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What did you do to your Avalanche today?

Wow, Ultravox, haven't thought of them in years
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Ultravox - I am still a very big fan after 46 years (Possibly earlier with John Foxx) have the 40th Anniversary box sets deluxe editions (Undecided on the pink thing), I am still annoyed I missed the Return To Eden & Brilliant Tours after they reformed AFTER I moved to Canada, covid & unemployment meant I missed Midges recent tours, but last year I saw him (with Band Electronica) perform at Torquay & Oxford UK on The Catalogue\Hits Tour, where he played from his other bands Rich Kids, Visage, Thin Lizzy, covered Tom Rush, solo material & of course songs from The Mighty Ultravox (Vienna - Lament).

Anyway the dashcam, a few years back I fitted a 12V voltage regulator (Fed from the footwell fuse box) into the overhead console that had two USB power connections one was used until recently as a cell phone mount charger. Thus I used a very short USB C cable\adaptor to keep things neat. I do have some photo's of the install.

The dashcam as it's still on special on Amazon.ca could be fitted as a rear facing one but have to work out how to power it.
 
This is what I ordered 4 years ago, has inputs for front & rear cameras.

My older dashcam plugs into it via USB for power, Geo-location, time date & speed & displays on the screen.

Later models have lost the optical drive as a result its now about 1/3rd of the price I originally paid.

The aftermarket reversing camera is connected via RCA & is powered when reversing lights are on, while the supplied CANBUS unit communicates to the head unit to switch to the rear video input.
 
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Rassilon said:
This is what I ordered 4 years ago, has inputs for front & rear cameras.

My older dashcam plugs into it via USB for power, Geo-location, time date & speed & displays on the screen.

Later models have lost the optical drive as a result its now about 1/3rd of the price I originally paid.

The aftermarket reversing camera is connected via RCA & is powered when reversing lights are on, while the supplied CANBUS unit communicates to the head unit to switch to the rear video input.
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Was that plug and play in the harness , or did you have to cut the harness and wire in an adapter harness.
 
sun will eat up the gorilla tape eventually so not permanent.

I would sand a bit and use body filler then rattle can spray some color match paint and then spray clear coat.
 
Well I guess it's officially yesterday. Installed a new Bilstein 5100 steering shock.
The Mule is off today, Rad flushed, trans filter, lubed, and Wolff Engineering GM109SS Lower Steering Column Cartridge Bearing.
the beginning of the RV trips shake down.
 
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Was that plug and play in the harness , or did you have to cut the harness and wire in an adapter harness.
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Completely plug & play, no cutting. I performed a similar install* recently on a 2015 Jeep Compass.

I had to buy an additional adaptor for the Jeep OEM reversing camera, it wouldn't fit so I had to take my Dremel & cut the plug shroud away & secure it with cable ties.
 
ygmn said:
sun will eat up the gorilla tape eventually so not permanent.

I would sand a bit and use body filler then rattle can spray some color match paint and then spray clear coat.
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Oh yeah , it's not a perm fix. just temporary.
 
Today was one of those days I really start to hate this truck.

Drove up to the boat yard to drain the 400 gallons of water the pontoon cover accumulated during last week's monsoon.
Noticed the AC compressor was fast cycling and the cab was only moving ambient air. Threw up the gauge set when I got home. Low side 35.psi.Great! high side...also 35psi. Crap.

No overt leaks, so maybe a low side blockage. I thought; time will tell. Pop the gauges off and both ports start hissing at me. Anywho The plastic caps are now pressurized at <30psi (I wonder what they are rated for 😉) Probably can't get away with a poor man's repair with just the drier and orifice tube this time. Alas. It's always something. Currently shopping RockAuto for repair sets.
 
JVZL1 said:
Well I guess it's officially yesterday. Installed a new Bilstein 5100 steering shock.
The Mule is off today, Rad flushed, trans filter, lubed, and Wolff Engineering GM109SS Lower Steering Column Cartridge Bearing.
the beginning of the RV trips shake down.
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Wolff Engineering GM109SS is this a specific or is it model specific. I seen a guy replaced that green one, I think if I have to do it, this is what I would want for sure.
 
