truck_newbie

Been away for a while. After almost 4 years of enjoying the Gibson, I decided it was time to change things up a bit by getting a new exhaust. I listened to pretty much every exhaust available for the T1. I think one of the newcomers that wasn’t available when I purchased the Gibson is the AWE OFG. I love the sound of the AWE but for almost $2400, that’s a bit much for me to spend on the truck at this point in its life. So Borla it was. I went back and forth for a while trying to decide between the Borla Touring and S-Type. I have listened to the Touring in-person a few times. It’s about as loud as the Gibson so wanted something with more volume. I was leaning towards the S-Type but got a bit concerned as many claim it is a tad too loud, especially cold start. In the end I went with the S-Type and had it installed a few days ago. Long story short, I am both a bit relieved and slightly disappointed. Not nearly as loud as I thought it would be based on the threads here. Recently got a Camaro SS 1LE and the factory NPP exhaust on that car is loud. Maybe that has skewed my perception of loudness . I was a bit concerned the S-Type cold start might be louder than the Camaro but thankfully it’s quieter. I’m honestly slightly disappointed in the volume. It seems barely louder than the Gibson from first impressions. One major plus for the S-Type is that there is zero drone. The Gibson has a slight drone which I got used to over time. The S-Type sounds like stock exhaust when cruising, you can barely hear it. Even when you put your foot in it, you don’t hear it as much in the cabin. It’s fairly well isolated from the cabin. The Gibson is tuned for low revs and has a deeper tone compared to the S-Type. Overall, I think it was an ok upgrade. Hopefully it gets a tad louder over time. Maybe I should try the Atak harmonizer in-place of the S-Type resonator. I am going to have someone drive my truck so I can listen to it from outside. The general consensus I got from this sub was the S-Type is bonkers loud. That has not been my impression. Anyone else has a similar experience as me? Previous post on Gibson

No, it was done by the shop that painted the fog light bezels.

I haven't noticed any camera issues but i haven't really paid close attention to it. It seems to work fine, no distortion observed.

Got it painted gloss black. I was going to wrap it but the wrap experienced some shipping delays so ended up getting it painted. At the time of purchase, there weren't any aftermarket bezels available. Believe me, I already checked. If you don't need it done immediately, aftermarket bezels will probably show up at some point as they did for the grille.

They are available on Ebay from multiple sellers but i purchased mine from TopGearAuto. It ended up being the cheapest even with shipping since they don't charge tax.

Black denali grille installed with fog light bezel painted black. I wanted a black AT4 grille but there doesn't seem to be one available that supports the front camera. Anyways, i think it looks sharp. Deadpool would approve of the theme ?.

Grille Day. Install coming up.

Installed some sound deadening in the front doors and floor. No more rattles. Sounds very clean now. Great bang for buck. Recommended.

Had no idea what that was lol, had to google it. Looks interesting.

Thanks. Applying to the floors were much easier than I had imagined.

Finally got around to doing this. Installed some deadening over the weekend. Did front doors and a bit of the floors. Only left with the rear doors, will do that later. Disclaimer: I make no claims of being an expert on this. Audio engineering tends to have a lot of controversial topics so I’ll try not to step on any landmine. TL;DR -> You should do this. Best way I can describe the improvement is the sound system sounds very clean. It’s actually a little bit weird. I can really crank it up with no rattling or resonance from the doors and the bass sounds very tight and less boomy. You don’t have to do any measurements like I did, just stick away and enjoy. Keep wanting to go out for a drive it so I can listen to it?. @OnTheReel, good tip on the fabric tape, definitely made the clips tighter. Didn’t end up using the butyl tape though, the vapor shield on mine was still sticky for re-application. Summary 1. I took measurements before and after with the UMIK-1 and REW software. I didn’t do any tweaks to the system. Just wanted to see before and after performance from installing the mats. Will probably tweak and dial the system in later. 2. Frequency response didn’t show much variation pre and post install. a. I didn’t see any improvement in the mids which was a little disappointing. Nevertheless, resonance improvement won’t show up in frequency response anyways. b. Freq response results tells me my system is unbalanced and that I like a lot of bass ?. Don’t judge. I actually found that a little surprising as the kicker knob is only halfway and my settings are bass=2, mid=4, treble=4. 3. Spectrogram measurements show that post install, the bass decays faster. You can see in the pre-install that the bass has some decent magnitudes even past 600ms. Much tighter now. 4. Material is not expensive and it’s very easy to apply. a. The doors are not hard to take apart. Some of the clips are stubborn but they should come off with a little persuasion. b. I’m not sure how much improvement came from doing the floors but they are the easiest to apply. You just lift the carpet and roll it on. It definitely killed some of the Kicker sub vibrations that travel through the floor. I think it’s maybe a tad quieter now but I haven’t measured the noise SPL post install so can’t say for sure. Will measure it later. 5. Knock test didn’t disappoint and the door has a much more solid thunk to it when closing. 6. Surprisingly there is actually some factory applied sound deadening. I have highlighted it below. There is a deadening mat that goes across the top section of each of the front doors applied from factory. Who would have guessed. Install Pics I applied a bunch deadening behind the white material below. Didn't remove it, just lifted and applied.

