What do i need to know about this truck (08 denali)

[shady]

I bought this to replace the rav4 my wife drove. 2008 Yukon denali all wheel drive with the 6.2. 117000 miles. has every option I can think of, may be some I didn't even know about

I was guessing that a few of you guys have had similar trucks and know any things that are common issues.

so far it's all good but after buying it I noticed an oil drip hanging from the bell housing, and the 'service suspension soon' light came on about a half hr after we left the dealer wish I would have seen that sooner.... could have been leverage

anything to have checked soon...?

 

[paratrooper307]

I bought this to replace the rav4 my wife drove. 2008 Yukon denali all wheel drive with the 6.2. 117000 miles. has every option I can think of, may be some I didn't even know about

I was guessing that a few of you guys have had similar trucks and know any things that are common issues.

so far it's all good but after buying it I noticed an oil drip hanging from the bell housing, and the 'service suspension soon' light came on about a half hr after we left the dealer wish I would have seen that sooner.... could have been leverage

anything to have checked soon...?

The suspension message indicates a fault in the suspension system. Common problems include a bad compressor/solenoid valve, blown fuse for compressor, or air struts. Low voltage can also cause this message. The dealer can scan the system and pinpoint the trouble area.

The oil drip could be seepage from the main seal, or something simple like a leaking gasket on the oil filter that has allowed oil to dribble down.

Mechanically, these trucks don't have major issues, any problems will probably be related to GM electronics...

 

[Chevy305]

No real serious mechanical problems to speak of. The autoride system can be finicky at higher mileage with shocks or compressor giving intermittent problems or just up and failing. Both of which aren't real cheap. You can eliminate the system as well if you don't want to put money into it.
Also if the transmission has never been serviced, do it now or don't do it at all. That seems to be the consensus the I've heard from multiple GM techs.
I've heard of the front axles failing on high mileage Denalis being AWD but as long as the fluid is changed at regular intervals then I wouldn't worry about it.
But speaking of front end, all your steering, ball joints, wheel bearings, etc if they haven't been changed before they might need to be sometime soon.
Other than that, its usually just wear and tear like driver door hinges and driver seat. But that seat looks to be in great shape!

Most all of that stuff just applies to any vehicle over 100k miles though.
Anyway congrats on the new Denali! I'm sure you and your wife will love it!

 

[shady]

it does seem to have a bad wheel bearing.. didnt notice it till on the interstate driving straight at speed. when trying to stay centered i noticed that any slight correction 1 way made a very slight growly noise i thought was the road go away. played with it a little to see if i could repeat the sound and YES every time, same way. felt all 4 wheels at the lugs and the right front was much warmer than the others.

Also I already planned (being at 117k) on doing a tranny fluid and filter change and in specting all the steering /ball joint components. as for active suspension I would just as soon bypass it if i can..... Is that hard? not really needed to me, and sounds like 1 less thing that can give me fits.

as for the seat and condition in general it is like a NEW truck. very well taken care of. 1 owner bought new in my town at the dealer i use for service. and all service since new was done at the dealer i bought it from 26 miles away. Gas mileage sorta blows and I wish it could have a 5.3..... but it is waht it is and I'll do little things to make it better when i can.

 

[shady]

thanks for the info so far too guys

 

[sweetk30]

ls based engines

pop the bolt heads off the exhaust manifolds to head .

de-laminate the water pump to block gaskets and leak coolent .

bad design of knock sensor location under intake and hold water and fuse them in to the block boss. easy fix guys do is mount out on the block and lengthen the wire .

just the few that pop in to my mind .

otherwise look it over for the basic stuff.

 

[Chevy305]

Oh by the way, the 6.2L is supposed to take 91 or higher octane. It can and will run fine on 87 but your mileage and power will suffer. It seems like most people with the 6.2L say the difference in mileage is enough to justify the extra cost. But also, the ecm won't automatically adjust right back to the 93. You'll have to put probably a full tank through it before it starts adjusting to the higher octane or you can fill it up and disconnect the battery for a few hours (overnight maybe).

 

[shady]

I noticed it said use premium only... ive seen a few other things that did as well though, and they ran fine on 87. so i didnt think much of it.. it has 91 in it right now.

Turning the traction control and stability control off really wakes it up some too

I'm going to get a tuner that will cover this and my sierra. then just leave it on a MPG tune since its her DD and big HP isnt needed. It'll be there when 'I' drive though

 

[Chevy305]

I noticed it said use premium only... ive seen a few other things that did as well though, and they ran fine on 87. so i didnt think much of it.. it has 91 in it right now.