Mikes-07 said:
Hey Avalanche fans, I just picked up (not literally :D ) an 07 AV. Used to have a Yukon years ago and had to get back to GM truck experience.
Thought I would try to see who's doing what to their AV daily. If this is already a post, I missed it and will delete this if necessary. Otherwise . . . . . What did you do to your AV today?
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Installed lowering rear springs and shocks , also front springs and shocks. My 2011 now rides like new and looks great
 
Welp. Found part of the problem. Another part of the problem was the high side port filled with black caulk. Assume because these schrader cores are so expensive. Grrrr.
A/C is still not right, there is still a blockage, but tearing in any further for other RnR is for another day.
Got to teach my son a bunch about diagnostics too so that is a win.

Vapor canister showed also showed up today. Waiting on the solenoid to go with it, then hopefully that rounds out that system.

I may fuss, but I do enjoy bringing wheelie things back from the dead.
81 Corona > 83 Audi 5k > 89 B2200 > 91 Corolla > 90 Trooper > 90 New Yorker > 98 Marquis > 91 Samurai > 07 Avalanche. 🤣


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Did an oil change and tire swap today on my 2500 AV (as well as greasing zerks, oiling hinges, checking levels, etc..) and when I went to grab an oil filter from my stash.. I discovered that all of my Bosch filters are damaged. I feel like a dummy now.. should have checked them when they first arrived.

Bosch oil filters.jpg

Wondering if the bypass valves inside the filters got messed up. No way to check them, unfortunately. :6:
Can they still be trusted, or no?

EDIT: Just found out that this particular filter does not have a bypass valve. The 8.1 engine has its own bypass valve.
And the little sheet metal spring that holds the filter element down to the base plate rides on the outer edge of the canister - not the center.
Would these oil filters be still good to run them? I'm thinking yes.
 
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How the heck does that happen?!
I might be a little worried but I think it is just open space inside that end, except for the "spring", so not much to damage or affect the filtration I would think. I would probably use a few of the less damaged ones but probably not the real bad ones.

After buying a Fram filter probably over 25 years ago that had a little surface rust in the gasket end I started checking in store for that or anything unusual and also looking down the center threaded hole making sure there isn't anything in there that shouldn't be in there, which is nothing.
Haven't used Fram for that and other reasons almost since then. Wix is what I have gone with for a while and usually get a six pack of them at RockAuto but I've never checked them either until I use one.
 
ToyHauler13 said:
How the heck does that happen?!
I might be a little worried but I think it is just open space inside that end, except for the "spring", so not much to damage or affect the filtration I would think. I would probably use a few of the less damaged ones but probably not the real bad ones.

After buying a Fram filter probably over 25 years ago that had a little surface rust in the gasket end I started checking in store for that or anything unusual and also looking down the center threaded hole making sure there isn't anything in there that shouldn't be in there, which is nothing.
Haven't used Fram for that and other reasons almost since then. Wix is what I have gone with for a while and usually get a six pack of them at RockAuto but I've never checked them either until I use one.
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I got these from RockAuto a long while back.
Somebody must have dropped them or something at a warehouse or during transit. Hard to say.
If I recall correctly, the shipping box the filters came in was undamaged, so I'm leaning toward them getting dropped or something heavy thrown on top of them at a warehouse. I'm now thinking that they are likely ok to use. There is no bypass valve in these filters to get damaged.
 
Today's check in: maintenance free Sunday, but the vapor solenoid did show up today, and in good shape, so that repair is on deck for this week.

We did do work on the honey-do including picking up 600# of river rock and other plantings from Pike's Nursery. Last time we did this was multiple trips in the Toyota Sienna. Glad to have this thing, even if I hate it at times, lol.

Edit: so while sweeping out the sand residue from the bed, the saggy rear weatherstrip caught my attention for the last time, so off it came. Cleaned all the grime out of the channel and off the lip, including way too much from under the inner wall panels. Set the bench vise close enough to squeeze the channel together, but still be able to pull the strip through. Did a decent enough job of closing the widest gaps. Some 77 spray into the channel and popped it back into place, then walked a bite down the length of the bottom edge with channel locks. A final wipe with wd40 w/ silicone, and calling this one done.
 
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Had the HD delivery boys load up a range I have to bring to some rental property
 
I saw an Avalanche, which looked factory painted with z71, stickers, from looks was a daily driver not in bad shape or rusted much needed a good bath. It was a cladding model, but it was a powder blue color anyone know what years that color was available. I only seen one other one, but I thought it was custom painted. Color is like a gray blue, or powder blue. I didn't want to stalk it to much, when I walked past, I'm thinking it was earlier than 2004 since the console looked different, but people do add consoles so hard to tell. Any idea what color that is, I searched around but didn't see anything.
 
