midwestdenaliguy

My research way back when mine needed to be replaced resulted in me not trusting cheap no name 'active' struts that were 'compatible' with the magneride system. Quality is a mixed bag and it's something I didn't want to roll the dice on. I also didn't want to spend the OEM price to get another mag suspension system I wasn't all that impressed with. So I bought a bypass kit (OBD port plug and/or sensor plugs) that allows you to install passive shocks/struts. This gives you crap ton more options depending on what you want to do. I wanted a 1.5-2" lift and now I've gone through a few sets of various brands that gave me that. The best riding set hands down is the Eibach Pro Truck Stage 2 kit. It's 'plug and play' in that the coilover struts come pre-installed. Everything is bolt out, bolt in. There are 2 versions, one without reservoirs (Stage 2) and one with them (Stage 2R). I got the Stage 2R and it's overkill as I don't off-road enough to need better heat control on the shocks. When these wear out I'll go with Stage 2 and save a few bucks. Since the OEM mg ride shocks/struts were about $1600 to replace I saved around $400 doing the bypass and getting a passing kit. The Eibach rides incredibly well, not too soft or firm.

I know this is old, but by chance did you find a kit for the rear stainless hose lines? I can only find front stainless lines for the Sierra.

I don't think you're being unreasonable for 2 reasons: 1. Their communication is not great. You've had to chase them down after they missed the deadline they set for themselves. Nothing drives me more nuts. I totally understand shops getting frustrated with customers who call frequently demanding updates so I try to be patient. But if you tell me you'll call around a certain time and I have to track you down later that's when I'm not happy. Just be upfront with me if you're swamped and give me a more realistic timeline. Or call when you say you will and let me know you haven't been able to get to it yet. I can live with that because you're at least communicating. 2. Guessing it's a part and replacing it to see if that's the problem is not a diagnosis. They didn't test the actuator and that's absolutely part of the diagnosis process. Now it's a different story if they tested the actuator and found it to be faulty, got approval from you to replace it, then noticed something else with the differential when they test drove it after replacing it. Then it becomes, "we replaced the bad actuator and now think there's another issue. we need to get into your diff to find out more...". I'd stay away from that dealership. Sadly I've lived in 7 states across the country and have only had good luck with 2 dealerships. Hopefully you can find a decent one near you or a competent independent shop. I'm fortunate the best dealership I've worked with is where I live now. They don't throw parts at stuff and pray it solves it...and they communicate well.

It’s been a month so maybe you took care of this, but in my case the truck was still shifting fine. I only knew about it due to the codes coming up, then the needle started bouncing not long after. Since there were no hard shifts I wasn’t worried about getting it in for repairs immediately. Scheduled an appt and still drove it until then. So in my case I’d say it wasn’t urgent enough to stop driving it until it was repaired since the shifting was fine, but to each their own.

UPDATE - TL;DR The HaloLifts kit was the problem. I can no longer recommend HaloLifts. Their design completely changed from the first set I had. They source their parts from Elka now and the ride is WAY softer than the original design. The front of the truck bounces up and down like an old school Cadillac. Also, the new design started squeaking and clunking not too long after install. It was time for me to update ball joints, sway bar bushings, end links, tie rods etc. so I assumed the noise/clunk was coming from one of those. Nope, everything got replaced and it was still there. Had a dealership look at my power steering rack and they couldn't find any issues. I lived with the squeaking/clunking for a while, hoping I could pinpoint what it was after it became more obvious. Then it dawned on me maybe the newer HaloLift kit was the problem. I rocked and bounced the truck and sure enough the squeaking was coming from the front coilovers. After looking closely at them I could see what looked like grease coming out of the bushing on the top hat. Thought this may be the source of my clunk as well. So I took advantage of a black friday deal and bought the Eibach Pro Truck Stage 2R kit. Installed it this weekend and holy cow what an improvement. No more squeaking or clunking. The ride performance is perfect as well, not too soft or harsh. It takes bumps well and doesn't have all the roll/bounce that the HaloLifts did. I think part of the design issue on the HaloLifts front coils is the universal top hat they use. It has multiple holes to set the studs for different setups and uses a bushing at the top that allows the shock/coil to pivot all around vs staying in place like other designs. When I removed the coilovers the top hat was loose and sloppy. The bushing must have failed early. Looks like they should have used a top hat designed specifically for the Sierra/Silverado vs trying to save money on a universal top hat for various makes/models. If interested, here's a link to the new setup I have from Eibach. Way better performance at the same price point. https://eibach.com/product/E86-23-032-02-22?epsid=2282

