Chuck FB

I haven't looked back in this thread to see if that was mentioned as per a TSB for the half ton diesel pickups where they replaced the springs and then install a foam shield behind the filler neck under the box to help redirect any fuel spillage believe but the issue they claimed the squeak was caused from was diesel fuel spilled inside the filler door area and running down the fuel filler neck and getting diesel onto that front spring bushing. I've just wondered if the HD diesel trucks as well as the gas trucks with gas going onto the rubber bushing could cause an issue as well. It would be nice to know what it is, if it is that bushing degrading or two separate problems that each can cause the squeak and clunk to occur as it does seem drastic to change out springs if it was always just a bushing that needed to be pressed out and another installed.

Speaking of the trailer brake controller system, I had hooked onto a trailer months after I had bought my 2025 model HD and nothing on the dash indicated any issues and it went through the trailer light check fine. However when I pulled the trailer around the yard and even using the manual brake controller and jacked it up to 10, I couldn't sense any braking action. I never had a chance to try another trailer to confirm it was the truck but wondered if there is such a thing as a reasonably priced test unit that can fool these new trucks into sorting out if proper voltage is being sent to the trailer brakes. Would a dealer even have such test equipment in the event I have to bring it to the dealer. Also with these new systems is it even possible to check for voltage with a simple volt meter at the plug with no plug plugged in like an older vehicles system would be able to be tested or is it too smart for that type of test ?

That's what one wants to hear, from that I was lead to understand they have quantity of all products in the system to build your specific truck. and so anywhere within that week starting March 9th they would build it and then the dealer should be able to see that its built, but then it sits waiting for shipping and that is the dead zone until it shows its in transport heading to your dealer. I was counting mine from the build week date of mine to when it showed up at the dealer it was a month but who knows when during the week it actually got built as they don't put an actual date on the door sticker, only the month it was built. Will it show up by the middle of April, maybe so but it seems one can never plan on anything when it comes to the shipping as there would be so many variables with what car hauler trucks are available and if a shipment is headed to your general area.

I certainly wish most owners including myself would have that sort of luck with these trucks, perhaps his truck had a power surge run through it on the assembly line and it has invincible super powers, or GM decided to make that truck dependable "Like A Rock" I am only guessing that perhaps if the claims are correct that its not using any notable volume of oil, that in itself would cause less crank case pressures and in theory less oil vapor load to be separated being sucked out of the crank case into the separator system and then the intake and therefore less buildup on the valves although as an article Grumpy Bear mentioned some time back, intake valve timing most likely has an effect as well and I wonder with variable valve timing, if driving more aggressively could change that dynamic. Only by a bore scope or taking the intake manifold off would one discover what the valves look like.

Just wanted to clarify a particular comment, so when it was said "just the factory stuff" was that meaning that all other driveline fluids ( as far as this employee knew ) were original as per the transfer case, transmission and diffs ?. Also I wonder about spark plugs, in theory they would last longer with what I expect is pounding on the miles every day vs puttering around and adding piles of hours on an engine and not accumulating the miles on the odometer. I also wonder if those are the original tie rods/ball joints/drag link/idler arm. With the brakes, the first thing that pops into my mind is that he may not be doing much driving on gravel or on highways that are covered in salt/sand. The difference I've seen to how brakes last or do not is rather astounding depending on what road conditions the vehicle is being used in. The vehicle without all the bells and whistles that are prone to failing, cameras and all the other gismos and electric mirrors etc, that is always going to be the most reliable unit. I realize you won't be able to answer most of this but posing these questions for a thought of what most vehicles end up getting replaced or serviced and in some cases often due to the conditions its being driven in.

