That's it - F this turd-burban.

[OR VietVet]

IMO, you have put money in to the vehicle you like and want and now you WONDER! I put way more in mine. Look at my build thread, and I am completely happy. I had the money and the know how and built a rig that IMO, is second to none. You can do the same. Again, IMO, the NBS rigs are the best to this date.

 

[Rocket Man]

Looks like normal maintenance items to me for a vehicle at 160k. No need to get all excited and jump ship. You’ll figure out the brakes I’m sure. Every single one of those parts, and more, should be expected at that mileage.

 

[iamdub]

The OCD is real. I'm not looking for perfection per se, but I like to be confident that things are "ok". Sometimes going down the rabbit holes is detrimental to my OCD tendencies.

"It takes one to know one" similar to "If you spot it, you got it"- I have bouts of misguided OCD and I'm detecting it in this thread.

Here's my synopsis:

The front wheels do a lot more of the braking than the rear so they're gonna be hotter. That small difference between the left and right could just be the testing equipment or method of use. It's too small a difference to ascertain a mechanical problem.

That hose being off caused a large vacuum leak which would cause your high fuel trims and corresponding DTC. As you see, there are three levels of DTCs- pending, stored ("confirmed") and permanent. Pending means the PCM sees or saw a condition (usually conditions as there's often multiple symptoms involved) where a sensor reported out of allowable range and it is monitoring it to see if it is a standing issue or was "just a one-time glitch". Issues that can be caused by somewhat unique, but still normal driving conditions are often given these "second chances" before the PCM determines it is an actual fault. If the fault remains through X drive and/or monitoring cycles, then the PCM stores a DTC as it has now "confirmed" there is a problem. These can be cleared for further diagnostics or after the fault has been resolved. A permanent DTC is usually reserved for emissions faults. You can't clear it with a scan tool. The fault has to be resolved and the PCM must not see it again for X drive cycles. If the fault doesn't return, the PCM will erase the permanent code.


As the others have said, most of these things are normal items for such a vehicle at that mileage. If the PO had maintained it better, all of these issues wouldn't have been present all at once. I think you might have set your expectations just beyond reality in the sense of "I've put X money and labor into it, therefore, it should be perfect". Any time you install used/refurbished parts you're at the mercy of the refurbisher and they make do mistakes. The installer (you) could've made a mistake or two, compounding the problems. I wouldn't get too hung up on the total amount invested. If you had bought one that was totally up-to-par and needed nothing, you might would have about the same invested. Good luck finding such a rig.

Take a breather and focus on it when you're ready.

 

[j91z28d1]

auto parts store parts are all just horrible these days man. it's painful really. even what you think is oe, ACDELCO has 3 levels, 2 of which aren't any better than mid grade auto parts store stuff.

its funny, I grew up when factory parts were over priced and not very good, you couldn't wait to get good aftermarket parts on your car. now the factory stuff is the best you can hope for and you pay for it.


the mindset of repairing cars these days just has to be different. it's not going to go right, the parts are going to be iffy as best. if you expect it to take 4h for a project, set aside 2 days and expect to return stuff. I'm currently struggling with just getting the correct heater hoses. since my truck has them run all over the place, no listing are correct size, all gm stuff is discontinued and just plain incorrect. by the time I'm done I'll have 300 plus $ in radiator hoses lol. it's kinda ridiculous and I haven't even worked on the truck yet. just pull stuff apart to measure and order. and even then if a band new hose blows up in a year I won't be surprised. I'm half. tempted to just replace plastic and leave the hoses. they are probably better quality after 145k than new stuff I'm putting on. one of my rock auto orders I added coolent too cause they had a good price. well tracking showed it stuck in Dallas for a few days. so I finally called and waited an hour on hold to find out the box was leaking and they disposed of it. just never updated the tracking. so it was on me to contact the seller for them to do a shipping claim. come to find out rock auto has zero phone numbers. a email is almost impossible to find and then 3 days to get a reply. it took me 3 weeks to get 3 gal of coolent and some spark plug from them lol. but in the end, it's better to deal all that an my local autoparts store and I have work account with them and know them all by name on the commercial side. they just sell horrible parts and high prices.

