What did you do to your Avalanche today?

[Raekal]

Wow, that's a lot o rust on the ground. Looks like it could be mine.

Yeah, thankfully most of that is coming off beneath the bed. At Least the silver lining with all this work is most of the loose stuff will be knocked loose for me when i go to do some coating xD

What I should ahve done is asked to walk beneath it to have a look around seeing as the techs were done for the day

 

[2SmokinBarrels]

Today was a busy day for my Avalanche. So... I installed a dash cam, hard wired in with parking monitor, a Kenwood DMX4707 touch screen Bluetooth deck, with steering wheel controls maintained, and the cigarette lighter is now a USB port for the radio. The system I used also maintains the Bose amp and speakers. I put the microphone near where the factory one for the OnStar unit was. I replaced the ailing HVAC controls and now I have full temp control, AC and the servo that was making noise barely makes a sound now. I’m guessing the old unit was dying or needed calibration. I still do not have keyless entry, but not for not trying, and also looking for the module. I can’t find the little bugger.

oh, I also resoldered the resistors in the instrument cluster that make up the voltage divider for the PRNDL light and they are all back and working. The DIC is still dim, but there is another voltage divider on the board that I didn’t mess with... I prolly should have. But I need to replace about 4 bulbs so it will be coming back out when they arrive.

and lastly, here are the pics of the finished results.

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Great job Massey. Thats on my list for my '04. Also wondering did you not have AC before u changed the controls? I just tried my AC a few days ago and it wouldnt cool. Figured it needs a freon charge so made appt. for friday.

 

[Massey]

Great job Massey. Thats on my list for my '04. Also wondering did you not have AC before u changed the controls? I just tried my AC a few days ago and it wouldnt cool. Figured it needs a freon charge so made appt. for friday.

The unit would give me the snow flake but the compressor wouldn’t cycle. With the new unit the compressor cycles and it gets good and cold now. So I am guessing it was a bad driver or out of calibration but it would not go into calibration mode so...

 

[Massey]

Today it got some new parts... Valve cover gaskets, oil pressure switch, and a passenger window switch. I didn’t have time to work on it today, but my son washed it. Wow what a difference. It’s pretty now! Tomorrow key fobs should be arriving, and I will install the window switch and hopefully regain my keyless entry.






Oh and my cat matches my truck!

 

[2SmokinBarrels]

ok I see. You replaced the whole control unit. I'll still try the charge but I'll get a unit soon thx M

 

[2SmokinBarrels]

Looks like a Burnt Orange color. Nice Av

 

[Massey]

So today was a good day... I didn’t even have to use my AK... ok enough 90’s rap... but it was a good day. the van with the smiley face on it delivered a couple new key fobs, so before I replaced the keyless entry module I tried to program them and success! I have keyless entry once again, and I was able to return the unused module for some much needed $$$ in my account. then I next attacked the mess and moss growing in the rear area of the truck. I was happy to see that there was very little water intrusion even with a full hose spray.

I need new #1 and #3 bed panels, or just a full set of undamaged units to replace my set with the holes drilled in it. I also needed to fix the weatherstrip around the tailgate, so that got thoroughly cleaned, the edge got recompressed and then put back on. Yup I was busy after work today.

 

[Tacocat]