It would be interesting to compare your suspension height measurements compared to stock. I realize the GMC fender is slightly different than the Chev so one has to keep that in mind when comparing the two brands. Would you be able to find a flat area to park ( sometimes harder to find than one would think ) and measure from the underside of all four plastic fender moldings to the center of the hubs. You may have done a certain amount of that already to set the front end even from side to side. Measuring this way takes any tire size or tire inflation pressure out of the equation so its the perfect method to compare one truck to the next for suspension heights. The other part I am curious of is did you measure your droop distance, if not and had a chance sometime to lift the front of the truck until the front tires are just off the cement and measure in the same way as I described. Also when the front tires are off the ground, is it the upper control arm that stops the downward travel by going against the frame stop or the shocks extending to their full length.

The cv axle nut, what deep metric socket size was that ? ( 36 mm used to be the common size for cv's but I gather now other sizes are being used as well ) Also did you run into any unique sized hardware as it seems all too often socket or wrench sets unless high end brands, almost always are missing certain sizes or the sizing doesn't go up large enough.

I had an engine failure which most likely was not the cause because of the K&N, but I had done some digging for information at the time and I decided just to go back to the regular dry filter on the brand new factory long block I had installed as I wasn't getting the idea the oiled filter could filter as fine. Also the engine had been using some oil and while nothing real bad, it did make me wonder if that had anything to play in that over the thousands of miles, if it ever so slowly increased the bore wear over what it would have otherwise had, had I kept using the stock filters. I was never gaining anything power wise by using the K&N with the way I drove it easy so I threw it in the garbage as I knew I would never use it again. Not that long ago Lake Speed had a conversation with one of the staff at Donaldson and they brought up the topic of the re usable filter and sure one could claim Donaldson may have a bias but the testing they had done did not give that principle of a filter system a thumbs up for typical use, even racing use was debatable depending on length of time and conditions. I'd just say buyer be aware and cautious, I've seen young guys around here lift their hood up on their diesel pickup and granted it was some well thrashed pickup before they ever bought it for a song but to see an open filter element sitting there not in a housing and the whole engine bay is a thick coating of dirt and the filter is just loaded up with dirt and the filter is soaking wet to boot, I hold my mouth shut LOL.

Interesting, perhaps its the size of the filter that is helping reduce the pull effect to draw in the oil and also that you left it sit after oiling to allow some product to drain off the excess. I am not sure how long I waited after I oiled it to install it, I am sure I waited some but perhaps not long enough. I used low pressure water on the inside surface as it fell out of a tap in a large utility double sink and had soaked it prior with the cleaner, then let it air dry for 24 hours. With the style of filter I was using it was simple to swap in a normal air filter if I so desired if I needed the vehicle right away but I tried to do it when I knew I probably had the time. Years ago we had a 1969 GMC 3/4 ton with the 396 four barrel and those were the days when things were simple and they had relatively high compression and not messed up the engines as they did into the 1970's smog era. When it was in tune ( points ignition and crappy quality spark plug wires were a theme back then ! ) and if one did flip the air cleaner lid and even if one didn't, oh the sound that truck made in the cab was pure music when the four barrels were opened up !

I won't be a lot of help in giving guides and hints as I never installed the upfitter wiring in my truck as the dealer did it and oddly enough I didn't even request it, the salesman had one of their electrical specialists in the shop do it and I was not charged for it. That to me says someone that is used to doing this install can do it fairly fast as they know the moves. From what I see he bundled the power wire from the passenger battery with the existing factory harness wire that runs along the upper area of the fire wall over to the drivers side and then entered in at the steering column. I have nothing hooked up at the switches though as this was only an upfitter harness and I assume the mini breaker box behind the dash install and yes I had ordered the truck with it so the switch assembly came installed into the lower center of the dash ( being a Chev ) with the special cutout panel made for the switches that the refresh interior situates the switch panel. The harness was sitting under the rear seat in a bag in the tray when I first set my eyes on my ordered truck. Cheap to order with the truck, expensive to buy all the parts after to install it so I hear.

Has the dealer looked at it and like you said its out of GM warranty but you do have the extended warranty which I suppose has a cost attached to it any time its worked on. I am only guessing that they could undo that update and see if the truck snaps out of it and then reinstall the update in the shop and see what happens.

