leathermaneod

I couldn’t either. Only thing that sort of makes sense to me is that when hammering on things like to separate ball joints or steering knuckles it could somehow damage those electronic components. Did you separate ball joints when installing those kits?

I know it’s been a while but I wanted to say thank you to @mikeyk101 for all your help and info! As of this afternoon, I know have Bilstein 5100’s all the way around, in addition to my Airlift 5100’s. After a few camping trips I’m definitely seeing why it would be nice to have a compressor on board lol. As a side note, in case anyone is interested, I set the front Bilstein on the 3rd setting, which should be approximately 1.25”. Well I haven’t driven it much or got it aligned yet but so far it’s sitting almost a full 2” higher! I’ll try to update this if that changes, but I thought that might be helpful to others. Also, has anyone ever been told that it’s necessary to disconnect the battery for a leveling kit install? In everything I read and watched before installing mine, I never came across that. This evening, after completing the install, I came across a post where someone claimed to have experienced electric power steering system failure due to a shop not disconnecting the battery during a leveling kit install. Since reading that, I’ve read that Ford had some issues like this due to shocks to the system when separating the ball joints. I did have to separate my ball joints to get the shocks back in and that took some whacks with a mini sledge, but in the two very short drives I took after the install I didn’t have any problems. Any opinions on this? Also in case it’s helpful to someone else, I did need to separate the ball joints, but only because of increasing the length. I also disconnected the sway bar links to give me a little more flexibility. I did not need to separate the tie rod ends.

By the way, how do you like the airlift compressor system? Was it much work to install?

I really appreciate all the time you took to reply and to take those measurements! I think I'm starting to get what you’ve been saying all along. I really didn’t change anything as far as suspension goes. I was focused too much on actual height because I was trying to determine if the bags had raised it or not. I ordered the Bilstein 5100s for the rear. I will almost certainly end up doing the same for the front, just not right now. I appreciate your input on the front lift blocks as well. If I go that route, it will only be temporary to determine what height I want to permanently set the Bilsteins at. I’d hate to go through all the work of setting them for 1.5 and wishing I’d gone lower.

As far as shocks go, I was planning on using Bilstein 5100s for the 0-1” lift in the rear and for about 1-1/2” in the front. I thought I had been told that the 5100s and 4600s are basically the same except for the height options. Maybe I should try lift blocks in the front instead.

I appreciate the long post and yes it made sense. I also appreciate your advice and the time you took to reply. I understand what you’re saying about the height and the tire size and the fact that the air lifts should not affect height, but I’m almost positive that they have. I gathered some more data to add this afternoon. My actual tire size is 275/65/r18, so .2 larger in diameter. I understand that works out to .1 of an inch of lift over stock. I remeasured my height on a flat surface with 6.9 psi in both bags, I use a digital gauge and leave a small buffer to the 5 psi required because I don’t want to risk damage to the bags. With no weight in the bed, driver side is 39-7/8”, passenger is 40-1/8”. Fronts are 36-1/4” and 36-5/16. With no air in the bags, driver rear is 39-1/2 and passenger is 39-3/4. My shocks measure, from center of bolts to center of bolt, with 6.9 psi in bags, 21-5/8” driver and 22-1/4” passenger. I’d be very curious to hear others measurements.

Hi all, I just got back from my first camping trip after upgrading to load range e tires and installing airlift 5000 air bags. Definitely a good improvement, but now I’m on to my next upgrade, shocks. I know I want to go with bilstein 5100’s, but I’m having a hard time choosing between the normal 0-1” of lift, or the 2”. Reason for this is I did not measure my stock height right before adding the bags and consequently do not know exactly how much lift they added at minimum pressure. My front height with stock size tires at 60 psi is 36 1/4” inches from ground to bottom of fender centered on the hub. My rear with minimum 5 psi in bags and stock size tires at 70 psi is 39 5/8. I really thought my rear before was about an even two inches higher than the front, but that would mean the bags added 1-3/8! I called bilstein to see what they recommended and they immediately said my warranty would be void if I’m at 1-1/2” over stock and I use either option because it’s out of spec. I asked if they don’t have any leeway in either direction and the guy said yes, a little, but 1/2” is a lot. He did send me directions on how to measure, but it feels like I’m making this more difficult than it needs to be. Anyone else been through this?

