Why Shouldn't I Buy A 2008 Silverado?

[cd1]

I'm about to buy a 2008 or 2009 Silverado 1500 crew cab z71. Are there any known problems with these trucks that I should be worried about? For example...the 2001 Ford 5.4L motor that I currently own is well known for puking spark plugs out of the head, stripping the threads in the process, and creating a costly and troublesome repair. I didn't know that this was a well known phenomenon until the first time it happened to me...then I found legions of others griping about the same thing.

 

I like to keep trucks a long time and want to make sure I know what I'm getting into. Any advice or words of wisdom are welcomed.

 

thanks.

[ryan_hermanutz]

No reason not too. I have a 2008 and so far so good.

[ferndog5150]

No problems here on my 2008...darn good truck.

[AThomas7782]

I say go for it. I used to own an Ford with a V6. Thought it was a reliable truck truck until I joined some forums and found out all the problems those 4.2/3.8 L V6's have, even with regular maintenance. They go through ignition coils like water and the EGR port design was so horrible that they clog up regularly. Started running into these problems around the 65k mark.

 

So far from wandering around here, I haven't seen anything that severe. They're not without their problems, but nothing that turned me away.

[Snow White]

Because a 2010 or certain 2009's have a 6spd auto

[cerbomark]

they have their bugs like any other but will work their way out as you stated you keep them a long time. Read on this site and you ll will see what the issues are. IMO make sure you get the 6spd trans too. I don t think the 08 has the 6 spd but the 09 crewcabs do.

[chev1guy]

There is no major problem that should turn you away.

[crepitus]

other then lint on the seats no major problems.

[bb123]

I bought mine and i am HAPPY with the entire design. I can easily work on it, I have plenty of room, parts are cheap, 100K warranty, and so on.

 

Its hands down the best truck out there.

 

I will give you my experience and you make your own decision.

 

I owned a Ford Ranger, gave me nothing but problems. I had to replace the motor, did it at Ford. The trannie went out, brought it to Ford and paid a few thousand; warranty was 1yr/12K. Trannie blew up again at 233 miles over the 12K. I dumped that thing.

 

Big bad ass eddie bauer Expedition. I figure, if its newer, it won't break, just make the payments and enjoy the leather seats, heated too, my mach1 stereo with factory subs, 4x4, rear air, seats 8 ( and I rarely ever drove anyone, maybe filled it with people 3 times in 5 yrs, lol). Enjoyed the whoooole time I owned it. Buuuuuuullshhhit. That thing blew a plug when I was traveling across the country. I went to Ford, they don't tap and have to buy a new head. Price tag was $4300 or go with the new motor for $1300 more. well, I walked out paying $5800 w/out tax... This was within the 2nd yr of ownership. Several months later, EGR valve jacked up. 3 mo later the damn sensor inside the butterfly went out, I had another sensor which is affiliated with the EGR valve ( i forget, but will throw the same error code as EGR valve probs and that costs about $297). I replaced 4 of those in 3yrs. I replaced the radiator and as it is plastic on the sides and cracked. The radiator from Ford is $697 at that time (a few yrs ago so prob more now). Then its warranty is good for 1yr. The damn thing crack again after 1.5yrs. So I said screw it, filled it with stop leak, and shut down my heater. So I rode around with no heater for 2 yrs. I was convinced I wasn't going to spend another penny in it unless it was mandatory but only within reason. Well, my rear windshield wiper motor died and that was $200, never got it. Then back in San Diego, it blew another plug. A guy, who was super nice and is a certified ford mechanic for 23yrs opened up his own company just fixing blown plugs and doing it right. Never had a problem after he touched a plug. I was driving down the road and all of a sudden my transfer case started spinning. It was going out. Not paying another dime. Bought it for $18K, sold it for $1000 after 4.5 yrs. I had enough of it and couldnt get myself to sell a bucket to an honest family. So the vulture stealerships bought it off me. The worst 4yrs I have ever owned a vehicle.

 

The new fords? Screw that crap. Im done. You can have a problem. I won't do it. Never again. My buddy's have 3. All three of them have f150s ranging from 2006 to 2010. All of the had something with the plug not blowing this time like mine but "mushrooming" and the actual spark plug dropping inside the motor. Well, one other friend he's fine, so 3 out of 4 had this prob. Its not covered under warranty nor does it has a recall. Two got it fixed under warranty, 1 had to fork out the money from a damaged piston, etc.