Now I can certainly see your thought process behind checking out the intake and the sensors due to the cold air intake filter type. I ran a K&N for years on an older gas pickup and to this day I can't claim it was or was not at fault for what happened to the engine as there were various other factors that most likely were the real culprit but I've heard enough talk from actual filter experts that the oiled gauze principle typically doesn't have the same absolute micron filtering ability. I serviced the filter a few times and that is where I can sure see the filters performance having different outcomes depending on how its serviced. That is where I can see things going array however I never did have any noted dirt stuck to the inside of the filter housing as it entered the TBI but I did have a thin film of oil and that would be on me due to being very leery about under oiling the filter as those filters totally depend on that oil to filter as otherwise its not much better than cheese cloth filtering the air. Mind you a stock air filter isn't much good either if some servicing twit installs a filter wrong by not getting it properly seated in, or strips half the filter housing screw holes or forgets to put a filter in it all together or was messing upstream and never did up the intake clamps .. Not sure if it was a video I saw some time ago of South Main Auto that possibly it was a MAF sensor that was pulled to inspect and it had a little fluff ball on it such as from a dandelion or something and how that would have gotten there would be most likely when the filter was pulled out and dirt and fluff fell off the filter into the housing, then not cleaned out and bobs your uncle, larger pieces of material that has a risk of clogging up the sensors is sitting in the intake and I can sure see that happening at a quicky lube place where everything is done in five seconds and little care is taken. So I am curious if you have had to service yours yet, I had to as I live on a gravel road and there is always some dirt in the air due to what gets dragged onto our highways and agriculture activity. Great that you never found any oil film as that as its been said will affect the sensors so they say. My truck has no intake sound cool factor though, I will admit that LOL.

I see now what you were driving at, wind resistance + weight = uh well, not a great experience in a variety of ways. I've only moved an enclosed trailer with a couple of sleds in it around the farm yard so far with my gas 1 ton so that was not much of a test although I realized from that, that the mirrors sure could stand to extend further than they do. Others on here have talked about pulling a certain amount of weight fifth wheel wise with the gas 6.6 although I don't know if rpms experienced were mentioned but it only stands to reason that it will have to rev some to produce the power to fight that wind resistance and weight, certainly balls out going up any amount of an incline similar to the half ton gas trucks I would suspect. That is the beauty of the diesel pickups, having that torque down low where it chugs along nicely without struggling and always shifting down at the slightest excuse and having to rev to the moon. In saying that, going back in time to the earlier diesel pickups of the duramax era, their max trailer weight from what I recall was not much different from a new half ton with the max tow package which is surprising indeed.

I wouldn't want to be the one towing the utility trailer with a half ton, not if its the weight of the trailer AND 10000 lb of steel being packed on it or worse yet if its an enclosed trailer pushing the wind and loaded up like that. I've pulled ball hitch open deck 20 foot utility trailer with very little load on it, or a light load in I think its a 20 or 22 foot enclosed and that's fine with a half ton as long as its got a brake controller and the brakes work on the trailer. I will never wrap my head around a half ton being able to safely handle a 13000 lb trailer even if the manufacture claims it can at speed on a road.

If you did happen to think about it when you do pull out your sensor, take a photo of it and if it made sense to post it on here to give others a visual as to what it looks like at that mileage and am guessing your truck has stock emissions with no aftermarket items added ?.

