Tailor Made

I must not know the feel of a good ride from a bad ride. I've have had a 2007 Silverado crew cab WT 4x4 without Z-71 suspension for almost 10 years now. 115,000+ miles still on factory shocks. Been running a 20" GM accessory chrome wheel package since new. I replace the Goodyear tires ( eagle LS 2 I believe ) around 59,000+ miles & have nearly 59,000+ miles on the Goodyear steal armor tires I replaced them with. Of course I use my Silverado more as a car than a truck. I've gone hunting with my sons a few times. Only towed 3 times with it and only hauled 2 or 3 heavy loads in the last 10 years.

Ok, during an internet search I came here & joined just for this topic. And I want to tell everyone that it can still be done. I bought a 2007 nbs Silverado crew cab 4x4 WT "new" in February of 2008. It did not have factory cruise, and the dealer sent it to a local shop to have an aftermarket cruise installed at no extra cost to me. It worked great until this last year ( 2015 ), when I went past 100,000 miles. Then it started to give me trouble. The finial straw was when it fried a computer board & set off the security feature that all these trucks have. It would not allow me to start & drive my truck, It had to be towed & the computer & a fuse were replaced. Oh ya, as a side note if your driving & a yellow dummy light comes on your instrument cluster that looks like a padlock on a car don't shut the engine off. If the light is not blinking & is on solid, once you shut the engine off it is dead as a door nail. The door locks work, so does the radio lights etc, you just can't restart your truck. The 2nd time it happened the dealership said it was only the fuse but the after market cruise had to be disconnected. I use my cruise control daily. It has saved me from a lot of speeding tickets over the years. And I really missed it. So I did a search & found this information and I thought I'd try to put it into effect. I told my local Chevy dealer service writer that I found this post & that it could be done. And asked him if he'd give it a try and he said he'd do his best but they had never done this before. I tried to get a used steering wheel from LKQ. But the one they got in for me was the wrong one. was real dirty & they wanted to charge me double what they originally said it would cost.( $80 instead of $40 ) Next I tried ebay, but there were only "new" ones on there & I could save between $27 & $42 just by using GM parts direct. I'm kind of a picky guy and looking at a new steering wheel while I drive seemed more appealing to me. So I purchased these items from GM Parts Direct: Plain steering wheel with cruise ( 22947808 ).....$132.17 coil ( clock spring ) ....................( 25966963 ).....$111.63 Wiring harness w/ towing.......... ( 25807859 ).......$73.02 total parts...........$329.57 Then I gave the truck & parts to them on Monday January 18, 2016. The service writer said he followed the directions I got off of this post. He faxed & called to get them to create the CAL file & it took a full day to convince GM to do it. He said it was like trying to buy Government top secret information. On Tuesday January 19, 2016 they down loaded the programming into the truck & installed the steering wheel & the coil ( clock spring ). They did not use the new wiring harness. They used the one that was in there from the factory. But they ran into some type of issue with the original harness. They called to ask me what I wanted done. My choices were for them to make the necessary modification at double the price. Or they could just put it back the way it was & the cruise would not be working. So I bit the bullet & doubled down. So I probably have the most expensive OEM style cruise control in any Silverado. the GM program fee was $50 The installation went from $300.65 to a whopping $601.31 + tax All total...... parts, download & labor, it cost me...... $984.38 Seems to be working just fine. Not sure how long it will work, but if it stops before I trade this truck in I'll come back & let everyone know when it died.