Looking at an '03 2500HD 6.0

GMCDriver1 · June 27, 2013

Okay, here goes. Intermediate steering shaft clunking, as well a worn out bearing in the bottom of the column.
And when did that start?

The brakes always rattle on the HD trucks and its the pins and
bushings in the calipers that wear and cause it. The brakes can and
will start wearing stupid as the caliper will be loose enough to run
crooked on the spindle.

Never heard of this problem???

Oil cooler lines on both the engine and trans leaking.

Very common on the trucks with tranny coolers regardless of brand.

Pump rub on the transfer case causing a pinhole which destroys a case
half and usually piles up the case because it runs out of oil. This is
the norm on either the 261 ( manual shift ) or 263 ( electric shift).
Happens on the 246 too but a 2500Hd will not have that case

A crappy thing that GM has since corrected but it pissed off a lot of people.

At 100000 miles the shocks are garbage unless they are new.

On today's roads, most shocks are worn out now a days by 50,000 miles, believe it or not...

Yes the heads shear off on the exhaust manifolds where they connect to the head..... some leak, some like mine, don't.

Never heard of this problem...

The encoder motor or dash buttons give up the ghost ( if it's push 4X4....... or a 4 wheel drive at all as I am just guessing).

Was a problem on the early gen GMT-800s... From 1999-2004 or so. 9 times out of ten it was the buttons. $60.00 replacement at GM Parts Direct for a replacement and your good to go. It's easy enough you can swap out yourself.

If it has that miserable manual climate control be prepared for that
to start losing fan speeds as the blower resistor fails. Or even as the
digital system or the manual the blend doors in the dash can stick and
you have to change the actuators.

Not a very common problem at all.

Water pump to block gaskets or the pump itself starts leaking. The
front hub bearings are about done by 100000 miles..... so expect those
to fail fairly soon. Check the front end as even greased the inner tie
rods on these trucks are junk and will be worn out or expect it soon.
Then check the rest of the front end while you are at it.

Sounds like normal wear and tear. Routine maintenance. Make sure you flush the coolant every 30-50k and NOT the 100k that it says in the manual. And make sure it is FLUSHED not just drain and fill. The Gates flushing tool is the best out there. Find a shop that uses this you won't be sorry.

Stepper motors in the dash cluster will fail, it's inevitable. Be prepared for that.

No argument here. Though when the fuel gauge starts to go crazy, you will want to test to see if it is not the fuel sending unit in the gas tank, this is the number 1 cause for the fluctuating fuel gauge.

The torque convertor in the 4L80E is famous for failing..... so be weary of that.

It is??? I'd like to know more about that please.

I can honestly go on for days. My list isn't just HD's as most
things apply to any GMT800........ but all I buy are 3/4 tons ( or
1500HD's which are 3/4 tons) so I get to fix a lot of things.

cliobogger · July 1, 2013

Well, I am on home on vacation at the moment. When I return, I'll lift it up and look under and get a feel for the front hubs and all the transmission lines and all of the stuff mentioned.

Prokopchuk_9 · July 5, 2013

The main ones to look out for are the manifold bolts, and the steering shaft clunk. Other than that they are pretty solid trucks!!

Badass69 · July 5, 2013

Okay, here goes. Intermediate steering shaft clunking, as well a worn out bearing in the bottom of the column. And when did that start?

The brakes always rattle on the HD trucks and its the pins and

bushings in the calipers that wear and cause it. The brakes can and

will start wearing stupid as the caliper will be loose enough to run

crooked on the spindle.

Never heard of this problem???

Oil cooler lines on both the engine and trans leaking.

Very common on the trucks with tranny coolers regardless of brand.

Pump rub on the transfer case causing a pinhole which destroys a case

half and usually piles up the case because it runs out of oil. This is

the norm on either the 261 ( manual shift ) or 263 ( electric shift).

Happens on the 246 too but a 2500Hd will not have that case

A crappy thing that GM has since corrected but it pissed off a lot of people.

At 100000 miles the shocks are garbage unless they are new.

