2500 Hd Problems

jdc2 · January 11, 2009

I have a couple of questions wanted to see if anyone could help me out. I bought my 2003 2500HD about a year ago it has the 6.0 motor. It was my dream truck down to the options and color but since then I have been having some problems with it. It has 70,000 miles on it and since ive had it i have changed the water pump and u-joints, I have some play in the passengers side wheel bearing but i havent took the time or money to replace it yet(all of this is kindof crapping out on me at the same time) anyway, I was thinking about putting headers on the truck down the road and when i was chaging the oil today i thought i would inspect a little and see how hard of a job it might be when i noticed that it appears both of the verry last monifold bolts towards the fire wall are broke off on both sides.Is it a common problem with the 6.0 motor???? I also seem to have a short in my wiring, i took off the dash piece and poked around a little eveything looked stock and untouched. My stereo holds the channels i program in the memory and keeps the correct time but if i change the bass mid treb settings it will change them anytime i change to a differnt channel. The lights on the stereo buttons dont light up and the passenger side hvac controll also doesnt light up. My fuses are fine and no wiring looks jaked up. any help would be great. thanks.

markw8 · January 11, 2009

I have a couple of questions wanted to see if anyone could help me out. I bought my 2003 2500HD about a year ago it has the 6.0 motor. It was my dream truck down to the options and color but since then I have been having some problems with it. It has 70,000 miles on it and since ive had it i have changed the water pump and u-joints, I have some play in the passengers side wheel bearing but i havent took the time or money to replace it yet(all of this is kindof crapping out on me at the same time) anyway, I was thinking about putting headers on the truck down the road and when i was chaging the oil today i thought i would inspect a little and see how hard of a job it might be when i noticed that it appears both of the verry last monifold bolts towards the fire wall are broke off on both sides.Is it a common problem with the 6.0 motor???? I also seem to have a short in my wiring, i took off the dash piece and poked around a little eveything looked stock and untouched. My stereo holds the channels i program in the memory and keeps the correct time but if i change the bass mid treb settings it will change them anytime i change to a differnt channel. The lights on the stereo buttons dont light up and the passenger side hvac controll also doesnt light up. My fuses are fine and no wiring looks jaked up. any help would be great. thanks.

Yes manifold bolts are a problem on the 6.0. I had 3 or 4 broke, and had them replaced before I went to Alaska last summer. They used the new style bolts and in october I found the left rear broke again. Looking at it, the close fit, it is probably the hottest point in the engine bay. If I was you, if there is no exh. leak, I would leave them alone unless you do headers. I would think the cats location would be a problem with headers. Can,t help with the radio. You probably don't want to keep ignoring the wheel bearing.

Mark.

jdc2 · January 11, 2009

I have a couple of questions wanted to see if anyone could help me out. I bought my 2003 2500HD about a year ago it has the 6.0 motor. It was my dream truck down to the options and color but since then I have been having some problems with it. It has 70,000 miles on it and since ive had it i have changed the water pump and u-joints, I have some play in the passengers side wheel bearing but i havent took the time or money to replace it yet(all of this is kindof crapping out on me at the same time) anyway, I was thinking about putting headers on the truck down the road and when i was chaging the oil today i thought i would inspect a little and see how hard of a job it might be when i noticed that it appears both of the verry last monifold bolts towards the fire wall are broke off on both sides.Is it a common problem with the 6.0 motor???? I also seem to have a short in my wiring, i took off the dash piece and poked around a little eveything looked stock and untouched. My stereo holds the channels i program in the memory and keeps the correct time but if i change the bass mid treb settings it will change them anytime i change to a differnt channel. The lights on the stereo buttons dont light up and the passenger side hvac controll also doesnt light up. My fuses are fine and no wiring looks jaked up. any help would be great. thanks.

Yes manifold bolts are a problem on the 6.0. I had 3 or 4 broke, and had them replaced before I went to Alaska last summer. They used the new style bolts and in october I found the left rear broke again. Looking at it, the close fit, it is probably the hottest point in the engine bay. If I was you, if there is no exh. leak, I would leave them alone unless you do headers. I would think the cats location would be a problem with headers. Can,t help with the radio. You probably don't want to keep ignoring the wheel bearing.

Mark.

Thanks for the info. I get some ticks when i first start the truck but then it goes away fairly quick. The headers were just an idea, think ill avoid it for now. Wheel bearing is next.....

jdc2 · January 12, 2009

Also anyone have any trouble with hooking up a diagnostic reader??? the little orange ones from autozone wont work on my truck but my buddys $3,000 Snap-On one will read it fine. Whats up??? back to the wiring problem???

Spurshot · January 12, 2009

The radio not holding the settings, I think is by design. You have to set the bass and treble for each station on my radio (99 Sierra). This gives you custom settings for each preset station.

The lights in the radio buttons are a problem and are not simple to replace. There is a forum thread somewhere I found on replaceing them , but it is involved and youll need to remove the radio to do it

Buy the front "hub" at the OEM parts sellers online. I saved roughly half the price on a $400+ part (dealer retail). They are easy to change. Took me about 60 mins for the first one and 45 mins for the second. The hub comes as a sealed unit and cannot be disassembled or serviced. Check around on the prices as they vary for the online sellers. I used www.oehq.com

MarkD · January 12, 2009

how are you with a multimeter. There are usually 2 sources of power to a radio, switched and unswitched. Usually lighting comes from the unswitched. I would check the wiring harness at the back of the radio to make sure you had both sources of power.

jdc2 · January 13, 2009

The radio not holding the settings, I think is by design. You have to set the bass and treble for each station on my radio (99 Sierra). This gives you custom settings for each preset station.