I've been considering changing my alternator and water pump for about two months now but kept putting it off saying, I have time. Well, today I went to leave for an appointment and about a mile into the trip my low coolant light came on. I needed gas anyway, like that's a surprise to anyone here, and pulled into the nearest station.
Shut her off and popped the hood to see if it was something simple like a loose hose clamp or a bad hose but nope, water was everywhere.
My water pump decided it's bladder was not holding any water and it urinated all over my engine compartment. It's so difficult to house break some things.
I cancelled my appointment and figured I'd take a chance sinceI was so close to home, I topped her off and babied her home. She made it without my temp gauge rising and I parked her.
The local o'reilly's got me an ac delco for 117$ and I got a new thermostat housing and thermostat plus 3 gal of coolant.
A simple job that I believed to be about an hour's work taking my time not to break anything and to clean any residue from the engine.
I even cleaned the underside of the shroud and air channel, however when removing the heater hoses, the plastic y fitting decided it had lived a long enough life and sheared at the hose line.
Naturally, no local shop had it and some didn't even know what I was talking about.
Since I had no option, I fabricated a y fitting that allowed me to connect the parts back together. It's not pretty at all but it works.
The heater core is out of the equation for the time being until I get around to buying the correct part/hose. I'm guessing it's a dealer item only and going to run at least 50$.
An hour job turned into a three hour one as I found the right stuff to fabricate the y fitting.
I'm actually going to try to plastic weld the part back together using another fitting I have and a slurry. Let's see if that theory holds water.
This is one time I am grateful for being a poor man. I'd never had gotten the experience to get myself out of this situation.
A definite plus for the Av. She broke but didn't leave me stranded!

 

[Massey]

Installed a trailer brake controller... I love how GM made a socket in the cab to fit the controller without any splices or fancy wire routing. I have to wonder why they stopped making this setup? Anywho... I now have a brake controller.

 

[damascus maker]

Replaced the brake switch. Cruise control works now. Best $10 fix ever, thanks to those that shared this.

 

[2SmokinBarrels]

So I dropped the Av at the shop to charge up the a/c because it wasnt cooling down. It is a little cooler but They found no leaks and only put in 2 lbs . So he found the Temp control Unit was faulty. Exactly what Member Massey has recently repaired. I will try to fix on my own, I did look them up to buy on Ebay and found most of them are used and reconditioned for too much$. So I figure lets recondition the one I have, take it out and clean the connections, Any advise? If it doesnt work I could just open all the windows, the sunroof, and pop the back window, after all, its an Avalanche!
My "check engine " light was also on. My dum-dum. I jump started my old truck with the Avy hooked up direct to battery. Use the red box and a ground on the engine! Which i read here the next day. I didnt hurt anything but the light came on as a warning. The mechanic got one code for a purge sensor I can fix on my own and he cleared the light. Decent bill for $200 and it runs great again.

 

[wulftone]

Replaced the cabin air filters today. Much nicer! They were black and a lot of pine needles came out. Weirdest part was needing a 5.5mm socket for the bolt holding the clip on.

Also replaced the totally broken rear left door strap. Easy job.

Lastly, I'm battling the infamous climate mode door actuator problem. Hot/cold work fine, thankfully, but it won't leave defrost mode. Found a cheap actuator online and will try that before doing more expensive things. So that's next.

After that, will do the rear center brake light.

 

[5 Star Av]

I don't know about "today" so much but about 3 weeks ago I put my Av on jackstands to begin the process of diagnosing an intermittent lifter collapse, intermittent misfire in #7, and a too rich on both banks... After a couple days I had drilled holes in my PCV feeding dividers on the underside of my valve covers and tested 10-12 sensors and by some stroke of (good or bad depending on who you ask) luck I watched a video of how to put a crinkle paint job on your valve covers. So I did it, then speckled them with this 40yr old can of Chevrolet Blue #201 Engine Paint that I found in my grandpa's garage when he passed 10yrs ago....and speckled is the only way it'll come out now lol. So then I felt like I should paint my coil brackets, coils, all the bolts, oil filler tube, filler tube cap, belt tensioner, guide pulleys, battery trays, batt tray brackets, corner engine bay braces, and a few other parts that I'm not even sure what they are. Then I thought it would be a good idea to clean engine compartment before installing all these white, ultra matte gray, aluminum, Golden Sunset, black, and blue parts....which led me to my local auto parts store.....

When I asked dude what the best degreaser for my all aluminum LC9 was he said "Aluminum Foil" ....I said "WHAT?" and he was right, after a couple days rubbing the exposed areas of my block, heads, alternator, etc. I had shiny aluminum everywhere.