Out with the old..

...and who needs hose clamps? Not that it would have mattered with all the splits all down it.

The truck is now four pounds lighter than whatever has accumulated inside this canister. (I am not going to blow it out like some YT shows. I can see enough wet inside. ..

Scanner passes the evap tests. We'll check again in a week or so ..
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At least you had still had the hose from vapor solenoid to canister.

Mine was totally missing (End result I never fitted the new canister on mine).
 
Rassilon said:
At least you had still had the hose from vapor solenoid to canister.

Mine was totally missing (End result I never fitted the new canister on mine).
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Eh... It was barely there. While present, not really doing much of anything other than just hanging out. Unfortunately, I live in a county that still requires it to be intact at least once a year until 2032.
 
DaCurmudgeon said:
Out with the old..

...and who needs hose clamps? Not that it would have mattered with all the splits all down it.

The truck is now four pounds lighter than whatever has accumulated inside this canister. (I am not going to blow it out like some YT shows. I can see enough wet inside. ..

Scanner passes the evap tests. We'll check again in a week or so ..
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Nice, I did all this with new on mine, my brother noticed the plug on the small module not in like someone had removed it, but since I had all new stuff and the rig was new to me we swapped both. I just kept the old stuff should I need to have a spare, as I don't think that was the issue. They were parts to to add up for my extension, after 2 extensions, I had the cat's replaced and finally passed. That was last summer. Now I hear today they may end e-check for the remaining 7 counties in Ohio that still have it. Either way I would rather have the stuff working correctly, for gas mileage and performance. Funny the process they want to go to is for the vehicle owner to sign off on a certificate that to the best of their knowledge their vehicle meets compliance. LOL< how is that gonna work. Go figure. I'm for it, though, as I have friends that live 15 minutes away here and no e-check in their county, but yet I had to jump through hoops, it was a mess. Ironically I had bought the truck from a non e-check county so even through it was an even year vehicle I brought it into a e-check county so it was subject to immediate inspection. I got a temp extension, was working on it to get the longer extension I had to spend at least 200$ in repairs, they cut some of my costs stating it wasn't emissions related, and gave me 60 days, at that point we got the cat on, and it passed. What a pain in the ash. Lucky at the time for me I could afford to fix it, some just can't do that, and would have to get rid of vehicle.
 
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Yep..I'm right on the edge of the metro. One county over and I don't have to do this mess. This is also the newest (read, most complicated) vehicle I ever owned. Ha ha. I failed last year.. because I missed the readiness check. Dinked on 2, and GA allows one. Had to do that whole drive cycle mess. Twice. Oof.
 
Our state government did away with any type of personal vehicle inspections back in the early 2000's.

Even before that, the annual inspections were headlight, turn signal and rudimentary cursory basic equipment checks.

Never any kind of elaborate emission testing.

It was agreed back then that the annual inspections were a joke around here.

There were no official dedicated inspection stations, but rather the odd full service gas station with a bay.

Usually just a $5 lick 'em and stick 'em type of affair.

Now days, driving around with a CEL?

No biggie.

Can't complete a drive cycle?

No worries.

CAT fell off?

Meh.

Windshield cracked or tires bald?

Whatever.

Windshield wipers?

What are those?

Now, I'm not saying this is always a good thing, and by the looks of some of the vehicles out on the roadways here, perhaps some sort of inspection might not be such a bad thing.

At least the law enforcement can cite someone for any equipment malfunction as part of a standard moving violation, but not as a primary offence.

So, knock those mufflers off and just try to not rev the engine too much in front of a cop and you should be fine.
 
EXT4ME said:
Our state government did away with any type of personal vehicle inspections back in the early 2000's.

Even before that, the annual inspections were headlight, turn signal and rudimentary cursory basic equipment checks.

Never any kind of elaborate emission testing.
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We went the opposite…who cares if your tires are bald, if you have working brakes or lights…but you better be able to pass emission testing…which consists of plugging into your OBD2 port and the computer checking for readiness and any codes. Oh have a car with OBB1…no worries, no inspection for you, what your car is so old there no port at all? Ah you’re good, don’t even need a sticker.
 
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