Long story short I am relocating from Milwaukee area to the Greenville, SC area. I sold my rusty Jeep Liberty in Wisconsin where it is worth something before I move to The South where rusty cars are basically worthless. My wife and I flew into GSP last night, rented a car, checked into the hotel and then went to go check out one of the few Yukon XL Denalis I had been stalking on Craigslist and FB marketplace.
I had been looking at Yukon Denalis because they had the 6.0L and AWD standard. The other GMT800 SUVs are hit or miss if they are 2wd or 4x4 in the south. We still have family in Wisconsin so a large family vehicle that we plan on driving across the country has to have more than 2wd. There was no point in spending 3-5k on a rusty northern truck when I'll be moving to SC at the end of the month. The guy selling this truck is one of the few people that actually got back to me and answered my questions about the history and maintenance. It has just over 203k miles and is an absolute tank. PO owned it for 4 years and replaced it with GMT900 Yukon. It has a few typical GM issues but nothing major jumped out at me. Driving back to Wisconsin on Sunday.
The good:
- 4L60e and transfer case were regularly serviced by PO
- rear air shocks were replaced by PO
- Coolant flushed by PO
- PO replaced fuel filter
- Absolutely no rust
Needs attention:
- rear tires are at the wear bars
- airbag light is on for a fault in the side impact sensor
- has a slow power steering leak
- driver's window does not roll down
- headlights are very hazed over
- liftgate struts need to be replaced
I haven't come up with a name for it yet but I've been referring to this as The Bus so far. Seems pretty fitting, I haven't regularly driven anything this big since I learned how to drive in my dad's 2005 Powerstroke 12 years ago. It needs a wash, headlights and rear tires as soon as I get home.
Obligatory first gas station pic. She took 26 gallons right off the bat.
And one from this morning in better light.
Big and white, I'd take to calling it The Fridge and since GM, I would take to discreetly adding one of these logos...
Looks like a good buy. Happy trails on your drive back to WI.
In reply to AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) :
How does that stuff hold up to haze in the future? I used the Meguir's kit on my old Grand Prix a few years back and they needed to be re-polished every 4-6 months.
The package statement of "guaranteed to pass inspection" sure seems to me to imply temporary results. Though, since your headed out on a long trip, temporary might be okay if the application is easy enough to do in a hotel parking lot.
The google machine says it's $10 and in stock at the local Walmart. I'm going to give it a try before we hit the road on Sunday.
Don't know where you're staying, but downtown Gringos is great mexican food and (in normal times) has a fun trivia night, and Grill Marks has a few pretty good burgers and a good malt.
Excited for you guys and your move!
Also, sweet GMC. More luxurious than my Expedition, and we've loved our cross-country trips in that, so I'm sure you'll enjoy it!
In reply to RacetruckRon :
https://www.krylon.com/products/uvresistant-clear-coating/
Spray something like that after the cleaning and it will last longer.
classicJackets (FS) said:
Don't know where you're staying, but downtown Gringos is great mexican food and (in normal times) has a fun trivia night, and Grill Marks has a few pretty good burgers and a good malt.
Excited for you guys and your move!
Also, sweet GMC. More luxurious than my Expedition, and we've loved our cross-country trips in that, so I'm sure you'll enjoy it!
Staying a little farther west out in Anderson (closer to the new job). We visited downtown Greenville a couple weeks back on the intial house hunting trip, seems like there is a ton of good food downtown.
The Yukon is one smooth unit. No complaints from the wife so far, she's normally a pretty tough critic of my E36 M3boxes.
OjaiM5
HalfDork
1/7/21 6:18 p.m.
I am admittedly not the best mechanic however I do find this generation of gm vehicles to be so easy to work on.
Nice score, Lots of room comfy!
Since half my family is in Anderson I visit there often. Beautiful area.
Welcome to SC.
My wife DDs a 2000 4x4 Suburban from that era and my son DDs a 2004 4x4 Suburban. The wife's has 350k on it, my son's has 270k. They are road eating machines. We put 4000 miles on the wife's a couple of years ago on a trip to Maine. Great vehicles in every way and as mentioned above easy to work on.
I have a set of clean headlights I snagged from the upull because they were sitting on the ground. The sun never shines in Pittsburgh so they are not hazy at all. I have them on ebay right now but PM me if you're interested.
As far as wipenew: about 1-1.5 years at my house on my wife's minivan.
The great solution is polished with the 3m kit and then wipenew over top as a sealant. Best results in my experience.
And hella high wattage bulbs, or Phillips extreme vision if hella isn't available.
Welcome to the southeast!
Follow-up to your question and Duster's reply: I bought over the summer per Duster's recommendation so don't have long-term experience. My buddy Jay did his GF's car a couple weeks ago and the wipe hazed and crazed as it cured. No service history so no idea if this was reaction to a prior resto product. I've done 2 sets with nothing but great results so far.
In reply to Scotty Con Queso :
You've got mail. Those would be perfect for a retrofit project.
Gave the windows a thorough cleaning and a coating of RainX, bled the power steering system, new wiper blades all around and polished the headlights today. After $10 bucks for the Wipe-New and 10-15 minutes of effort in the hotel parking lot the results are pretty good. I still want to get a less faded set of headlights and retrofit a real projector in the new housings but these will get us home.