 

So I say foreign. They are great. I got a titan. Beter gas as its 2wd not 4x4 like expie, its nissan and wil llast forever, great gas, looks good, etc. Nope. That thing I had did me good for the time i had it. Go to www.fueleconomy.gov. The niossan titan gets the worst gas out of every truck in its class. Next the rear ends are junk. Talk to any off road shop. In order to make it good, you'll spend the dough. Next, if it does go out, nissan doesn't let you buy rack and pinion. You buy the WHOLE REAR END. That'll be $6000, thank you. The motor to replace is $8000, and the trannie is $6500. Nope. I got prob 50miles per 1/4 tank. A full tank would last 250 if I am being carried by the draft of a big rig. Next, the exhaust manifolds crack all the time. expensive fix. Thousands. The alternator is under the intake manifold. A paid to work on. And so on. I sold mine, and went to the dealer that bought it, and lost thousands on it and was upside down but wanted good riddens), the dealer buys used trades and drives them around. They buy pizza for the guys or pick up tires, etc for other vehicles. Well, they were driving and all of a sudden the manifodl cracks. Glad I wasn't the one who did it.

 

I did my homework, researched this, and this is the best truck out there right now in my opinion. The tundras are sweet but they have trannie problems, rusting frames and are recalling all tundras from 10yrs ago to now. etc. They have crank problems, warranty end sooner, etc.

 

Remember, any of those foreign cars, yu can onlyt buy most parts from them. My air condition in the titan went out 2x!!! The thing swithces from the floor, to the vent, to the defrost, right? That little a/c adjust motor cost me $240!.

 

No Nissan tow hitch and want one? That adapter will cost you $90, plus you have to buy tw relays at $43 for one and $90 for the other.

 

 

Screw all of them.

 

This is my first chevy and my family and my one buddy in Texas always told me stay away from ford.

 

I should have listened.

 

 

 

get the chevy, you won't be disappointed. gas is GREAT, looks good, milions of upgrades, etc. You can even change the gears in a titan if you wanted to. No one makes them. The diffs over heat and shitty design.

 

New Chevy fan right here for a long time to come. This has been the best 3 wks of any car truck i have had. All the work I have done ( not from breaking, just modifying for personal reasons) has been a breeze due to it being very well put together.

 

 

 

GET THE CHEVY....

[bb123]

other then lint on the seats no major problems.

 

 

 

 

I read around and noticed that but i spoke to another few guys and they say just sit in it a bunch and that grabby material will not pick up lint after its broken in. Or spend $35 and get seat covers. They sell leather seat covers for $40, at auto zone.

 

 

To me, its a truck, I don't care about lint like alot of reviews I've read complain about.

[KMGZ400]

I bought mine and i am HAPPY with the entire design. I can easily work on it, I have plenty of room, parts are cheap, 100K warranty, and so on.

 

Its hands down the best truck out there.

 

I will give you my experience and you make your own decision.

 

I owned a Ford Ranger, gave me nothing but problems. I had to replace the motor, did it at Ford. The trannie went out, brought it to Ford and paid a few thousand; warranty was 1yr/12K. Trannie blew up again at 233 miles over the 12K. I dumped that thing.

 

Big bad ass eddie bauer Expedition. I figure, if its newer, it won't break, just make the payments and enjoy the leather seats, heated too, my mach1 stereo with factory subs, 4x4, rear air, seats 8 ( and I rarely ever drove anyone, maybe filled it with people 3 times in 5 yrs, lol). Enjoyed the whoooole time I owned it. Buuuuuuullshhhit. That thing blew a plug when I was traveling across the country. I went to Ford, they don't tap and have to buy a new head. Price tag was $4300 or go with the new motor for $1300 more. well, I walked out paying $5800 w/out tax... This was within the 2nd yr of ownership. Several months later, EGR valve jacked up. 3 mo later the damn sensor inside the butterfly went out, I had another sensor which is affiliated with the EGR valve ( i forget, but will throw the same error code as EGR valve probs and that costs about $297). I replaced 4 of those in 3yrs. I replaced the radiator and as it is plastic on the sides and cracked. The radiator from Ford is $697 at that time (a few yrs ago so prob more now). Then its warranty is good for 1yr. The damn thing crack again after 1.5yrs. So I said screw it, filled it with stop leak, and shut down my heater. So I rode around with no heater for 2 yrs. I was convinced I wasn't going to spend another penny in it unless it was mandatory but only within reason. Well, my rear windshield wiper motor died and that was $200, never got it. Then back in San Diego, it blew another plug. A guy, who was super nice and is a certified ford mechanic for 23yrs opened up his own company just fixing blown plugs and doing it right. Never had a problem after he touched a plug. I was driving down the road and all of a sudden my transfer case started spinning. It was going out. Not paying another dime. Bought it for $18K, sold it for $1000 after 4.5 yrs. I had enough of it and couldnt get myself to sell a bucket to an honest family. So the vulture stealerships bought it off me. The worst 4yrs I have ever owned a vehicle.

