• If you currently own, previously owned or want to own an Avalanche, we welcome you to become a member today. Membership is FREE, register now!

What did you do to your Avalanche today?

Those are sweet rides donholco:cool:.
I've been trying to fix my a/c lately and the other day i decided to take a look at the actuators under the glove box and change the cabin air filter. Guess what? No cabin air filter? Okay then.
I did find a little mouse nest when I dropped the pan. Lucky its not in an airway.
mouse nest.jpg

I also reinforced my tow hooks with some tremclad red
tow hooks.jpg
 
Sweet! Mind sharing what you used?

this is the kit i bought. the 20 bulbs were the following:
(4) door panel lights
(4) vanity lights (in visor)
(3) dome lights
(2) side mirror puddle lights
(2) map lights
(1) glove box light
(2) license plate lights
(2) bed/cargo lights

the only bulbs that i have not installed yet are the bed/cargo lights, i have not found a way to easily reach them yet, the wire seems to only be barely long enough to reach the housing, i wish i could pull it to the saddle bag opening.

they have all worked perfectly! i was not expecting much for the price, but i figured if only half of them worked, i'd still be money ahead over buying them all individually.

here are pictures comparing old vs new map lights and vanity lights. the picture of the whole truck is how she looks when i unlock with the remote. DRL's and Reverse LED's will be here Thursday.
IMG_20210617_194232327.jpgIMG_20210617_192505471.jpgIMG_20210617_210913353.jpg
 
Last edited:
IMG_20210621_204330__02.jpgIMG_20210621_204015.jpg

Whelp. I did a thing today. My friend was looking to sell his Ram 1500 rebel quad cab while the getting is good, much like I did. The same dealer gave him a fair price for it. We walked the lot for 3 hours looking though the lower end of the lot. He just wanted something to commute 5 miles. Though the ability to fit drywall paneling and light towing was a plus.

We looked at a slew of Impalas, Malibu's, and other commuters along with a half decent 2001 Silverado. Problem being that here in flint, people like putting half assed sterio jobs in their cars while simultaneously not bothering to do maintenance/ repairs. Almost every car was super low on oil, one had chunks of something on the dipstick. All in all, not great.

I saw this avalanche marked for $3900 and jokingly told him we should look at it. . I hadn't even considered it when I bought my Tahoe as it has 300,000 miles. 95% of those up here are rust piles. Though, upon closer inspection, it was surprisingly clean. Like, the rockers are still solid and for the most part, it is just surface rust. There's a little bubbling paint on the hood edge and rear wheel wells, but nothing serious. This is moreso surprising when it's a one owner car and always registered in Michigan.

Test driving revealed that it shifted and ran perfectly. Just a few rattles that I consider normal for the age. The transfer case, however, shifts into 4-lo/ hi, but if you come to a stop, it will drop out and go to neutral on both shafts. Switching to 2 hi works and it drives great. Looking around, this seems that it could be anything from the encoder motor being iffy, the mechanism being sticky, or just needing a while rebuild.

The midgate is leaking and has a lot of crud that needs to be cleaned off the gasket. And the driver's seat could be replaced. Its a ducktape special.

The engine, surprisingly, has brand new headers installed. Like, they're still shiny and have new hardened bolt hardware. Which leads me to believe that it has a newer motor installed. New tires, newer suspension. Brakes work great. No codes other than the typical airbag light up here. Likely a corroded sensor.


Long story short, they accepted a reduced offer of $2500 for it paid with equity from the ram. If the transfer case can be figured out, I see no reason why he couldn't double his money on it in this area for the body condition alone. I was very tempted to buy it if he turned it down. Haha. He more or less got it cheaper than a blown out 230k mile Impala. As long as it functions as a 2wd truck at this point, I think he is pleased

Its a 2004 avalanche Z71 4wd(ish) with heated leather with a g80 other than that, pretty standard as far as I can tell, but i don't know what else you'd want really.

.
 
Last edited:
Finally got around to replacing the felt weather stripping on the doors for the windows. The OEM's were starting to fall apart and the best thing is the new parts were free. Ordered them off eBay, thought they were lost in the mail, so I got a refund, two months later they show up.

But of course when moving it into the garage for shade the parking brake release line breaks. Thank goodness that's an easy fix.

M1oiqWkl.jpg

XnwRCyHl.jpg

m0XOHLbl.jpg
 
Last edited:
Not just today but for several days I’ve been doing paint correction on my 2013 BDE. On inspection the hood of my truck was absolutely covered with scratches apparently from many trips through the car washes that have the rotating strips. Incredible damage. I read up on it, started with clay bar, then used Meguiar’s Ultimate Compound, then Meguiar’s Ultimate Polish, finally Car Guy’s Premium Hybrid Wax. I read where some detailers use a Festool RO150 Rotex dual action random orbit/rotary sander so with a combination of 6” pads from Amazon I gave it a shot. I got great results, tried to not get too aggressive with the pads or process. Not bad considering I’ve never attempted this before. Now I noticed the tops of the storage compartment lids have damage and will be next. With 95F temps in the garage it was hot but worth the effort. I couple of pics but probably hard to tell anythung.
 

