Alabama thread!

Hah, true. I'm really not a chevy hater, I actually like silverados and have always loved, loved, loved vettes. I'm more unimpressed by chevy and dodge's new blahmobiles that get blah miles per gallon and are all blah. I'm sure they're fine vehicles, but eh. Not that the ecomobiles from everyone else make me want to buy one.

 

I have finally learned that I have no interest in product line debate. Everyone has their horror stories, and everyone has their love stories. Personally my best luck in ownership have been old-school GM, and then newer models the Town&Country (Hey, I had a family to carry around!) as well as my Jeep I NEVER had a problem with, then Nissan and Toyota. Every other model I have owned I have had problems with.

 

Man, my parents had a 1990 town and country until 2002, and that thing was bullet proof. Dad put heavy springs on it that lifted it a bit, and some factory size AT-ish tires, and we took it out to death valley on vacation one year. The transmission always sounded REAL weird and clicky, which was apparently just a normal healthy chrysler thing, but that van was stout. Mom's had an 03 T&C now for 11 years, and they've had good luck out of it too. Both bought new, maintained at my uncle's independent shop in memphis, and only needed gas, tires, oil, regular maintenance.

 

Wow I had to check and see which forum I was on (LOL).

But from a personal owner of all Chevy, Dodge, And Ford diesels 2500 and 3500 the duramax with the Allison Trans. is my first choice (which i still have) since 2005 bought with 50k and now has 120k and have not had any problems with and no complaints with (except GM not keeping straight axel with their HD's).

The dodge with the Cummings and manual Trans no complaints but cheap ass interior and auto Trans.

Ford the 7.3 is better than the 6.0

Now the GM 5.3 I have had no issues with.
The ford 5.4 and 4.6 are bad about coil pack going bad and blowing spark plugs out.
And dodge 1500 truck I would not have one unless it had the 5.2 (318)

 

agreed on all fronts. I was talking with my coworker yesterday about his f150 and he said the spark plugs are an absolute nightmare to change. The only dodge 1500 i'd buy are the late 90's/early 2000's when they still had the sfa. My dad had one that he sold with 270k on it. Still ran like a champ and got like 22-24 on highway.

 

This guy has an 03 duramax with 160k on the clock, ranch hand and excelerator programmer, injectors and plugs changed at 137k, + an s20det swapped 240sx that "needs work". Even needing work though, I've seen those suckers sell for $$...

 

Our immediate family have owned about 7 of those vans over the past 15 years. Those things seem to almost never die! My mom's last wheelchair van was a T&C. She loved it.

I know EXACTLY what he meant on the spark plugs. Certain model 5.4 gas engines have a newer plug design that carbon builds up on the tips and this causes them to seize up in the head, and many times break off at the tips.

 

Yep, thats what he was talking about. Apparently the thread length is too long and protrudes too far into the block and causes a build up of carbon. Apparently they make a specific plug extractor because the plugs break so frequently on that engine.

 

It's not the thread length that is too long. The spark plug itself is designed extra long, and has about a one inch protrusion into the combustion chamber which gets carbon to build up.

 

So hey Bill, Dave said you know a lot about Chevy's. Paul mentioned a transfer case issue. Do you know any other potential problems with an 07 Silverado? I'm trying to find a truck that gets around 20mpg highway in a v8 if I can swing it... a Ford with the coyote is an obvious choice, but I'd have to get an 11+ and that's more money of course.

So, with that, I like the idea of the active fuel management 5.3L, especially since I can go back to an 07 Silverado and save some dough that way, but I'm always skeptical of reliability on it.

 

Jim, I may be wrong but they might have switched the xfer case in the 07. I forgot that was the body change year.

edit: NVM, same xfer case from 01-07. The pump wears through the outer housing and pisses all the oil out then surprise, its toast.

 

Cool, that's good to know. My biggest concern now then is whether my active fuel management 5.3L would shit itself, which apparently it does. Going from 8 to 4 cylinders certainly sounds like it could have issues.

 

see my last post edit.

 

^^^^ Note that this isn't real, but its a common enough problem, people are willing to type up a fake document.

 

If 07 changed it, I could check the 08's then. I wonder also if they improved AFM. There are some horror stories on it, but I would really like the mileage of course.

Yeah after you mentioned that, it was pointed out to me by a guy who considered buying my truck, it happens in duramaxes too and is a reason I'm avoiding the 2003 the guy wanted to trade. Although, apparently there's a kit to fix it that stops the part that wears the casing from being a knife edge and makes it chunkier.

 

I sure am glad we converted this to a non toyota thread.... i was getting tired of talking about them.

 

My problems are more important than your problems! Did you ever take a picture of your lights at night?

 

maybe... ill text it to you.

 

good to see i haven't lost my abilities to just completely kill a thread...

 

Last I checked it was TACOMAworld......



EDIT: This will fall into that category also....