The lights in the radio buttons are a problem and are not simple to replace. There is a forum thread somewhere I found on replaceing them , but it is involved and youll need to remove the radio to do it

Buy the front "hub" at the OEM parts sellers online. I saved roughly half the price on a $400+ part (dealer retail). They are easy to change. Took me about 60 mins for the first one and 45 mins for the second. The hub comes as a sealed unit and cannot be disassembled or serviced. Check around on the prices as they vary for the online sellers. I used www.oehq.com

Im not to good with wiring at all. I had a cavalier with the ecotec motor that I put a turbo kit on, I did everything but the wiring Do you need any special tools for the Hub job??????? I might give the wiring a shot. Any ideas on why The scan tool wont work in my diagnostic port?????

Kodiak450 · January 13, 2009

You want to get those manifold bolts replaced with the revised GM manifold bolts (Came out in late 2004). You are at risk of cracking the manifold, if it hasn't already. Look for carbon deposits around exterior of manifold, it will be a dark black. Your engine will be deprived of power with a cracked manifold, and if it is cracked, you will hear a popping sound (especially when you first start it up). Your manifold bolt problem is very common, and there are some threads about it under this forum.

markw8 · January 13, 2009

You want to get those manifold bolts replaced with the revised GM manifold bolts (Came out in late 2004). You are at risk of cracking the manifold, if it hasn't already. Look for carbon deposits around exterior of manifold, it will be a dark black. Your engine will be deprived of power with a cracked manifold, and if it is cracked, you will hear a popping sound (especially when you first start it up). Your manifold bolt problem is very common, and there are some threads about it under this forum.

Mine were replaced with the revised bolts. 14,000 miles later, left rear is broke again. I had no leak before and if it doesn't start leaking this time, it's not getting fixed.

Mark.

jdc2 · January 14, 2009

Is it a problem where the head has to be removed from the engine to extract whats left of the stud??? Could you do it yourself ??? What kind of price ballpark am i looking at to have this fixed???

markw8 · January 14, 2009

Is it a problem where the head has to be removed from the engine to extract whats left of the stud??? Could you do it yourself ??? What kind of price ballpark am i looking at to have this fixed???

The heads didn't come off on mine, but I see that it is a possibility. Cost about $500. Many bolts, studs, nuts and gaskets. There are a couple of small tubes on the manifolds that have to come off too.

Mark.

Kodiak450 · January 14, 2009

Wow someone over charged you! When I had manifold replaced, along with revised bolts installed, and two of the heads were broken off orginal bolts and was even harder to get them out, cost about $300 tops. Warranty covered part and 1.5 hours of labor, so my cost was only $100. Mechanics hour rate here is like $70 an hour.

What did you do, bring it to a dealer to have it fixed?

markw8 · January 14, 2009

Wow someone over charged you! When I had manifold replaced, along with revised bolts installed, and two of the heads were broken off orginal bolts and was even harder to get them out, cost about $300 tops. Warranty covered part and 1.5 hours of labor, so my cost was only $100. Mechanics hour rate here is like $70 an hour.

What did you do, bring it to a dealer to have it fixed?

Was done at an independent shop. The owner/tech has 20+ yrs in a dealership. I fully trust him to work on any of my vehicals. I did go back over the bill with a calculator because there was other work done at the time. the manifold work was $455. If you were only charged 1.5 hrs they didn't make any money on the job.

Mark.

Kodiak450 · January 14, 2009

Wow someone over charged you! When I had manifold replaced, along with revised bolts installed, and two of the heads were broken off orginal bolts and was even harder to get them out, cost about $300 tops. Warranty covered part and 1.5 hours of labor, so my cost was only $100. Mechanics hour rate here is like $70 an hour.

What did you do, bring it to a dealer to have it fixed?

Was done at an independent shop. The owner/tech has 20+ yrs in a dealership. I fully trust him to work on any of my vehicals. I did go back over the bill with a calculator because there was other work done at the time. the manifold work was $455. If you were only charged 1.5 hrs they didn't make any money on the job.

Mark.

1.5 hours is the allowed hours "Max" that my warranty Co will cover. I've had manifolds on my other HD trucks need replacing, and 4 bolts were broke off, and took an hour per bolt to extract them. The passenger side too had broken bolts, and took time to extract them as well. The PS was machined and DS replaced with new manifold. The labor from that job was 3-4 hours, ruffly. Cost me $400 and change.. My more recent manifold job on different HD truck cost less, because broken bolts came out easier. I'm about to get the PS replaced, because it has a broken bolt, and a possible small leak, so I'm getting the revised bolts for that side, along with a new manifold.

So the manifold replacement on DS I had months ago, came out to $300 and change, but I only had to pay $100 out of pocket for deductable. Manifolds themselves range anywhere from $79 "online" - $279 through auto repair shops, pretty huge mark up. I thought about doing headers on my 2500, but headers can crack easily and need to be replaced often. There is also mixed opinions about using headers vs manifolds. Manifolds give better back pressure, and headers give less BP, resulting in TQ loss.