Attachments

  • 44DBB869-E832-45B0-A983-84BF77142057.jpeg
    44DBB869-E832-45B0-A983-84BF77142057.jpeg
    151.3 KB · Views: 13
  • 943C8E44-89DB-47A8-8E16-3F26C0E85B80.jpeg
    943C8E44-89DB-47A8-8E16-3F26C0E85B80.jpeg
    82.3 KB · Views: 13
  • 2204FCF9-F54C-4F01-9C18-95B0F676D3D3.jpeg
    2204FCF9-F54C-4F01-9C18-95B0F676D3D3.jpeg
    127.2 KB · Views: 13
Last edited:
Not just today but for several days I’ve been doing paint correction on my 2013 BDE. On inspection the hood of my truck was absolutely covered with scratches apparently from many trips through the car washes that have the rotating strips. Incredible damage. I read up on it, started with clay bar, then used Meguiar’s Ultimate Compound, then Meguiar’s Ultimate Polish, finally Car Guy’s Premium Hybrid Wax. I read where some detailers use a Festool RO150 Rotex dual action random orbit/rotary sander so with a combination of 6” pads from Amazon I gave it a shot. I got great results, tried to not get too aggressive with the pads or process. Not bad considering I’ve never attempted this before. Now I noticed the tops of the storage compartment lids have damage and will be next. With 95F temps in the garage it was hot but worth the effort. I couple of pics but probably hard to tell anythung.[/quote}
Good work! I am in the process of doing something the same but I will be putting liquid glass instead of wax. Will never be going back to wax after glasing my 2013 Camaro.
 

Attachments

  • 20190302_170407.jpg
    20190302_170407.jpg
    238.2 KB · Views: 10

Painted bed covers, again.
 
Gave the Avy the Seafoam cleaning. Pour a bottle in a half tank of gas, and spray a bottle in the intake. The spray is slow, 7minutes, while the kid holds the rpm at about 2000. Hard sit for 10 min and start it up. She smokes white like a steam engine for a few minutes then took her out on the highway for 20 min. Maybe a little soon to tell but I think it sounds better.
It was running okay before , its just I drive alot and fill up "cheap" gas . So its good to clean once or twice a year.
 
Last edited:
Welded the 3" front joint on my Magnaflo muffler that broke loose. Then changed out the master brake cylinder and upgraded the rear brake lines to braided stainless steel. Was changing the fronts as well but bought the wrong ones. :E:
 
Welded the 3" front joint on my Magnaflo muffler that broke loose. Then changed out the master brake cylinder and upgraded the rear brake lines to braided stainless steel. Was changing the fronts as well but bought the wrong ones. :E:
Gives you a project for another day.
 
Today I did a few minor projects

I didn't like the shiny look of the carworx on the plastics so I decided to Plastidip sail panels. Plus I added a light smoke tint from Vivid on the 3rd brake light.

I was tired of looking at the power wire for my Phone holder/wireless charger running across my nav screen so I ran it behind the nav and brought it out just below the vents.

Added vinyl to the steering wheel covers without removing them.
 
Finished out stage 1 of the LED transformation. Daytime Running Lights and Reverse lights were swapped out.

this picture was taken at ~10pm, and the only lights are from the truck itself. I really love how she lights up when I press the unlock button.

20210705_220247.jpg
 
Finished out stage 1 of the LED transformation. Daytime Running Lights and Reverse lights were swapped out.

this picture was taken at ~10pm, and the only lights are from the truck itself. I really love how she lights up when I press the unlock button.

View attachment 232866
What do you know, those courtesy lights actually do function for something other than paint illumination.. you just have to make them bright as the sun. xD

But, geeze man, thats some illumination. Cant help but feel you need some roof mounted ones to cover the sides. :p Ill probably wind up replacing my halogens with LED's as they burn out as long as the new headlights last. Though i might do the bed light first, as its the only other bulb I could actually use more light out of.



As for what I attempted to do over the weekend: I installed the LED lights from the other thread. Still havent had a need to drive in the dark. I also attempted to top off my r134a using a loaner manifold gauge set... that leaked all over the place.. that was pretty bad. Kinda threw in the towel on that idea in the 100 degree heat. I just wanted to top things off a bit before I have it checked, evacuated, and recharged just as soon as I get my second car back.