UPDATE - TL;DR I can no longer recommend HaloLifts. Their design completely changed from the first set you see in my original post. They source their parts from Elka now and the ride is WAY softer than the original design. The front of the truck bounces up and down like an old school Cadillac. Also, the new design started squeaking and clunking not too long after install. It was time for me to update ball joints, sway bar bushings, end links, tie rods etc. so I assumed the noise/clunk was coming from one of those. Nope, everything got replaced and it was still there. Had a dealership look at my power steering rack and they couldn't find any issues. I lived with the squeaking/clunking for a while, hoping I could pinpoint what it was after it became more obvious. Then it dawned on me maybe the newer HaloLift kit was the problem. I rocked and bounced the truck and sure enough the squeaking was coming from the front coilovers. After looking closely at them I could see what looked like grease coming out of the bushing on the top hat. Thought this may be the source of my clunk as well. So I took advantage of a black friday deal and bought the Eibach Pro Truck Stage 2R kit. Installed it this weekend and holy cow what an improvement. No more squeaking or clunking. The ride performance is perfect as well, not too soft or harsh. It takes bumps well and doesn't have all the roll/bounce that the HaloLifts did. I think part of the design issue on the HaloLifts front coils is the universal top hat they use. It has multiple holes to set the studs for different setups and uses a bushing at the top that allows the shock/coil to pivot all around vs staying in place like other designs. When I removed the coilovers the top hat was loose and sloppy. The bushing must have failed early. Looks like they should have used a top hat designed specifically for the Sierra/Silverado vs trying to save money on a universal top hat for various makes/models. If interested, here's a link to the new setup I have from Eibach. Way better performance at the same price point. https://eibach.com/product/E86-23-032-02-22?epsid=2282

UPDATE - TL;DR I can no longer recommend HaloLifts. Their design completely changed from the first set you see in my original post. They source their parts from Elka now and the ride is WAY softer than the original design. The front of the truck bounces up and down like an old school Cadillac. Also, the new design started squeaking and clunking not too long after install. It was time for me to update ball joints, sway bar bushings, end links, tie rods etc. so I assumed the noise/clunk was coming from one of those. Nope, everything got replaced and it was still there. Had a dealership look at my power steering rack and they couldn't find any issues. I lived with the squeaking/clunking for a while, hoping I could pinpoint what it was after it became more obvious. Then it dawned on me maybe the newer HaloLift kit was the problem. I rocked and bounced the truck and sure enough the squeaking was coming from the front coilovers. After looking closely at them I could see what looked like grease coming out of the bushing on the top hat. Thought this may be the source of my clunk as well. So I took advantage of a black friday deal and bought the Eibach Pro Truck Stage 2R kit. Installed it this weekend and holy cow what an improvement. No more squeaking or clunking. The ride performance is perfect as well, not too soft or harsh. It takes bumps well and doesn't have all the roll/bounce that the HaloLifts did. I think part of the design issue on the HaloLifts front coils is the universal top hat they use. It has multiple holes to set the studs for different setups and uses a bushing at the top that allows the shock/coil to pivot all around vs staying in place like other designs. When I removed the coilovers the top hat was loose and sloppy. The bushing must have failed early. Looks like they should have used a top hat designed specifically for the Sierra/Silverado vs trying to save money on a universal top hat for various makes/models. If interested, here's a link to the new setup I have from Eibach. Way better performance at the same price point. https://eibach.com/product/E86-23-032-02-22?epsid=2282

Forgot to mention I'll take a look at those sleeves as well. At that price won't hurt to try them.