Hi all, I know this topic has been beaten to death, but I haven’t seen much about results. I have some results to share. My truck is a double cab, 4x4, custom with 145,000 miles. I switched to the updated GM stat around 138,000 and was mostly happy. Towing my 7000 lb camper at highway speeds in 90° heat it would be around 160°-170°. At low speeds it would climb quickly to as high as 198° ish. Once back up to speed it would start to cool down again. In southeastern PA winter, it runs around 145° not towing and fully warmed up. I hadn’t planned to change anything until a mechanic I talked to mentioned that these stats sometimes jam up and I might not realize it till too late. I had seen the tap and plug mod before so I decided to try this. I had read that the fluid would be quickly warmed by the coolant it’s close to in radiator, but would then be kept cooler than normal by the unrestricted flow. Well now I think it runs a little cold, but I’m interested to hear everyone’s thoughts. It was 49° today and it took forever to warm up. It is definitely not being warmed by proximity to the coolant and no I do not have any additional coolers or even max tow package. Once warmed up, low speed in town, the highest I saw was 127°. Cruising at 40 mph on back roads, it drops as low as 111°. Slow down and it warms a little, but cools back off with airflow. I haven’t done any highway driving or towing yet, but so far I’m thinking of going back to the updated GM stat and just keep this one with me in case of emergency. I always monitor my trans temp while towing anyway. I’m curious, what are all of your thoughts on these results? I’d like to be able to keep it below 180° at all times, but I’m not sure that will work even with this setup and I’m not sure if I’ll cause any issues with it being too cold in the winter. So far, this is not what I expected at all.

Hi all, I have a 2018 Silverado, 1500, double cab, 4x4, custom with black bumpers. It had factory 20” chrome clad alloy wheels and I wanted black 18” wheels. I found a set of the black clad alloy wheels with bfg ko2s in very good shape, so I got them. Unfortunately, they did not come with lug nuts and I didn’t get to see what the originals were. Does anyone know what lug nuts I should be using with these? I’ve determined that they should be the same 60° conical seat, and 22mm is fine. But what about length? I haven’t actually tried putting them on yet, but it kinda seems like they should be longer than my original 45mm chrome ones. I ordered some oem style black replacements off amazon, but they are not quite as deep as my originals. 41mm vs 44mm. I don’t think that should matter either, based on my measurements so far, but it definitely seems like they’ll be recessed back in the wheel pretty far. Do any of you have these wheels and if so could you tell me what the lug nuts are like? Are they black or chrome? How long are they? thanks in advance!

Does anyone recommend an intake cleaning treatment such as seafoam or crc?

Thank you for the input. Kinda what I expected to hear. It kills me to have to wait for a problem to resurface before I can do anything about it lol.

Hi all, I have a 2018, 1500, double cab, 6.5’ bed, 4x4, 5.3, with 144,000 miles on it. I got it at 132,000 and it seems to have been very well taken care of. I put new oem plugs and wires on shortly after buying it. It runs and drives like a new truck and the only real mods are a Diablo, but only to remove afm and bump drive idle rpm up a little. Tonight I saw the CEL for the first time. It flashed a few times, then shut off, then flashed a few more times, then shut off and stayed off. I was driving around 55, cruising with light throttle input. I felt zero hesitation or roughness, not a blip. I researched it while eating dinner and understand it is likely a misfire code, but I certainly didn’t feel anything. I pushed it some on the way home, a few hard pulls, couldn’t get it to flash again or act abnormally. I read the codes when I got home and only one is pending P0300. I’ve briefly read all about what the problems could be, but I’m interested in hearing what everyone recommends that I do now? I have no warranty. I’m not looking to turn this into something major if I can help it, but I depend on this truck and want to take care of it. What can/should I do while waiting for more codes to help point me in the right direction? Maybe fuel system cleaner or higher grade gas to help clean things out? Should I do some type of intake cleaner like Seafoam? Or do nothing till I get more info? I just realized one other weird thing that happened today. My Bluetooth hasn’t worked for months. Today when we got in the truck to leave, it started pairing with mine and my wife’s phones again. Maybe it’s just an electrical gremlin lol. thanks in advance for your recommendations!

