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Help: Thinking of buying '03-'05 Silverado


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First post and was looking for some tips. I'm looking to replace my old F-250 with a used Silverado, probably an '03-'05 crew cab 4wd 5.3L. What were common trouble spots and what should I be looking out for in these trucks? Figured the truck will have 70,000-100,000 based on my budget.

Any tips/advice appreciated.

Thanks

Jed

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Check all of the brake lines, fuel lines and trans cooler lines. They corrode and burst on these trucks. Gauge clusters tend to fail as well.

This might be the case in the northern climates but the southern trucks have no problems with undercarriage rust.

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Blower fan resistor is a typical failure. This along with water pump, cluster stepper motors and diodes burning out I guess I've been lucky. '05 Purchased with 325 miles and now at 195,000 and these have been my only maintenance costs beyond the norm.

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I would get a 2005-2007 (Classic) too. These have the engine e-fans & get a lil better pwr/mpg as a result.

 

Just make sure all of the guages are working fine, ask for any maintence receipts, & ask about the fuel pump & transmission (if around/over 100K).

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It will be hard to figure out by looking at, but those model years had trouble with Castech head failures. Some say not that many, but there are online machine shops that specialize in the 5.3 head replacement.

 

All other problems mentioned I have experienced.

 

They include:

Intermediate Steering shaft clunk

Gauge cluster has failed.

I'm in the process of replacing the brake lines(rusted out) and calipers(stuck).

Fan blower resistor

Cylinder heads

Transmission cooler line just started to leak.

 

My truck is a 2004 with a 5.3 and I just turned 149K

 

the most disheartening was the cylinder head replacement. Heads failed at 119K.

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