Dealer had been dragging their feet on the friend's 1500 before the holliday. They've had it for 6 days now, and they've only really managed to check the fluids. Front diff was overfilled (takes talent,imo), trans fluid is clear, but smells a bit toasty, rear diff is low, transfer case has the wrong fluid in it. My guess is cherry flavored rather than blue raspberry. After going myself to show them the t-case problem, i've also got the super in depth diagnosis of "it's probably bad". They quoted $2350+tax for an LKQ reman. I can buy a reman from detroit axle for $750. Guesstimating 5.5 hours of labor, LKQ wants as much as GM does for a NV256/ ($1700 give or take). Cheapest option would be a junkyard pre-pulled for $550. Id advise for the reman at that point with the pump rub fixes.
 
What do you know, those courtesy lights actually do function for something other than paint illumination.. you just have to make them bright as the sun. xD

But, geeze man, thats some illumination. Cant help but feel you need some roof mounted ones to cover the sides. :p Ill probably wind up replacing my halogens with LED's as they burn out as long as the new headlights last. Though i might do the bed light first, as its the only other bulb I could actually use more light out of.
LOL on the roof lights, i like that it can light up this much, without anything "extra".

as for the bed lights I've only done 1 of the 2 (so glad I got an old enough AVY to still get both bed lights). the only negative review I really saw on my bulb kit, was the bed light was dim, so I only changed one to be able to compare 1 LED to 1 stock, the LED is much better! once I get the 2nd one switched, ill take a night photo of the cargo area also.
 
Placed an order with detroit axle for a rebuilt NV246. Saved a whopping $5 calling them direct, they give free shipping, so they don't save you any more to go and pick it up Though, I am debating on calling them back to do so anyway, it will save me atleast 3 days of wait time.

Dealer is charging him 3.5 hours of labor and $120 for the fluid and "labor" involved in putting it there. Which, the latter part is highway robbery imo to fill an empty case, but it's whatever, better than me doing the whole thing and they can put up with all of the crap involved with it. I may as well order a new encoder motor to slap on, seeing as they need to move that anyway,
 
Today I did a few minor projects

I didn't like the shiny look of the carworx on the plastics so I decided to Plastidip sail panels. Plus I added a light smoke tint from Vivid on the 3rd brake light.

I was tired of looking at the power wire for my Phone holder/wireless charger running across my nav screen so I ran it behind the nav and brought it out just below the vents.

Added vinyl to the steering wheel covers without removing them.
I like the wood grain, nice touch.
 
Getting ready for a trip and the oil drain plug was leaking. Replaced it and looked for any other oil leaks. None found. Evacuated and recharged the AC as it has not been cooling well for the last year. Also replaced the right front wheel hub bearing and flushed and refilled the brake system. At my age it's getting too difficult to do that kind of stuff myself and it would have probably taken me a week to do all of that, so had it done by my favorite certified mechanic at about half the price of what the dealer would have charged.
 
After struggling more than I should have, I recharged my ac lines. Ac started fading throughout the last few months and the compressor was cycling on and off.

Went to O'Riley's, their gauge set had. A bad o ring on one of the hoses causing it to spew refrigerant everywhere. The plastic tap for the self sealing cans were also faulty and either didn't depress correctly on the one can it worked at all on. Returned the rental gauges and they took back the adapter. (Why those aren't included in the rental, God knows)

Picked up a set of gauges on Amazon. Attempt #2 ended with low to no flow of freon from the cna. I started thinking that the cans were bad at this point.

Went back to O'Riley's, talked to the guys a bit and had them come out with me as a sort of "stupidity test". We got it to sorta work, but the valve had to be juuuuuust right or else it either didn't depress the can valve or sealed itself.

Picked up another couple cans of 134a along with a brass tap from them. Tested the tap on a can without hooking it up. Already 1000% more effective. Problem is, it had larger threads (acme I think?) And the acme adapter had a valve in it. De-cored the adapter, hooked her up and it swallowed roughly two and a half cans of freon. Basically empty. If out some die in it, but I frankly don't have plans to fix the AC system myself right now.


Figured I'll see how long it lasts while I'm without a spare car right now. Dropped off the reman t-case to the dealer and a new encoder motor to have installed into my friend's 1500.
 
Got all of my rear grab handle bolts de-rusted and painted. Also, I’ve pulled off my trailer hitch and am in the process of de-rusting some places and all the bolts. Will try to paint it this afternoon and then tackle some of the frame rust spots at the back.
Looks like there was some kind of gasket, sticky stuff between the hitch and the frame. I scraped it off. Should I look for something to make another gasket out of before reinstalling?
 
New battery, Everstart Maxx H6 ( 48 ). Advertised CCA went from 650 to 730. Old battery was a size-group down, the Oreilly version of the H5 (47). Battery was dated August 2015, so it did fairly well. Old battery gave me a couple days of warning with slow cranks. I charged it overnight on the trickle charger and it was still slow to start, then it failed to start at lunch today when I was headed to the store to replace. Jumped it, then replaced it.

VkWHGha.jpg

uJuvRHd.jpg
 
Back
Top