Reminds me of what I had mentioned on the RV/slide in camper thread of a neighbor that started out using an older 3/4 ton Duramax crew cab and then kept that truck but bought a newer used baby duramax with the tow package as it comes with the better geared 3.73 rear end and I think it might be up in that 13000 towing rating range. So this half ton theme was new to him as he was so used to his HD truck but the 3.0 duramax gets such fantastic fuel mileage empty and they use it a lot for that as long distance transportation for their family. So he hooks onto the same ball hitch travel trailer and was in for a surprise as no the half ton does not handle like the HD truck, the springs are far wimpier ( he put timbrens in to help carry the hitch weight as well as an equalizer hitch ) but still its just not the same as the HD truck that he used no equalizer/stabilizer hitch with. An HD truck has 10 ply tires, his half ton still has some P rated tires on it yet although that could be changed over. A half ton just doesn't have as stiff a suspension, can't carry as much, isn't as heavy. He got into a side wind situation with the half ton last year and said oh boy, that was stressful !. Power wise it tows it pretty good and still gets not bad fuel mileage considering, but his trailer is I think around 25+ feet long and I am speculating that its over 8000 lb ( its 7200 lb empty ). So how where these companies get 13000 lb trailer weights from, its not from a world of less than ideal roads or adverse weather conditions. Another friend has a 1/2 chev and his trailer is 21 feet or something like that and he said around 5000 lb or under and he has weight distribution but still added some sort of aftermarket spring assist to the rear axle, it does ok he said for the times they go out with camping but he too has this 13000 towing package although its a 6.2 engine and motors right along. He makes out ok with the 1/2 ton for that and also wanting a more economical truck to run back and forth to work and that will fit into his garage in town.

All its doing from what I gather is allowing a small throttle pedal input to output a greater reaction to the ECU and therefore increase fuel volume for the amount of pedal input. While in itself it can't add more fuel than the stock setting, it allows a small movement of your foot to cause a higher fuel rate. Another words doing like an aggressive driver would do by mashing the throttle pedal. When set sensitive like that, its quite likely that anyone behind the wheel will inadvertently be more aggressive with fuel input even if they don't mean to and pouring on the fuel typically means soot because the turbo has not spun up to burn the fuel as well as slowly laying into the throttle. Of course the DPF and all the other crap prevent the driver from seeing any soot come out the tail pipe so it doesn't seem like your doing anything harmful but in reality, well its not really beneficial for the engine as more than likely more soot load will come around through the EGR. I've just heard over the last few years since such products came out that there are some complains of more emissions issues and more frequent DPF regeneration cycles which makes sense if more soot is being created. Hopefully that makes some sense the way I explained it.

I haven't touched any of that yet on my truck but with the miles on it so far, it probably shouldn't have issues yet but at some point will have to dig into that and go through the motions and clean them. I assume the same MAF sensor cleaner works for both MAF and MAP ?. As to performing the task, were you disconnecting the battery or leaving that alone and just unplugging the sensors. I get the idea that if the battery was disconnected that may reset some parameters as a starting point but its nothing I've had anything to do with in the past, I guess the main thing is not to go and damage the sensors. Is there any rule of thumb as to how often is best practice to be cleaning them ?

Interesting, I don't know how a sensor can function with the amount of build up that I've seen some guys show in photos or video but also I have a suspicion that in some cases its because of adding a pedal monster or some other item that boosts the power more, that would add more soot to the system if driven aggressively in the least bit. Still though, at that high a mileage it might be interesting to pull yours and see what it looks like and if cleaning it would be a plan and see if it makes any difference after the fact.

They have their eye on the commission and any way they can talk their way into getting that said commission, that's why some sales people just rub me the wrong way because they don't have the "what's best for the customers requirements" thought in mind. Your friends AT4, is that a half ton ?