My signature is outdated, but your point still stands. I ran those wildpeaks for about 70k miles then they started cupping. Can't complain about those miles. Put new michelin defender ltx ms 275/70r18 on and those are the fronts that prematurely wore on the inside (passenger worse than driver side). Only about 20k miles on those. Had an alignment done when the michelins were put on due to the cupping of the wildpeaks. Michelins are 51 pounds a tire at that size. So despite all new suspension parts, an alignment, and me double checking everything was torqued properly, the tires ended up with bad toe wear. It's gotta be the PS at this point right? I'm putting Cooper Road and Trail AT tires on that are 42 pounds each (michelins are vibrating like crazy), so hopefully the lower weight tires won't wear out a new OEM PS. Truck won't be driven until I can get the new PS installed.

Figured after I couldn’t find anything out there. Spoke to a couple off road shops and they weren’t sure either. OEM it is.

2016 GMC Sierra 1500 with a mild lift, 2" in the front and 1" in the rear. 193k miles, truck has had a lift kit it's entire life. Have always run 33" tires and don't plan to go any bigger. TL;DR - is there a beefed up aftermarket power steering rack/pinion so I'm not replacing an OEM one again due to my lift? Guess I should consider myself lucky given how long the truck has been lifted, but over the last year I've been experiencing power steering rack and pinion issues. Started hearing a clunk on bumps and figured it was time to do new ball joints and go over the entire suspension. Nearly everything got replaced as it was all showing it's age...ball joints, shocks/struts, inner/outer tie rods, sway bar bushings/end links, new cognito UCAs to help with the lift angle, and cv axles. Noticed when I did the inner tie rods that on each side of the rack there was a loose plastic bushing inside. Replaced those and thought all was good now. Immediately got an alignment after replacing all those parts myself. They got everything in spec and I thought my clunk would be taken care of...nope still there. Figured at this point it was the power steering rack/pinion so I took it to a dealership since they would have to program it anyway if it got replaced. They said they couldn't reproduce the clunking and thought the steering felt fine. If it got worse bring it back and they'll look at it again. I've been driving it for a year now and while it hasn't gotten worse, it still feels off. Steering feels harder to do at times and I noticed premature wear on the inner part of my front tires...the passenger side was worse than the driver side. I took it back in for an alignment and they confirmed the toe was off. I do not off-road the truck and I split drive time between it and my Jeep. Not sure how the toe could be off, worse on one side, when all it's seen is pavement driving. Safe to assume all signs are pointing to new PS? I think that's the case, but open to other thoughts. Assuming I need a new PS rack/pinion, safe to assume replacing it with OEM will only lead to this being an issue again unless I get the angle identical to the stock angle? Are there beefed up PS options? I can't find any. Thanks.

Replaced the starter and it fired right up. Easy job to do in your garage. Thanks again all.

Thanks everyone, all great input. Since my truck is 8 years old with 193k miles I'm fine just replacing the original starter at this point - it lived a long life. A new one is only $150 from my local dealership.

Appreciate the reply. So you think it fried from all the start attempts with the dead battery (thinking it was charged)? I'm getting a single click when I turn the key, would that still happen with a bad starter? Also, they can go that quick? Work one minute then dead the next with no sign?

I couldn't find this anywhere in the forum, pardon if I missed it. I drive a 2016 Sierra Denali 1500 and I left my key in the ignition overnight. It was NOT in 'on' or 'acc', just left inserted into the ignition. I shut the truck off in the garage after getting home and got distracted by my kids, forgetting the key was still in. Next morning all it did was click when I turned the key, all lights still worked. Figured leaving it in all night killed the battery so I tried a jump (no go) then charged it with a battery charger. Even with a fully charged battery it still didn't start. Figured since the battery is 5 years old now I may have killed it off, so I bought a new battery and installed it...only to still have no start. I'm not getting any codes, so this one has left me scratching my head. Is there a security feature I'm not aware of? Could the starter have gone from trying to start it up so many times? Keep in mind I have not had any starting or battery issues. This only happened after leaving the key inserted in the ignition overnight. I also haven't installed any new lights, electronics, etc.