 

The new fords? Screw that crap. Im done. You can have a problem. I won't do it. Never again. My buddy's have 3. All three of them have f150s ranging from 2006 to 2010. All of the had something with the plug not blowing this time like mine but "mushrooming" and the actual spark plug dropping inside the motor. Well, one other friend he's fine, so 3 out of 4 had this prob. Its not covered under warranty nor does it has a recall. Two got it fixed under warranty, 1 had to fork out the money from a damaged piston, etc.

 

So I say foreign. They are great. I got a titan. Beter gas as its 2wd not 4x4 like expie, its nissan and wil llast forever, great gas, looks good, etc. Nope. That thing I had did me good for the time i had it. Go to www.fueleconomy.gov. The niossan titan gets the worst gas out of every truck in its class. Next the rear ends are junk. Talk to any off road shop. In order to make it good, you'll spend the dough. Next, if it does go out, nissan doesn't let you buy rack and pinion. You buy the WHOLE REAR END. That'll be $6000, thank you. The motor to replace is $8000, and the trannie is $6500. Nope. I got prob 50miles per 1/4 tank. A full tank would last 250 if I am being carried by the draft of a big rig. Next, the exhaust manifolds crack all the time. expensive fix. Thousands. The alternator is under the intake manifold. A paid to work on. And so on. I sold mine, and went to the dealer that bought it, and lost thousands on it and was upside down but wanted good riddens), the dealer buys used trades and drives them around. They buy pizza for the guys or pick up tires, etc for other vehicles. Well, they were driving and all of a sudden the manifodl cracks. Glad I wasn't the one who did it.

 

I did my homework, researched this, and this is the best truck out there right now in my opinion. The tundras are sweet but they have trannie problems, rusting frames and are recalling all tundras from 10yrs ago to now. etc. They have crank problems, warranty end sooner, etc.

 

Remember, any of those foreign cars, yu can onlyt buy most parts from them. My air condition in the titan went out 2x!!! The thing swithces from the floor, to the vent, to the defrost, right? That little a/c adjust motor cost me $240!.

 

No Nissan tow hitch and want one? That adapter will cost you $90, plus you have to buy tw relays at $43 for one and $90 for the other.

 

 

Screw all of them.

 

This is my first chevy and my family and my one buddy in Texas always told me stay away from ford.

 

I should have listened.

 

 

 

get the chevy, you won't be disappointed. gas is GREAT, looks good, milions of upgrades, etc. You can even change the gears in a titan if you wanted to. No one makes them. The diffs over heat and shitty design.

 

New Chevy fan right here for a long time to come. This has been the best 3 wks of any car truck i have had. All the work I have done ( not from breaking, just modifying for personal reasons) has been a breeze due to it being very well put together.

 

 

 

GET THE CHEVY....

 

how long did it take you to type that?

 

haha its good, i read the whole thing

[cd1]

Thanks for all of the great responses. bb123 I appreciate you taking the time to type out a thorough response.

 

I'd love to have the 6 speed trans. The situation I am in is that I just had a family friend who is a dealer, tell me that he'll find me a truck at one of the auto dealer auctions...and only mark it up 1,000...enough to cover his costs and make it worth his time. This is a HUGE deal. I've been looking at loaded Silverado's with low miles in 08 and 09 and they are running in the 29 to 32 thousand range...he thinks he can get me one for 23 out the door. After I throw my trade in on top of that i'm looking at $16,500 for a loaded silverado with less than 30k miles on it and a significant portion of the factory warranty left.

 

I'm excited. I've driven the F150 for 7 years...long enough to see the good the bad and the ugly. I had a 1998 Chevy 1500 Z71 that I bought new before that. The truck almost bankrupted me...everything on it broke. I know most people have better luck than I did with that truck so I couldn't write off the whole brand because of one truck...I'm looking forward to having the bowtie on the grill again. It just feels..."right".