Turning the traction control and stability control off really wakes it up some too

I'm going to get a tuner that will cover this and my sierra. then just leave it on a MPG tune since its her DD and big HP isnt needed. It'll be there when 'I' drive though

Good move going with a tune but the canned tunes only go so far. You can spend a few extra $$ and get a custom tune that will really get it where it needs to be.

 

[shady]

we have a shop with a rear wheel dyno near here that advertises specializing in LS based tuning. But I'm sure they dont have a clue how to tune for max economy.. I really wanna rag on the 6.2 myself but in reality it IS the wifes truck so economy is somewhat important... I know I cant ask for a lot from it due to what it is, but better at all is still better.

I was looking at the Diablo Intune. has basic tunes that can be quick used and are customizable from there. plus it stores factory tune so you can always go back... I have a buddy thats looking at splitting cost with me because he has 2 newer silverados at home that it will work with too.

Back to problem things with this,,,,, will bypassing the active suspension even be noticeable since we havent been driving it long....? I really like the idea of that, just for lack of future issues sake.

and I'm fairly certain that it does have a bad wheel bearing... any brand to look for or stay away from? I've heard that wheel bearings go out commonly on the IFS trucks, even in stock form.

 

[shady]

OH... and I think its funny that Ive been trying to sell her on one of these for a while but she wasnt into it because of the size......... Now all i here is how much she 'fricken' LOVES it I knew she would

 

[sweetk30]

biggest killer for wheel bearings of the unitized design is use of impact gut to install the center nut and also under / over torque spec .

use a impact all you want to remove the center nut . but NOT to install it .

 

[Chevy305]

we have a shop with a rear wheel dyno near here that advertises specializing in LS based tuning. But I'm sure they dont have a clue how to tune for max economy.. I really wanna rag on the 6.2 myself but in reality it IS the wifes truck so economy is somewhat important... I know I cant ask for a lot from it due to what it is, but better at all is still better.

I was looking at the Diablo Intune. has basic tunes that can be quick used and are customizable from there. plus it stores factory tune so you can always go back... I have a buddy thats looking at splitting cost with me because he has 2 newer silverados at home that it will work with too.

Back to problem things with this,,,,, will bypassing the active suspension even be noticeable since we havent been driving it long....? I really like the idea of that, just for lack of future issues sake.

and I'm fairly certain that it does have a bad wheel bearing... any brand to look for or stay away from? I've heard that wheel bearings go out commonly on the IFS trucks, even in stock form.

That local shop should be able to give you an economy tune. If they can't then I'd avoid them. Besides unless they have an AWD dyno, you're not going to be strapping the Denali in. What they'd probably do is a street tune where they drive it around the block under various throttle positions all the while making constant tweaks.

The Diablo InTune is a good platform that allows you some control and the ability to data log and send in your files to a custom tuner to have a custom tune built to however you want to drive it. Look into these guys they are the leading email tuners that all the newer LS based guys use:
http://www.diablewtune.com/
http://www.blackbearperformance.com/


As for disabling your autoride system, you'll have to replace the shocks with the non-autoride versions and I believe you can jump a terminal with a resistor to fool the computer into thinking its all good. You'll have to do some more research on that on your own though.

But also you just bought the truck, I'd think you should have some sort of warranty on it so it should be up to the dealer to fix the autoride and the wheel bearing. I'd call them up and demand they fix it on their dime.

 

[shady]

I assumed the shop would be all max HP based because of the lack of most people dynoing there cars for economy lol... but im sure they'll know how to do it now that I think about it... ill try the diablo first i think... I like the ability to change it every so often and play Ill check out those links tonight when i get home.. thanks.

as for the dealer, I was told AS IS and no warranty available... I have to call them and see though since maybe they'll do something to keep me happy being's i bought it a few days ago. suspension thing doesnt bother me as much as the oil drip really. but I know that one will be on me no matter what. I havent looked at it yet.

and, I dont put anything on with an impact unless its a known non critical thing, like running a locking nut or lug nut down to touching before torquing.

 

[sweetk30]

I dont put anything on with an impact unless its a known non critical thing, like running a locking nut or lug nut down to touching before torquing.

don't use the gun to even snug the nut on the unit bearings . was told this by reps and the next 6 months we did it in the shop and our return rate want to almost zero for warranty on unit bearings .