Hi all, I’ve been lurking here since about last August when I purchased my first GM product, a black,2018, Silverado, 1500, double cab, standard bed, 4x4, 5.3. I didn’t know anything about them other than I love the way they look inside and out and I finally found a good deal on one. It had 132,****** at the time, but service records showed it had been very well taken care of. I bought it to tow my 16’ travel trailer, single axle weighing about 4k loaded. Well now my family is growing and my wife wants a larger camper, so I got the build sheet to confirm my max trailer weight. I have a 3.42 rear so my max tow is 9200 lbs according to my owners manual. Since buying the truck I’ve learned a lot about them. Already disabled the afm with a Diablo intune i3, as well as loading firm shift, and increasing drive idle speed by 50 rpm to smooth it. I also watched the trans temp like a hawk and so learned about the trans stat and updated to the new lower temp one, seems to have helped a lot. Yes, I know about the pill flip and all that, but I kinda like to keep things oem when possible. I’ve also changed all fluids in the truck at this point. All indications are that it was maintained as well as I believed. So all this to say, I’m trying to prep for towing a larger trailer, possibly as much as 7k loaded. I’ve read about a thermostat swap to keep temps lower, any recommendations on how necessary that is? I’m in southeastern PA and will be towing a max of ten times per year from April to October, no more than 3.5 hour trips, if that. I’ve definitely seen the temp creep to at least the next tick after 210, so that caught my attention. I also learned that I have the Z60 suspension package, not ideal I know, but I’m not sure if there is any pressing need to make changes? My current set up bounces the truck a bit, but I think that’s mostly due to the trailer being a single axle. Yes, I have a properly set up WD hitch with sway control. I’m thinking about adding Bilstien 5100’s, or 4600’s, as well as air bags or helper springs. I spent quite a bit of time trying to figure out exactly what is different from the z60 to the z85 trailer package, but with no luck. I’ve already been using tow/haul mode. I like it except for when it downshifts to 2nd. That shift is always a little harsh, but in tow/haul, it jars the truck like mad! I’ve since started using L mode to keep it in the gear I want, but also stop it from downshifting to 2nd. I also have the 20” chrome clad alloy wheels, which are not ideal, in my opinion. If anyone wants to trade, let me know! I’d love some black 18”s! Sorry for the long post. Please let me know what input you have for me! It’s all greatly appreciated!

Hi all, I’m new so I apologize if this is in the wrong place. I googled hi and low looking for an answer to this and found nothing, so I’m posting to try to help others. Today I tried to move my Tekonsha Primus IQ brake controller from my 2012 pilot to my new to me 2018 Silverado 1500. I had the GM wiring harness that came with my truck, so I spliced it to the Tekonsha harness from my Pilot, after cutting off the Pilot end. Im a commercial hvac service tech and used to working on vehicles as well, so this was all fairly mundane at this point. Well next I plugged in the brake controller to the junction box under that dash and got no lights. So I checked for power on the pins, nothing. Next I checked fuses, all good and had power. Next I google no power to brake controller plug every possible way I could think of and all I could find was a link to GM upfitters documents. This wasn’t totally unhelpful, but it was a little over my head at first. Well I dug into it and ended up removing the trailer brake control module above the spare tire and checking for power, I had 12v. There was lots of dirt in the harness so I sprayed the plug with electrical contact cleaner and applied some dielectric grease and plugged it back in. Now I had 12v under the dash too. Next I plugged in the brake controller again and still nothing. This is where things go downhill. I googled the pin designations for for my specific wiring harness model number from the pilot. The diagram I found indicated that I should have spliced red to blue and blue to red. I trusted the diagram and made the change. Plugged the brake controller in and nothing happened. About 3 seconds later I saw smoke from my brake controller wiring harness. I unplugged my brake controller as fast as I could. I still don’t understand what all went wrong, but that quick it ruined the little battery ground wire of the GM brake controller harness all the way back to the plug in the junction box under the dash. I was/terrified I damaged something in the truck, so I disconnected the negative battery cable and then disconnected all the plugs and removed the junction box to inspect it. I couldn’t find anything that looked damaged in the truck. Of course you really can’t see the board in the junction box though and checking the wires is really just a visual check. Hopefully nothing crazy turns up and hopefully my new brake controller and GM specific wiring harness work ok once I get them. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

That sounds like a good idea. Not sure when I’ll get to it at this point, but I would rather do that than make changes to idle speed. I had read a very long thread with lots of peoples input saying that their brand new trucks had the slightly rough idle in gear and that it was due to GM setting the rpm’s too low for fuel economy reasons, but then there were also some saying fuel system and/or intake cleaning solved the issue. Is the Range module the best for just disabling afm?