Then I looked up and on top the cabinet sat this monstrous S&B airfilter for a 7.3 diesel that my good friend who died of cancer 1yr ago this week brought over on his last visit to my garage. He said "I'm sure you'll figure out a way to use it sooner or later". So off to the hardware store I go for 6"-4" reducing Fernco, a sweep 90, a 4" coupling Fernco, and a 5' stick of 4" black ABS pipe . Some Dremel work and a little VHT Plastic paint later and Ive got a monster new intake to install, if I can stop adding phases onto this project.

While looking at how to maximize inflow to this giant new air filter I couldn't stop looking at how bad my frame looked.....and I just so happened to have purchased some POR-15 and several cans of rust reformer last year so off I go with a wire wheel on the drill and a day or so later Ive got a beautiful new flat black undercarriage.

At this point I figured I'm all in and already had some adhesion promoter.....so I decided to pull and paint my trim panels with the Duplicolor Bumper and Trim paint.......and they turned out AWESOME!! Which made me do my door handles windshield wiper shroud and mirrors lol... I know I'm forgetting some of the things Ive done but that pretty much brings me to yesterday..

Today I got the bright idea to use my great stuff gun and seal some very poorly insulated gaps around my firewall, wheel wells, and at the bottom front of my doors..... and to RaptorLiner the underside of my hood and the sound deadening blanket on my firewall.

My goal tomorrow is to start putting everything back together, and install the retrofit cabin air filter and brake controller I got today... I sure hope my lifter/misfire/too rich problem is fixed because I can't remember which sensors I checked and which I didnt..... At least it will look good if it's still broken right?

I just tried unsuccessfully for 15min to link pics from my Google operated phone to my Google chromebook,,, wtf... who came up with the word Google anyways

 

[EXT4ME]

Outstanding work!

Since you are now a "Full Member", you can now easily just "upload" your pictures directly into your posts using the insert image button instead of linking to an external source.

Gives your posts a much cleaner look.

Keep up the great work!

 

[CASD57]

So far my Oxygen Sensor hasn't totally failed...(No check engine light since I cleared the code a week or so ago) Thats good ... Rained all weekend so I got a free car wash.. But nothing new done until next weekend....

 

[damascus maker]

Installed new headlights!

 

[5 Star Av]

Outstanding work!

Since you are now a "Full Member", you can now easily just "upload" your pictures directly into your posts using the insert image button instead of linking to an external source.

Gives your posts a much cleaner look.

Keep up the great work!

TY I should've clarified a little better..... my photo issue isn't with the site, it's between this 14" Chromebook and my Samsung Galaxy s8 Active...and advice to anyone with size L or Larger hands, never buy a 14" laptop unless you don't plan on typing much(keyboard too small). I take the pics on my phone but then can't get them from phone to laptop lol......and I'm lol'ing now but I was doing the opposite the other night after that post, ended up linking the pics by logging in on my phone and linking straight from it

I'm very glad I came out of the shadows and officially joined this sight and excited to learn from wiser more experienced members and to actually be able to help other members on here(actually answered two people's questions already lol) It reads like I joined the site Aug of '19 but I probably spent 3 years reading posts on here before joining.. Did the same thing on a couple Mercedes sites, until the front driveshaft went out on my ladies Benz and the dealer wanted $4900 to do it.....joined those sites real quick and 8 days later I figured out the puzzle to get it in.

So today I taped off and Raptorliner'd my firewall flat black, replaced about 40" of deteriorated black conduit on my wiring harness with blue, shined up a little more aluminum under my alternator and began putting this thing back together. Only a couple rusty hose clamps and a couple rusty bolts left to address! Never thought I'd get to this point honestly. A couple weeks ago everywhere I looked was rusty nastiness....and yes it likely would'nt have hurt a thing to just fix my lifter/PCV issue and get on with it but I feel better now having rejuvenated the majority of the truck. I just spent $60k on a new Compact Track Loader, at least now it'll be pulled in style. Pics will be loaded from phone in a minute

 

[Sasquatch888]

My first entry after joining the site last night.
I drove mine to work tonight.
We sent the gauge cluster to ontario last week to be repaired as it finally had quit working altogether after being intermittent for over 3 years. I call my Avalanche “Miss Dixie” and I’m anxious to make some friends on the board to share stories and get advice. I live in Canada after many years in Texas.