It definitely hurts my head when I see some youtuber RV sales guy flogging his knowledge to make that sales commission by hook or crook and I am sure in some cases they very well know better than to spew the crap they are but if they told the truth and in this instance I am referring to slide in campers as its ALL about the trucks suspension and truck strength then. The problem is the RV manufacture is playing a game as well in many instances with the weight listed on the camper and the sales guy sluffing off the fact that the camper is going to weigh a lot more when its full of water and all the camping supplies and all those options that the base weight sticker doesn't include. So making claims that a certain smaller camper will work in a half ton pickup and the reality is its going to overload a Ram as well 2500. But the comment in a certain video I am thinking of, the sales guy had the gall to claim that one just has to spend on getting the suspension beefed up and then its all good, well no it isn't as far as remaining within a legal GVW but that is the crap that some desperate to sell product will spout off about and make it sound so convincing to those buyers who don't know better. Also the Ram 2500 was running into the issues of like you say, trailer or fifth wheel hitch weight that was too great for its capacity and yet the driveline of the truck was plenty capable of towing it with the Cummins. I've kept hearing this claim that the Ram 2500 had its payload increased in the last couple of years and don't really know what to say one way or the other with that but certainly the higher the trim and more stuff slapped on a vehicle the lower the payload. There's always been that game of basing the payload on the plain jane gas trucks payload as the trick to suck one into a certain brand of truck and then realize after that the upscale truck or one with a diesel did not have that capacity. Having said that GM and not sure on the Ford theme but having a certain spread between the GVW of the gas vs the Diesel version so the diesel isn't being too short changed. Also having the sticker listing the actual payload of that very truck as it rolls off the factory assembly line has helped a lot in making comparisons between models of the same brand as well as the competition. I don't know how these half tons with a tow package can max out their 13000 lb rating and not be grossly overweight in the process or otherwise unsafe due to handling issues from too soft a suspension or lack of braking ability.

This comment is a bit after the fact on your thought process but the Ram one ton does have an air assist option on the rear, I have never determined if it changes the capacity of the leaf springs to a lesser value and then adds the air bag and compressor system or if its just an add on to the regular spring pack that a standard one ton would come with. Also no idea if the air bags are an option on the 3/4 ton and still have not heard anything factual about the actual coil spring rate/size and if that was changed as I have only assumed so to boost up the carrying capacity some. As the other fellow commented on the smaller box, yup that's still where Ram is at there with their heavy duty trucks and the cab dimensions. It can be hard sometimes to sort through the truth and the bs when it comes to youtuber reviewers, certainly some raving about the Cummins/8 speed transmission and yes the engine braking system is the most aggressive of the big three but sometimes its those "other things" that may not get talked about for not wanting to put down a certain product but a person at a distance doesn't know if all the truth is being laid out or not. Perhaps this is not the right thread for that but since your still liking your truck and you have some miles on it now, how have your brakes been for at least the wear indicator on the dash and if you have visually looked at the back side of the calipers to see how even or not that the pads are wearing on either axle. That seems to be a bit of an issue for some on here, the rear brakes not wearing evenly on the pads and having to replace brakes on the rear quite prematurely from what should have been the outcome from a set of pads.

I haven't touched my diffs yet on my 2025 due to low miles but I've sure cursed at trucks over the years with having to seal them up, tried a factory gasket which was just your typical paper gasket and what a joke that was ( and with a new factory cover if you can imagine ) and so most pickup diffs I have had to resort to silicone and sometimes something doesn't quite go right and it leaks so then have to do the job all over again. On an older chev 1/2 ton ( independent front end ) the front diff has a drain plug as its not designed with a cover but I've never worked on any domestic pickup that had a drain plug on the rear diff. I had a Toyota pickup long ago with solid axles and by design they had to have drain plugs and that was such a no brainer to service. Large trucks, anything I've ever worked on always has a drain plug and for years have had a magnetic drain plug as they are made to be serviced and sure they hold five or more gallons of oil and use a pail pump but its all straight forward. I already knew from seeing newer GM trucks that the rear diff no longer had a drain plug but there were some years they did and I don't know the group of years but I got the idea that ended around the 2020 time frame give or take but the casting still has the embossed area where they tapped for the drain plug. I assumed the front diff would have a drain plug, well no it doesn't. The question is what does the dealer or a shop do in draining the oil, I was surprised when the partsman at the local dealer who had been in the oil change pit prior said they suck out the front diff so he didn't even know if the front diff cover gasket was reusable or not, it actually said its not in their parts system and yet videos show different. But that just shows a dealer may be sucking a diff out and therefore that magnet strip never gets cleaned off in an instance like that, that's not what I see as proper dealer service practices.