Learn Me GMT900/Escalade ESV suspension options

Hope you guys are maintaining sanity while stuck at home.

I need some help with my daily/tow pig Escalade, its an 09 ESV Platinum that prior to my ownership had a Strutmasters z55 delete kit put on it.

After driving the car for a year it seems the only thing worthwhile from the kit was the little suspension signal delete kit under the dash that tricks the ecu into thinking everything is gravy. The springs are far too soft for towing literally anything and the shocks already seem to have blown after less than 2 years.

What are my options for replacing this stuff? I would like to keep to a passive system rather than try and add the air ride and front electronic junk back in.

Do I grab some springs from a yukon xl or 2500 burb and throw some bilsteins on? From my research most of that stuff should (keyword: should) bolt right up but its hard to figure out what exactly matches from the ESV to the other GMT900's. Do I just get a stock setup from a Yukon XL or burb? What would be your first choice?

Also as an addition, seeing as I'm approaching 160k on the truck, what should I be looking after motor wise to keep the 6.2 happy? Time for plugs/wires/normal "tune up" stuff, etc? Do I not bother until I start having an issue? Truck was well taken care of by the dealership until I took ownership last year and has had zero issues.

Thanks for all your help.

On the suspension, a 2500 will have torsion bars and rear leaf springs, while the 1500 has coil springs on both ends. So not direct suspension component swaps. The regular suspension from a 1500 XL or Burb should swap in.

Can you get an airbag spring assist kit for it?

2500 setup is going to be a different frame all together, look at half ton style. 

In reply to ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ :

I guess potentially. Although wouldn't just replacing the no name springs for the stock stuff in the other GMT900's make more sense? I am not trying to upgrade towing capacity from stock, I want to get back to stock from whatever I am at now.

From some more reading the biggest issue seems to be the ecu freaking out when swapping out all the electronic stuff. I have that covered with the little device that got wired in from the kit. 

So from what y'all are saying, I should be okay with any of the 05-13 GMT930 springs/shocks, so Burb and Yukon XL...

Should I be looking for z-71 spec?

My '12 Suburban tows just fine bone stock. So does my '13 Avalanche, which is also bone stock.

Biggest issue I have with people towing is how misplaced the towed load is on the trailer. If your squatting more than 2" or so, your weight is too far forward period. You have plenty of power to move 7k pounds. The coil spring suspension is just more susceptible to improperly positioned loads than leafs, especially when it's a full framed vehicle.

The Magneride and rear air/load leveling on my GMT800 Denali was truly excellent, both unloaded and for towing. I'd put that all back on before messing with aftermarket options.

My tow/roadtrip vehicle is an '07 Escalade ESV AWD with 164k on it. I've owned it since 130kish, I think. Mine also had the Z55 suspension.

I have Arnott replacement dampers on all 4 corners. We installed the Arnott replacement rears (with air) and a new Dorman compressor about 20k miles ago. I DEFINITELY recommend retaining the auto-levelling suspension in the rear for towing. I replaced the fronts with Arnott complete assemblies (dampers, springs, mounts, etc) about 5k miles ago and have no complaints about those either. I bought it all from RockAuto and the prices were excellent for what I'd consider to be very high quality parts.

Regarding the rest of the truck: I changed the fluid in the diffs, transfer case, and trans when I bought the truck. I've changed the trans fluid and filter every two years since then because I rarely run an entire tank of fuel through it without at least some towing. The engine was a leaky bitch when I bought it thanks to a porous rear engine cover. A new one and a rear main fixed that (annoying and unexpected) issue. The front diff was eating itself and was replaced with a rebuilt one a couple of years ago. Otherwise, I've just done plugs, wires, A/C repair, and a new exhaust manifold installed and had the broken studs fixed at the same time.

If you have any other specific questions, I'm happy to try to help. I've been through most everything on this truck at one time or another.

I have a 2002 and a 2004 (so maybe not the best reference) but on one I used arnott replacement rear shocks and the other a full z71 shock setup with rear z71 springs. They are towing CONSTANTLY and I slightly prefer driving the arnott setup over the z71 due to auto leveling but the bilstein setup was cheaper and included 4 new shocks.

Are you sure your front shocks are toast? Could you get by just with rear arnott shock replacement and the dorman compressor setup (that's what I did on the 2004). If your front shocks are toast and you have to get the z71 setup installed instead to save some money I do not think you will be disappointed. 

Rockauto is your friend. Remember to use the discount code!

LarsBrunkhorst said:

Also as an addition, seeing as I'm approaching 160k on the truck, what should I be looking after motor wise to keep the 6.2 happy? Time for plugs/wires/normal "tune up" stuff, etc? Do I not bother until I start having an issue? Truck was well taken care of by the dealership until I took ownership last year and has had zero issues.

Thanks for all your help.

 

I bought a 2008 AWD SWB for my SWMBO back in October and tried to look into this as much as possible. From what I recall, they're pretty stout except for:

-Oil consumption issues on examples that have the Active Fuel Management. You dodged this bullet going with a 2009, which doesn't even have the AFM hardware installed let alone the tuning for it.
-There's an O-ring/seal where the oil pick up mounts to the block that's been known to go bad. When it does, it causes the motor to drastically lose oil pressure. It's generally recommended to replace this seal anytime you've got the oil pan removed.
-They like to leak oil, which includes a TSB for porous aluminum around the rear main seal.

As for the suspension, I've been doing somewhat related reseasch myself. Ours (also Z55 equipped) was maintained at the dealer we bought it from for the last 5/6 years. They had record of the rear shocks being replaced, as well as some front suspension parts, but not the front struts. The truck has developed some clunking up front, which I'm suspecting is the struts.

I'm on the fence between two options: A) A passive kit that deletes Z55 up front but keeps air in the rear, or B) just getting the correct somewhat reasonably priced AC Delco replacements that retain Z55.

For A), it appears that most swear by the kits that come from Arnott, but prefer retaining the air in the rear for towing.

For B), if anyone stumbles upon this thread trying to do the same, save yourself some time and look at your RPO sticker in the glovebox before searching for the replacements. It seems GM used a different front strut on GMT900 Escalade's based on Year/SWB or EXT or ESV/22's or 18's/Z55 or Z95/etc etc. On the sticker, your looking two codes at the end of the list that start with 6 and 7 end then have identical 2nd and 3rd digits (For example, on my 2008, it's the last two codes, 6F9 and 7F9). Then you can go to RockAuto and match this up when wading through the zillion different options under "struts" for a 2007-14 Escalade.

I can't help here.  My 2009 has the Z95 Magneride.  It was so complicated trying to figure out replacements or mods that I went with OEM Delco for the first time ever.