[minibike132]

I work on them every day and love them. There are some nit picky things (IMO) that people bring them in for. This is to be expected of a truck that costs as much as a Caddy. No major issues for the most part, though it is still a relatively new vehicle. Most of what is in there is only minorly different and mostly improvement on the previous years models. I know tons of people are going to want to point out the millions of differences, save it I know what they are. But when you are under them every day trust me they are improved versions of the old that look alot different.

 

You won't get a ton of complaints yet but you can expect the same issues that previous years had save for the intermediate shaft that should be taken care of (no promises the bulliten only changed 20 times before the current fix). Front bearings are still going to be an issue as far as I can tell, for some more then others but still common enough. Other then that there is a tremendous amount of technology that simply cannot be worked on at home and takes an extremely well equiped independant shop to deal with if you are not a fan of going to the dealer. I can't speak for the other makes as far as technology and ease of repair so I don't know how this compares to F#$d or D#%$e.

 

For all the crap I hear about IMO minor stuff that happens to these vehicles I think they stack up nicely against a truck that blows spark plugs out of the holes on a regular basis.

 

 

 

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^If you are looking for a HVAC mode actuator repair for under $240 you came to the wrong place. We had actuator issues for years and years and they cost every bit of 250 to fix. Some parts and repairs are just expensive. We have not had any large amount of issues with actuators on NNBS trucks just yet but I had one out for another issue the other day and I don't see much of a difference from the old, could be an issue down the road.

 

This brings up another point, there is a thread around here somewhere about the pros and cons of extended warranties. I say get one but it doesn't need to be purchased (and will cost you more if you do) at the time of vehicle purchase. Not much goes wrong with these that I can tell yet but when they do they will get expensive. If you do buy one go with GMPP or Advantage. They are the only 2 that I will deal with. The others always make me feel like the customer is getting the shaft, nothing that really actually breaks is ever covered.

[Ryan00TJ]

I have an 08 Sierra and am pretty happy with it. GM is going to replace my lint attracting seat covers. Only problems to date is a drivers side door rattle that the dealer is going to take care of when the seats are replaced. Used to have a 5.4L Expy. The GM V8's are way more durable and trouble less than the Ford's IMO...

 

My truck runs good but I would like to have had the 6L80E 6 speed vs the 4L60E. I would go for an 09 with the 6 speed.

[sabre364]

I work on them every day and love them. There are some nit picky things (IMO) that people bring them in for. This is to be expected of a truck that costs as much as a Caddy. No major issues for the most part, though it is still a relatively new vehicle. Most of what is in there is only minorly different and mostly improvement on the previous years models. I know tons of people are going to want to point out the millions of differences, save it I know what they are. But when you are under them every day trust me they are improved versions of the old that look alot different.

 

You won't get a ton of complaints yet but you can expect the same issues that previous years had save for the intermediate shaft that should be taken care of (no promises the bulliten only changed 20 times before the current fix). Front bearings are still going to be an issue as far as I can tell, for some more then others but still common enough. Other then that there is a tremendous amount of technology that simply cannot be worked on at home and takes an extremely well equiped independant shop to deal with if you are not a fan of going to the dealer. I can't speak for the other makes as far as technology and ease of repair so I don't know how this compares to F#$d or D#%$e.

 

For all the crap I hear about IMO minor stuff that happens to these vehicles I think they stack up nicely against a truck that blows spark plugs out of the holes on a regular basis.

 

 

 

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^If you are looking for a HVAC mode actuator repair for under $240 you came to the wrong place. We had actuator issues for years and years and they cost every bit of 250 to fix. Some parts and repairs are just expensive. We have not had any large amount of issues with actuators on NNBS trucks just yet but I had one out for another issue the other day and I don't see much of a difference from the old, could be an issue down the road.

 

This brings up another point, there is a thread around here somewhere about the pros and cons of extended warranties. I say get one but it doesn't need to be purchased (and will cost you more if you do) at the time of vehicle purchase. Not much goes wrong with these that I can tell yet but when they do they will get expensive. If you do buy one go with GMPP or Advantage. They are the only 2 that I will deal with. The others always make me feel like the customer is getting the shaft, nothing that really actually breaks is ever covered.

How much would replacing front wheel bearings be down the line at a dealer shop? Do you often see xcabs with the rattling rear door - i know thats not a mechanical problem but would drive me crazy if that started happening... Door lock actuators?

 

These really do seem to be the most reliable 1/2 tons out there, just the issues dodge owners have with the auto 4wd (same Tcase!) that the GM twins don't have is just ridiculous.