On today's roads, most shocks are worn out now a days by 50,000 miles, believe it or not...

Yes the heads shear off on the exhaust manifolds where they connect to the head..... some leak, some like mine, don't.

Never heard of this problem...

The encoder motor or dash buttons give up the ghost ( if it's push 4X4....... or a 4 wheel drive at all as I am just guessing).

Was a problem on the early gen GMT-800s... From 1999-2004 or so. 9 times out of ten it was the buttons. $60.00 replacement at GM Parts Direct for a replacement and your good to go. It's easy enough you can swap out yourself.

If it has that miserable manual climate control be prepared for that

to start losing fan speeds as the blower resistor fails. Or even as the

digital system or the manual the blend doors in the dash can stick and

you have to change the actuators.

Not a very common problem at all.

Water pump to block gaskets or the pump itself starts leaking. The

front hub bearings are about done by 100000 miles..... so expect those

to fail fairly soon. Check the front end as even greased the inner tie

rods on these trucks are junk and will be worn out or expect it soon.

Then check the rest of the front end while you are at it.

Sounds like normal wear and tear. Routine maintenance. Make sure you flush the coolant every 30-50k and NOT the 100k that it says in the manual. And make sure it is FLUSHED not just drain and fill. The Gates flushing tool is the best out there. Find a shop that uses this you won't be sorry.

Stepper motors in the dash cluster will fail, it's inevitable. Be prepared for that.

No argument here. Though when the fuel gauge starts to go crazy, you will want to test to see if it is not the fuel sending unit in the gas tank, this is the number 1 cause for the fluctuating fuel gauge.

The torque convertor in the 4L80E is famous for failing..... so be weary of that.

It is??? I'd like to know more about that please.

I can honestly go on for days. My list isn't just HD's as most

things apply to any GMT800........ but all I buy are 3/4 tons ( or

1500HD's which are 3/4 tons) so I get to fix a lot of things.

I dunno how many gmt800 trucks you play with but for me its in the hundreds. Encoder motors are garbage throughout the run. The manual climate control is enough of a problem gm released a tsb for it and a letter to owners. Every single hd out there has the caliper pin rattle eventually but maybe people choose to ignore it. Bolt heads breaking off the manifolds is another when not if.... lol. If you have never heard of the column bearing or intermediate shaft you have never driven a gmt800.

Now don't take this the wrong way or as an insult, but honestly how about you do some forum digging yourself and you can find most of what I say in copious amounts. I don't need to anymore, I drive and fix these heaps. They have plenty of issues and really are a pile of $hit truthfully, but are cheap and dirt simple to fix. So I drive them based on that.... and yes I do honestly like them even if they are junk in some ways lol.

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Chris · July 5, 2013

I have had a few of these issues on my 1500. No encoder motor because I'm 2wd and caliper pins because its a 1500. Never had the steering shaft bearing go either.

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5Alive · July 7, 2013

The encoder motor sensor is a lot cheaper to replace than the entire encoder motor. Usually it's just the sensor that is bad, which is inside the encoder motor. Open up the encoder motor, replace the sensor, close the motor back up, problem solved.

chupe442 · July 30, 2013

Exhaust manifold bolts to me are most common. I did have a lot of issues with the HVAC actuators as well. The list of possible issues is endless as with anything out there. Read between the lines and educate yourself when the repairs are needed to save a few bucks on the way. I love mine for all its quirks.. It was abused when I got it so there are no surprises in my life. Good luck!

JL123 · December 14, 2013

I know of a great fix for broken exhaust manifold bolts. GM has got a huge problem with this on their 5.3, 4.8 and 6.0 motors. There is an exhaust manifold bolt repair kit being sold by Kral Auto Parts. It clamps the manifold to the head and you don't have to take off the manifold or drill out the bolts. It is awesome and works great. It saved me a lot of time and a lot of money. The website is www.kralautoparts.com You should check it out.

cliobogger · December 19, 2013

I used this actually. Found it on youtube. So far it seems to work just fine. I talked to one of the owners of the company and they said it is actually used as a permanent fix. So here's hoping.