 

[diesel4me]

If the truck didn't come with a new inspection sticker,the dealer is responsible to some degree,for getting it to pass a safety inspection--(here in MA,any vehicle sold for over 700 bucks is covered by the "lemon law",the seller is responsible for it passing state inspection).....the loose wheel bearing may fall under that category..if your state has no inspections--its your problem..

 

[rjfguitar]

We have an '07 Cadillac Escalade loaded to the brim and we love it.

1. Why do you want to use a tuner for it? This is the wife's ride right? I highly doubt you can get much more mileage than 1-2mpg out of it extra. How much will that cost you working with this shop to achieve that? How many years will it take to earn that back getting 5% better mileage?

2. I would just fix the auto ride system. You just bought a nice vehicle, why start "disabling" the things that make it nice?

Yeah the auto ride stuff is expensive, yeah the 6.2L is a bit thirsty.... but we bought these luxury vehicles FOR that stuff, right? Because if we didn't want that, a regular 'ol Tahoe doesn't have the bells and whistles.

I'm not being harsh or a jerk, just playing devil's advocate.

As far as the vehicle.... don't even worry about the body, at that mileage it should still feel new as far as doors, interior, etc. Same goes for the suspension and steering, assuming it saw normal use, you should not have to do any front end work for a long time.

Things to watch out for....

1. Front diff, mine had a seal out and was low on fluid. Change it, make sure it isn't leaking, and use synthetic since it calls for it.

2. Keep an eye on your cam shaft actuator. These 6.2's have variable valve timing, so the cam is actually adjusting it's timing on the go. When the actuator gets old it can get stuck in a certain position after running down the highway for a while, and sometimes even in town too. The oil pump drives it and the ports are tiny, they can get gummed up over time and impede it's ability to move freely. Our symptom with our Escalade was a stumble at idle that would drop off and die, no power in the low RPM when leaving a stop, and a no start at all after shutting it off from a long trip. It will restart after about an hour. It leaves no codes either.

This has driven us nuts, it has left us stranded multiple times and both my local Chevy and Cadillac dealers were practically worthless for diagnosing it. I'm the one that had to tell them to change the cam actuator and so far, 4 months later we haven't had any symptoms.

07-08 6.2's also can suffer from worn cam bearings on some of them. Supposedly the oil ports feeding them are under sized. I personally think there should have been a recall, but no. That problem "mysteriously" went away with 09 and newer 6.2 engines.

Outside of the issues I just described with our Cadillac Escalade, we LOVE it. So much nicer than our old '03 Yukon. Looking back, I wish I would have bought a newer '09-11 to keep clear of the problems on the early 6.2 but oh well. We plan to stick with Escalades from here on out for my wife's vehicle, can't beat them IMHO.

 

[shady]

don't use the gun to even snug the nut on the unit bearings . was told this by reps and the next 6 months we did it in the shop and our return rate want to almost zero for warranty on unit bearings .

If the truck didn't come with a new inspection sticker,the dealer is responsible to some degree,for getting it to pass a safety inspection--(here in MA,any vehicle sold for over 700 bucks is covered by the "lemon law",the seller is responsible for it passing state inspection).....the loose wheel bearing may fall under that category..if your state has no inspections--its your problem..

Nope, No inspections here

Being the devils advocate thing is part of answering questions on here sometimes it's all good
And yeah I thought of the active suspension thing... would be nice to keep it up... I have no idea what difference it actually makes since ive never driven 1 of each to know so my thinking was to disable it now to prevent future issues since we'll never notice its gone.... I'm not even going to look into it anytime soon though. not worried about that leaving me stranded
good info on the timing actuator... that will possibly help in the future...

I'm going to jack up each front corner today to find the bad wheel bearing. so i'll look at the diff seal then.

Whatever I have as a 'family/female partner DD' vehicle has historically been driven about 25-30k a year... so 1-2 mpg would definitely be a help. I'll get the tuner and see what the shop would charge to fine tune it for economy. I've personally always wanted a denali so that I could flog it and pimp it out further than factory even... My personal preference this time would have been the same truck with a 5.3 though.

it was sort of an impulse buy... not the best way to do things but oh well we went to the dealer to look at an 07 Tahoe lt with a 5.3, similar miles, and adjustable pedals for $18k . got there and found out it had been sold so we test drove this just to see if the wife could drive it (4'8"). she fell in love with it and I just seen DENALI on the side and at $20,500 I decided to look into getting it... they came back with a payment well in our range so I bought it........... wasn't till we left that I realized that I hadn't even popped the hood or even ASKED about the motor size to late by then we're happy though

 

[shady]

definitely the right front bearing. checked it earlier... that'll be cheap