New owner!

Just picked myself up an 04 avalanche with 101k on it. This thing seems to have every option they had back then, movable foot peddles, programmable seats, leather, and including a brush guard that says avalanche on it! I have a couple questions about it though.

The check engine light came on during the test drive for catalytic converter. Whose a good none oem place to get one?

The parking brake isnt holding, I read about 02?s having issues but hoped by 04 it was fixed. Is it still an auto adjustable tensioner? Do I need to cycle it? If not how do I get that to tighten up?

Other than that it needs an alignment as the dealer said he did wheel bearings and tie rod ends but it still doesn?t feel connected to the road...some wheel play. But drives strait and brakes strait.

What all fluids should I be changing? Drain and refill trans? Read end? Transfer case?

Teach me!!! And if there are any good threads to read up on I would love to hear about them!

First welcome to the website,
If you don't have an owner's manual the resources section here will be of help in providing a PDF copy of your manual, I believe section 6 has the maintenance schedule spelled out for you:
http://www.chevyavalanchefanclub.com/assets/files/resources/model-years/owner-manuals/2004-chevy-avalanche-owners-manual.pdf
If you don't know when the fluids were last changed it may give you piece of mind to change them all.

If your cat is messed up you may want to check or replace O2 sensors at the same time. Take some time to read old threads in the appropriate section for each one of your questions such as exhaust questions in problem or mod section for each same for brakes etc. After awhile the word search function will be come your friend and much ease you search through the mountain of info on this site.
As far as steering many GM vehicles have some play and that is normal, you could have an issue with the "intermediate steering shaft" though and you may want to read old threads in steering section to see if it matches your issue.

Vaeagleav said:

First welcome to the website,
If you don't have an owner's manual the resources section here will be of help in providing a PDF copy of your manual, I believe section 6 has the maintenance schedule spelled out for you:
http://www.chevyavalanchefanclub.com/assets/files/resources/model-years/owner-manuals/2004-chevy-avalanche-owners-manual.pdf
If you don't know when the fluids were last changed it may give you piece of mind to change them all.

If your cat is messed up you may want to check or replace O2 sensors at the same time. Take some time to read old threads in the appropriate section for each one of your questions such as exhaust questions in problem or mod section for each same for brakes etc. After awhile the word search function will be come your friend and much ease you search through the mountain of info on this site.
As far as steering many GM vehicles have some play and that is normal, you could have an issue with the "intermediate steering shaft" though and you may want to read old threads in steering section to see if it matches your issue.

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Thank you for the owners manual link that will come in handy. I did find a bunch of receipts that show trans fluid drained and replaced at 74k, new alternator at the same time, and a fuel pump in October. I have been using the search and think it may be idler arm or pitman arm. But I will look up intermediate steering shaft. The family has always had a Chevy around to tow or haul stuff, this doesn?t steer like them.

I?m guessing this forum use to be very active and some Facebook group started?

DCIV said:

I?m guessing this forum use to be very active and some Facebook group started?

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Yeah, a lot of folks moved over to the FB page which is a bummer for folks like me that don't use FB.

frito said:

Yeah, a lot of folks moved over to the FB page which is a bummer for folks like me that don't use FB.

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I follow several related FB pages, as well as our forum.

The problem I see on the FB pages is the same questions that have been asked and answered many times over here on the forum, are asked over and over again of the FB pages.

I have no real problem with that and we have had the same thing happen here, from time to time.

The topics seem to follow the seasons.

For a while, the common topic was lack of heat in the truck and malfunctioning seat heaters.

Happens every winter, it seems.

Now, the topic of choice seems to be low oil pressure.

Who knows why so many owners seem to all of a sudden be suffering from this.

But, there seems to be absolutely no effort by anyone to do a search on FB or to even read a few posts further down the page.

I feel that some may not get their questions answered since those that have provided answers before, have just done so a couple times that same week and just give up trying to help.

And then there are so many more on FB that answer stuff, and often wrongly, just to be able to post something.

The value of this forum is the many years of users discussing problems and fixes and those discussions will be here for anyone to look up and benefit from those past discussions.

With FB, those discussions are often gone in short order and no one seems to try and search for anything.

It is just easier to ask the same question again and hope for an answer to pop up.

But, that's just me.