements- probably- and has a 50 buck core return rebate.

The Denalis' are very comfortable vehicles... at that price you did OK....

Any idea what an intermittent message means? I started and stopped the vehicle quite a few times today going from place to place, and sometimes the message showed up and sometimes it didn't. It didn't appear at all on my drive home.

 

[Professor L Gee]

Welcome to the forum. A truck with those miles and at about 10 years old is going to need a few thousand in repairs. Then she'll be as good as new and continue to provide years of valuable service. Get a Tech-2 so you can work on it or at least diagnose problems and not be ripped off. You can buy a pdf copy of the service manual off of sellers on Ebay and or sign up for a subscription to it on AllDataDIY that is more friendly to use.

Examine the service records to see what has been done and not done. Check all the fluids anyway, inspect the brakes anyway.

At this mileage and time, it's usually time to rebuild the front and rear suspension. By wary of changing the type of oil that the previous owner was using, if you know it. Keep the OCIs at 5K miles or so, dirty old oil is AFMs worst enemy.

All sound advice.

I plan to wrench on what I can wrench on, and let a shop do what I can't.
Brakes might be a sooner-than-later job... I'm considering upgrading them just to feel more comfortable.

 

[swathdiver]

All sound advice.

I plan to wrench on what I can wrench on, and let a shop do what I can't.
Brakes might be a sooner-than-later job... I'm considering upgrading them just to feel more comfortable.

I'm a fan of the original equipment parts, even the pads. They last a long time and stop my 6400 pound truck from 60 mph in 148 feet or so. ACDelco came out with a line of new pads, rotors and calipers optimized for towing which you might consider. Wilwood, Brembo and Baer make or made upgrade kits. Lots of folks on here like Powerstop brakes; we use them on our little Kia.