 

[Raekal]

Picked the avalanche up friday after two weeks+ of sitting at the dealer. Drove great. It's amazing what actually having leaf springs does to the handling.

Came home yesterday and smelled burning axle fluid and found the driver rear wheel actually smoking. I just had the rear bearings and seals replaced literally days before at an independent mechanic before having the dealer work on my leaf springs. Ugh. Just cant catch a break.

 

[EXT4ME]

Picked the avalanche up friday after two weeks+ of sitting at the dealer. Drove great. It's amazing what actually having leaf springs does to the handling.

Came home yesterday and smelled burning axle fluid and found the driver rear wheel actually smoking. I just had the rear bearings and seals replaced literally days before at an independent mechanic days before having the dealer work on my leaf springs. Ugh. Just cant catch a break.

I had a rear end rebuilt at my local Chevrolet dealer many years ago on a 1990 Silverado.

After picking up the truck, I went to my favorite tire shop to get some addition service I had planned done.

After getting the truck up on the lift, they came and got me.

The rear end was smoking hot and void of any fluid.

Needless to say, I was not amused.

 

[Raekal]

I had a rear end rebuilt at my local Chevrolet dealer many years ago on a 1990 Silverado.

After picking up the truck, I went to my favorite tire shop to get some addition service I had planned done.

After getting the truck up on the lift, they came and got me.

The rear end was smoking hot and void of any fluid.

Needless to say, I was not amused.

Ouch. Yeah, id be putting a foot up someone's arse after that.

Thankfully in this case, said smoking is from the oil getting on my brake components. It's been leaking well enough that the oil has slung around amd gotten on just about everything in the wheel well. (including the wheel well and rear bumper)

So im not sure if the mechanic damaged the seal while putting it in, I had a bad part, or there's something else going on. I've got to give the place a call and see what they'll do about it.

 

[5 Star Av]

My first entry after joining the site last night.
I drove mine to work tonight.
We sent the gauge cluster to ontario last week to be repaired as it finally had quit working altogether after being intermittent for over 3 years. I call my Avalanche “Miss Dixie” and I’m anxious to make some friends on the board to share stories and get advice. I live in Canada after many years in Texas.

Welcome! Many years in TX myself! In WV now.. Did you get a custom gauge cluster? Thats my next upgrade I believe!?!? That and the Nav/screen system... It's basically in 2D and the new vehicles are in 4K lol.. The 1st Gen Avs can be retro'd with the 2nd Gen Escalade cluster...I'm a little envious

 

[5 Star Av]

So far my Oxygen Sensor hasn't totally failed...(No check engine light since I cleared the code a week or so ago) Thats good ... Rained all weekend so I got a free car wash.. But nothing new done until next weekend....

I can't guarantee it will work, but you can clean them and maybe extend their life and few years? There's also a bench test you can do to see if they're functioning correctly or dying.....requires a multimeter and a propane torch...and a vice or something to hold it while you test it. Be happy to explain if you want... I have mine right beside me right now lol... Just finished the test and cleaning.......before cleaning one was a little slower than the other,,, after they both gave the same results.. But again I won't know if it worked or not til I put back in

 

[CASD57]

I can't guarantee it will work, but you can clean them and maybe extend their life and few years? There's also a bench test you can do to see if they're functioning correctly or dying.....requires a multimeter and a propane torch...and a vice or something to hold it while you test it. Be happy to explain if you want... I have mine right beside me right now lol... Just finished the test and cleaning.......before cleaning one was a little slower than the other,,, after they both gave the same results.. But again I won't know if it worked or not til I put back in

If I was to pull to test with a torch..I'd just replace it...But thanks They only cost $25-$50 depending Brands..Bosch was the $50 one

 

[5 Star Av]

word.. That's actually the smarter thing to do lol... Spent so much on mine these last few months I'm trying whatever I can to extend my repair $$