 

[Rocket Man]

auto parts store parts are all just horrible these days man. it's painful really. even what you think is oe, ACDELCO has 3 levels, 2 of which aren't any better than mid grade auto parts store stuff.

its funny, I grew up when factory parts were over priced and not very good, you couldn't wait to get good aftermarket parts on your car. now the factory stuff is the best you can hope for and you pay for it.


the mindset of repairing cars these days just has to be different. it's not going to go right, the parts are going to be iffy as best. if you expect it to take 4h for a project, set aside 2 days and expect to return stuff. I'm currently struggling with just getting the correct heater hoses. since my truck has them run all over the place, no listing are correct size, all gm stuff is discontinued and just plain incorrect. by the time I'm done I'll have 300 plus $ in radiator hoses lol. it's kinda ridiculous and I haven't even worked on the truck yet. just pull stuff apart to measure and order. and even then if a band new hose blows up in a year I won't be surprised. I'm half. tempted to just replace plastic and leave the hoses. they are probably better quality after 145k than new stuff I'm putting on. one of my rock auto orders I added coolent too cause they had a good price. well tracking showed it stuck in Dallas for a few days. so I finally called and waited an hour on hold to find out the box was leaking and they disposed of it. just never updated the tracking. so it was on me to contact the seller for them to do a shipping claim. come to find out rock auto has zero phone numbers. a email is almost impossible to find and then 3 days to get a reply. it took me 3 weeks to get 3 gal of coolent and some spark plug from them lol. but in the end, it's better to deal all that an my local autoparts store and I have work account with them and know them all by name on the commercial side. they just sell horrible parts and high prices.

Interesting. I have never had an issue ordering parts for my 21 year old Denali or my 15 year old Silverado. There has always been 2-3 different quality levels of parts from not only ACDelco but others like Moog etc so they can compete with and grab some of the business from the cheap parts manufacturers, who have also been around since the very beginning. I have never bought the inexpensive lines myself- I figure those are there for the shops to sell so they can get repeat business when those parts fail prematurely or for the people who just want the vehicle fixed cheaply so they can sell it and pass the problems onto an unsuspecting buyer. If you want quality and value your time, buy the manufacturer’s OE parts. If you don’t want to pay the price, buy the cheapest line of aftermarket parts and plan on replacing them early. There are some aftermarket parts that are an actual improved design over OE but you need to do your research.

 

[rmaker]

Update #3 - Took it to the drive shaft shop this morning. They say the shaft is definitely bent, was... I didn't write it down but I think he said 1000'ths off at the dent and still 40,000ths off 18 inches out from the dent. So he is going to fabricate a steel replacement. Will use my slip yoke and replace the u joints and other yokes? (again didn't write down as he was talking). He said he has done this procedure on other similar vehicles without issue.

Has anyone replaced the aluminum shaft with a steel shaft - Are there any issues with this? Other than a slight difference in weight are there any reasons not to replace it with steel?

 

[Dngrmse]

Great question- Should the shaft be aluminum? Was it designed to be the weak link in the system; for example-like should it be sacrificial in case of a hit (think snowblower shear pins)? Im genuinely curious as well. Im looking to buy a 2011 as well to replace my 03 Denali that was totaled by a falling branch a while back. Im going to have to go over it more thoroughly,

 

[swathdiver]

Update #3 - Took it to the drive shaft shop this morning. They say the shaft is definitely bent, was... I didn't write it down but I think he said 1000'ths off at the dent and still 40,000ths off 18 inches out from the dent. So he is going to fabricate a steel replacement. Will use my slip yoke and replace the u joints and other yokes? (again didn't write down as he was talking). He said he has done this procedure on other similar vehicles without issue.

Has anyone replaced the aluminum shaft with a steel shaft - Are there any issues with this? Other than a slight difference in weight are there any reasons not to replace it with steel?

The driveshaft has weld yokes on each end of the tube. They are aluminum and he will replace with ones made from iron that match the diameter of the new tube. The steel tube will be smaller diameter as bigger is not needed with that material.

Am I correct to assume that your Yukon XL is rear wheel drive and not a 4x4?

 

[rmaker]

The driveshaft has weld yokes on each end of the tube. They are aluminum and he will replace with ones made from iron that match the diameter of the new tube. The steel tube will be smaller diameter as bigger is not needed with that material.

Am I correct to assume that your Yukon XL is rear wheel drive and not a 4x4?

Correctish, it is a 2011 Suburban 1500 LT RWD.

 

[swathdiver]

Correctish, it is a 2011 Suburban 1500 LT RWD.

Right! The driveshaft in those is about a foot longer than mine, which is steel. My pickups have big fat aluminum ones.