Full Lock's 2004 Avalanche Z71 (beater)

[Keagan]

How would you rate the difficulty to swapping those buttons. I think I read once that it was a pain. Yeah one day half my HVAC lights called it quits and well the steering wheel ones called it quits a long time ago.

[Full Lock]

It's not bad, 5-10mins tops. Ya just need a small flathead (or I used a long pair of tweezers iirc) to release the wire harness from the button assembly.

HVAC bulbs aren't bad either as long as you know how to solder. You'll also need a solder sucker aswell to clear the hole once the old bulbs are removed so you can get the new bulb through the board.

[Full Lock]

Got some s****y racing stripes today

 

[Keagan]

How did you cure your back door rattles. Besides the volume knob. Lol. I plastidipped my rims black today. They look much better IMO.

[Full Lock]

I haven't got to fixing the rattles yet. I'm thinking I'm going to start with replacing the door panel fasteners and possibly some sound deadening material.

[Daryl LBZ]

You need some of this.

[Keagan]

Where would I put that? I have second skin sound deadening in my doors.

[Arth]

Haven't read through the entire thread yet. I have a 2006 Avalanche myself. Just got done removing a 2007 aftermarket radio in order to have a newer one. What a pain that was.

 

Gotta get through this thread to see all the stuff you did so I know what to look out for on mine!

[SuperSierra]

I had a 2014 Sierra 6.2L and I loved that truck. I owned it for 17months and loved every second but I really missed my Camaro 1LE. So in August of last year at 35k miles I took my '14 Sierra to my local Chevrolet dealer for an oil change. I went up to the show room and they had a 2015 Camaro 1SS 1LE in the color that I was looking for. So long story short after a whirl wind of signatures, I traded my truck and was driving off the lot in my new 1LE Camaro.

 

Fast forward 7months and I was really needing a beater truck to drive around to keep miles off the Camaro.

I was looking for a GMT800 cause I really loved my old 03 Sierra. After months of searching, I found a loaded 2004 Avalanche Z71 for $5,000. With 214k miles on it I was sceptical. To my surprise and joy, It drove excellent and only needed afew things for maintenance and afew changes to fit my style.

Here is was when I picked it up 2 months ago

 

 

 

 

So after 2 long days after I bought the truck, I went to my buddies shop to install the wheels and tires I kept from my '14 Sierra and level the truck. Long story but the keys I bought didn't work so I crossed my fingers and just cranked the stock torsion keys. It brought the front up perfect with the rear so I just left it like that.

I went over the truck bumper to bumper and It need normal things like brakes, inner & outter tierod ends, evap canister, rear mail seal housing gasket & oil pan gasket. I got everything done except for the evap canister and the rear main seal housing gasket. But here is how the truck left the shop that night.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That's the nicest looking beater I've ever seen

 

 

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[Full Lock]

Well yesterday wasn't good. I was driving doin abou 35-40 and this car pulls out and then this lady behind the first car doesn't stop and just follows her out. She pulled out right in front of me like I wasn't even there. I initiated evasive maneuvers jamming on my brakes and swerved around her and just missed her rear bumper by literally inches. I would've plowed her drivers door if I wouldn't have done anything and probably killed her.

So I was alittle annoyed then I go another half mile and hit my brakes to turn in to a parking lot and my brakes don't work.... I was like wtf (it's pretty scary when you have no brakes in a auto with a foot e-brake) so I down shifted and carefully stepped on my e-brake and got it safely into the lot.

I had a service brake system message on my DIC but didn't see any fluid at first. Kinda puzzled I went in the the store came back out and still no fluid but still no brakes either. So I pumped the brakes a few time heard air from the center of the truck, got out and found this

 

 

So I called AAA and had it towed to my buddy's shop.

 

I knew it was a hard line above the fuel tank and remembered I had pics from when I pulled the tank down to replace my fuel pump back in September.

Here is the area where I believe it broke, I'll get actual pics of the broken line when I get to replacing it

 

Ignore the red circle below, that's where I highlighted my sending unit pissing fuel haha

 

I ordered a GM hardline pipe kit and I will be replacing all the lines that have rust on them.

I got real lucky the way it went down going at a low speed. It could've been deadly if it would've broke when I was at highway speeds just 10mins earlier.

GMT800 guys check your lines and replace them if they are at all rusty, cause ya never know when they could let go.

[SuperSierra]

Well yesterday wasn't good. I was driving doin abou 35-40 and this car pulls out and then this lady behind the first car doesn't stop and just follows her out. She pulled out right in front of me like I wasn't even there. I initiated evasive maneuvers jamming on my brakes and swerved around her and just missed her rear bumper by literally inches. I would've plowed her drivers door if I wouldn't have done anything and probably killed her.

So I was alittle annoyed then I go another half mile and hit my brakes to turn in to a parking lot and my brakes don't work.... I was like wtf (it's pretty scary when you have no brakes in a auto with a foot e-brake) so I down shifted and carefully stepped on my e-brake and got it safely into the lot.

I had a service brake system message on my DIC but didn't see any fluid at first. Kinda puzzled I went in the the store came back out and still no fluid but still no brakes either. So I pumped the brakes a few time heard air from the center of the truck, got out and found this

 

 

So I called AAA and had it towed to my buddy's shop.

 

I knew it was a hard line above the fuel tank and remembered I had pics from when I pulled the tank down to replace my fuel pump back in September.

Here is the area where I believe it broke, I'll get actual pics of the broken line when I get to replacing it

 

Ignore the red circle below, that's where I highlighted my sending unit pissing fuel haha

 

I ordered a GM hardline pipe kit and I will be replacing all the lines that have rust on them.

I got real lucky the way it went down going at a low speed. It could've been deadly if it would've broke when I was at highway speeds just 10mins earlier.

GMT800 guys check your lines and replace them if they are at all rusty, cause ya never know when they could let go.

 

A transport truck pulled out in front of me when I was driving my avalanche I dodged it and then after the the brake pedal touched the floor.

 

Had to replace all the brake lines and 2 years after had to do it again, now the brakes feel awful.

 

When I was looking it up I read some people changed the whole break pedal and arm, just because when it got pushed to the ground it can put a flex in the arm so I might try that one day.

 

 

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[Full Lock]

See the other weird thing about my truck by the VIN and the RPO it says the truck should have the JF4 Vacuum Assist brake system. But sometime in the trucks past someone upgraded it to a JL4 hydrolic booster/brake pedal setup. Which is fine with me.

 

 

 

It was alittle tough to figure out which hardline kit to get VAC or Hydro. I ultimately decided on a hydro hardline kit cause there are some hard lines that run along the drivers front frame rail from the ABS to the hydro system that are pretty rusty too. I also ordered up a set of stoptech F&R ss braided lines. Figure if I'm gonna do all this work, might as well upgrade

[Daryl LBZ]

Now you can get some fresh brake fluid in there as well.

[Full Lock]

Oh yeah fresh brake fluid and I'm gonna change the all the drivetrain fluids too

[Arth]

I need to do that as well. What fluid are you using for the transfer case?

 

Oh yeah fresh brake fluid and I'm gonna change the all the drivetrain fluids too