When I was polishing the passenger side headlight I found some over spray on the bumper and headlight. Evidence of some prior damage to the front right corner. Not surprising for a truck of this age but just something I missed in the dark when I first bought it.
I forgot to take pictures and post updates along the way but we are home safe no issues with the Yukon. We left Anderson at 8:14AM EST drove to Milwaukee to pick up Mrs. Racetruck's Jeep from the airport and back down to Janesville, WI.
We covered 962 miles in 14 hours flat including our 3 stops. This 6000lb brick averaged 15mpg with the cruise set between 75 and 80mph. Not bad, not bad at all Bus.
It desperately needs better headlights (new housings and bulbs), rear hatch struts and rear tires. There's a reasonable amount of vagueness and play in the steering and it appears to be leaking PS fluid out of the steering box. The driver's window/mirror/heated seat switches have a mind of their own. There's a slow oil leak from somewhere and you can smell it burning when you shut the truck off. I'm guessing cam sensor, valve covers and oil pan gaskets all leak a bit.
Most of this stuff can wait 3 weeks until we get moved in and I have my big garage set up in South Carolina.
If you can smell the oil, it's probably valve covers. They leak onto the manifolds.
Congrats, I had a 2005. They are awesome trucks when they are working right. Mine was a one-owner vehicle and everything that made it stop and turn failed.
Re: oil. Check the valve covers, filter adapter, and cooler lines.
Re: power steering. These trucks use Hydroboost like a diesel so if you lose steering you can lose brakes. Cute! Mine leaked from the steering box AND the PS hoses. The one hose is a real PITA to remove and I paid a shop to do it.
Check. Your. Brake. Lines. They ALL rust out no matter the climate. The hard lines run down the driver's side frame rail and will rot out, usually near the little distribution block between the front/rear doors on the driver's side. GM avoided a lawsuit over the lines, claiming that every vehicle's hard lines rotted out as normal wear and tear no matter the climate. Again, cute.
The seats are great, the drivetrain is fine, and the Magneride/rear air ride is a fantastic combo if it's all working right. My Magneride shocks were getting tired around 140k or so. Replace them with like parts, don't "convert" away from it. It's worth keeping. I added a Pioneer 2-DIN head unit to mine with a backup cam and CarPlay. Easy to keep steering wheel controls with a variety of adapters.
I was worried for a second. My friend has a white XL Denali in Spartanburg but it's over twice that mileage so he didn't sell. Don't the Denali's get 4l80s? It's been a great truck for my friend. They bought it new and have towed a 2axle car trailer or a utility trailer up and down the eastern seaboard many times. Only complaint from the miles I've put on it are that the brakes are wanting.
In reply to Brake_L8 (Forum Supporter) :
Yeah burning smell is probably the valve covers leaking.
Thy hydroboost might be a little over-complicated but it's compact and great at multiplying pedal force. I have one on my LS swapped minitruck so I'm not afraid of them.
I'll check on the brake lines. PO replaced the rear air shocks in the last year or two, I'll get around to doing the fronts once I'm settled.
In reply to buzzboy :
Only the 2500s got the 4L80e. So no 8 lug axles, no 80e. This 4L60 feels like it was well cared for and as long as I change the fluid and don't hustle it on the 2-3 shifts it should continue to serve me well for another 30-50k
buzzboy said:
I was worried for a second. My friend has a white XL Denali in Spartanburg but it's over twice that mileage so he didn't sell. Don't the Denali's get 4l80s? It's been a great truck for my friend. They bought it new and have towed a 2axle car trailer or a utility trailer up and down the eastern seaboard many times. Only complaint from the miles I've put on it are that the brakes are wanting.
Denali and same-era Escalade got a 4L65, which was allegedly beefed up from the standard 4L60 behind the 5.3. The 6.0 only came paired to the 4L80 in the 2500s.
Time for an update, I've owned this rig for almost 7 months now and put on 10k miles (over 2k in towing). Since day one the Yukon has had an oil leak that is noticeable. I have done intake gaskets, valley cover gaskets and valve cover gaskets. I believe the valve cover gasket on the passenger side did not seat properly when I replaced it a few months ago.
It still continues to stain my driveway but it's a reminder that oil is still in the crankcase. As we all know they only ever leak the bad oil 
Thanks to Scotty Con Queso I have a set of headlights with clear lenses. I dismantled these headlights reverse engineered the mounting plate for the faux projector lens that was inside them. I had some laser cuts plates made so I could retrofit a set of knockoff Morimoto H7 projectors I got off of amazon.
The transmission is not a happy creature these days. I changed the filter and fluid just 3k miles ago and added a bottle of Lucas. In the last two weeks it's slipped on my on a 3-2 downshift at 1/4 throttle and has hesitated going into drive on a couple occasions. The engine is still strong and it's a good rig so I'm either going to have to rebuild a 4l65 or acquire and swap a 4l80 in the near future.
If anyone has any leads on a 4l80e out of a 2500hd gasser I'm looking for a 4L80e and a 261HD or 263HD transfer case. Non HD transfer cases would probably work alright as well.
And another picture of this thing just being an absolute unit.