Yep, it comes ready to apply on.

Yes they are flatter than the factory badges and better quality. The factory ones are just cheap plastic imo. They got destroyed by the heat gun when taking them off. I should probably have been more gentle.

Got these from my buddy @PabloK but I think this is the Ebay listing for them Black AT4 Badge Link. The seller (vroomvroom) also has red ones. If you wanted something cheaper, decals are now available. Not quite as sleek but they are at least options. Decal Link and picture below.

Installed black AT4 badges and removed the Sierra. I think it came out well.

Looks good. A little hard to tell from afar though. But it goes very well with the black bumper.

14-15 mpg on the highway isn't great but it will get better over time. You can install a tonneau to improve it a little bit if you don't already have one. You can also do a test: Drive a stretch of highway at 50-55 mph to see if it improves. That speed range is the most efficient for the AT4 and most vehicles for that matter. Also, do you happen to live at a higher elevation?

USB-C is rated for 10,000 connect-disconnect cycles if your phone supports it. With that amount of cycles, if you plug it in 5x a day everyday, it will still take about 5 years for it to wear out.

That would be a real bummer. We will see what the troubleshooting reveals. Thanks for the help. I will update this thread if i find anything new.

Yep, did that too. I followed the "jingling jingling" thread for a while and was convinced it was the same issue just manifesting a little differently. I tried the 4wd test that was recommended as a fix. Ringing was still present, didn't change one bit.

So I got my truck back today. They were not able to reproduce it and I was not allowed to go on a test drive with the tech because of the virus. They also didn’t listen to the audio clip. Ironically, this would have been the perfect time to debug this with the tech because the roads are pretty empty. Oh well. They told me to bring it back once everything returns to normal to go on a test drive with a tech. On the bright side, they fixed my 3 recalls. What’s interesting is, the loaner I got was a new 2020 SLT 5.3 w/8-spd. It made the same noise though it wasn’t as loud as mine. So we can rule out the 10-spd and perhaps the 6.2 engine itself. Whatever the issue is, it has to be a shared component between the 5.3 w/8-spd and 6.2 w/10-spd trucks. I honestly didn’t notice this ringing when I first got my truck. I suspect it was always there, like the loaner but it just got louder over time to the point where I could readily hear it from inside the cabin or with the windows down even with an exhaust. My next steps are to try to debug this a little further. The first thing I plan on doing is getting the truck on a lift, pedal to 40mph, get the ringing to happen then listen for the source starting from underneath the truck. I suspect the ringing requires a small amount of load in order to occur so I might eventually get it on a dyno and repeat the process. We shouldn’t have to debug our own vehicles whilst under warranty but I guess this is the card we have been dealt. Oh well.

That thought crossed my mind too. It makes sense when looked at in isolation. However, when I considered all the other factors, it wasn’t adding up to pinging being the culprit. This is the flow I went through: 1. I have tried the whole fuel spectrum (except race fuel) and the ringing still exists. 2. From what I know, if pinging will happen, it will happen during increased load. The ringing that I’m experiencing only happens during light load. So far, I have not heard it happen during medium to heavy acceleration either from a stop or while moving. It only happens during light throttle while cruising. 3. If you listen closely to the clip, you will notice that when the ringing starts, about 0.5s in, there is a clunking sound then the ringing gets a little louder. To me this is the real clue. Whatever made that clunking sound is what is causing the ringing. I doubt that clunk came from the engine though or else it would be pretty audible during idle.

You can use the heated steering wheel fuse. Works fine on mine.

I'm taking it to the dealer tomorrow. If it comes back with "can't reproduce your issue", I'll try this.