What fails on ALL early 2000's Chevy SUV's!? CAR WIZARD shares what he's seen from the last 20 years

I love the 99-06 full size GM products for their simplicity. They're inexpensive, easy to work on, and have great parts availability.

I’m a former GM Partsman. This video brings back some memories. One thing I’ll offer is this: If you ever go to a dealership to get a part and the parts person just walks to the shelf and puts it on the counter before you finish describing what you want THAT is a high failure item. GM had plenty.

My dad has 2010 Tahoe he bought with 4k miles on it in 2011, and it’s currently at 340k miles. It is the most reliable truck I’ve ever seen. We live in The rust belt and have abused this truck every year sense we got it. I’ve pulled trees down with this thing and everything still works, even the fuel management! Really goes to show what proper maintenance and annual rust proofing can do RE: I just started driving this truck as my daily for college and work, and have put about a couple thousand on it. It sat for a bit so not much has changed but she still runs minty fresh. Burns a little oil but with this kinda mileage you expect the rings to be less than factory fresh. Have new quarter panels and rockers on the way to make it look brand new.

My Mom has my Grandparents old 2007 Tahoe LTZ. It’s got 430,000 (267,000 miles) kilometres on it and still going strong. Original engine and transmission. Only broke down once because it needed a new battery.

When someone says "don't modify your vehicle, the engineers know better..." I think of videos like this and realize they don't work on anything themselves.

I've had 2 Suburbans, and the passengers always break the knobs off on the rear seat AC/Heater controls. If you're cold or hot, turn the knob till it stops and then keep on going. Everyone knows twisting the knob off makes the heater or AC go into turbo mode.

Watching this guy is educational. I took notes so I can inspect my 2004 Burb and get items replaced if needed.

I have a 2001 Chevy Tahoe and I love it! They aren’t overly complicated to work on yet I still dread doing the heater core replacement when the time comes. I bought it for $700 in 2020 with a blown transmission and thanks to YouTube videos just like yours was able to rebuild it. Not perfectly I suspect and might live a shorter life span than a done professionally one but so far it drives. 😅

I hope this is the start of a series, covering this same topic on a variety of cars. This is super valuable information that everyone can use. Thank you so much

1:40 Oil Pressure Sensor (Transducer) 2:45 Corroded connections on the Main Fuse (No Start) (07+ models) 3:39 Active Fuel Management (AFM) Failure (Lifter Failure) (07+ models) 5:14 A/C Belt Tensioner Failure 6:19 Coils, plugs, and wires 8:15 Broken Exhaust Manifold Bolts 9:50 Knock Sensor Failure/Corrosion (00-06 models) 10:46 Instrument Cluster Stepper Motor Failure (mostly affects 03-06 models) 11:43 HVAC Blend/Recirculate Door Actuators 13:20 Transmission cooler line leaks 14:05 Oil Cooler Blockoff plate leaks 14:55 Oil pan gasket, rear main seal 15:05 Oil Pickup tube o-ring (low/no oil pressure) 15:46 Front differential Axle Seals 16:12 ABS module bad solder joints (00-06 more common) 17:12 4l60e go PNNNNNN Matt's Honorable mentions: - can't fill up with fuel -- clogged/failed evap cannister (fills evap system with charcoal). Replace the charcoal cannister, rear vent solenoid, and front purge solenoid. Also, clear all evap lines of charcoal pellets (shop vac works). When you fill up with gas, the air in your tank needs to be displaced. The evap system is supposed to manage this, but when clogged with charcoal pellets, the air tries to go back out through the filler hose, triggering the fuel filler to think your tank is full and turn off. - stuttering idle -- leaking intake manifold gaskets, leaking valve cover to intake manifold hoses. If the hose feels loose on the intake manifold tube, its likely leaking. This leak will cause a poor idle. - Clunking when braking/accelerating -- motor mounts. the stuttering idle above can exacerbate this problem by causing excessive wear on the motor mounts. This can cause clunking under acceleration as your engine/transmission shifts around - excessive body rolls -- front sway bar link is broken/missing. - low speed vibration -- ujoints on the driveshaft are bad - slow cool leak/drip from front of motor -- water pump is going out. weep hole is leaking to indicate as such probably missing some other good ones, but those are off the top of my head. I've owned a 2000 & 2008 Tahoe, as well as a 2006 suburban 2500. gmt800 is by far the best platform. the gmt900's have some improvements, but the addition of things like AFM and cheaper interior plastic really hurt that platform. Thanks for the video Wizard!

One of the most common things you didn't mention is intake gaskets causing lean codes. When it happens I change the intake gaskets, valve cover gaskets, knock sensors and harness. Usually around 100k and the tune up is easy to do at the same time. Also at 100k I will recommend water pump (they all will be leaking by then), serpentine belt(s), and both tensioners. Good under the hood for another 100k!

I have a 07 and almost everything you covered I've had to fix +5 broken headbolts, grrr now she has 260k miles. I got it 5yrs ago with 220k on her, I gave her all the love and now she is a joy to drive and road trip in.

The only thing that stopped me from getting a 3rd gen Tahoe instead of my 4runner is of all 10 I have looked around, non of them are maintained properly. It seems like in bigger metro area people that buy these trucks never cared about common maintenance. I've seen oil as dark as coal, burnt transmission fluid that are dark brown, A/C overcharged to oblivion, and so much more. From all mechanics I've talked to, these trucks if maintained are the last generation of GM trucks that can challenge Toyota truck reliability. Yet there're people out there don't know where their transmission dipstick is, while the actual dipstick rusted off from the salt, along with the tube; there're people that changes their oil only when the oil light comes on. They're solid trucks, but lots of their owners aren't. Why people can't just treat their vehicle well.

Only 30 views and already 20 likes , that’s how you know there’s a lot of love for the wizard in the YouTube car Community .

For the broken manifold bolts there is a company that makes a bracket you can bolt to the head and then clamps the manifold against the head. Not an ideal fix but if you’re on a budget it’s worth it

One thing worth mentioning when budgeting with these trucks are the typical idler, pitman arm deaths that in turn stress inner tie rods that then EAT front tires up. Just about every early 2k model that comes in has OVER a degree of play in their front steering linkage that leads to tire replacement every 6 months if not corrected. One of the most overlooked expenses we've had at our shop. Typically customers will ho through 2 sets of tires before realizing we arent trying to rip them off.

I used to be a Gm tech when these came out ... 1/2 ton chassis with 4l60 did hundreds of them and transfer cases especially if they are left in auto 4x4 mode.. stretch the chain which was 900 bucks if it didn't destroy the aluminum case. Rear axles I swear were made of glass.. among alot of Delphi electronic issues ... but majority of the issues is lack of maintenance

2:50 A long, LONG time ago when I worked in a parts store, I had a customer come in and buy an alternator and new battery. He installed it in the parking lot, came back in and said he wanted to return them because they didn't work. I went out there to check his install, and used a multi meter to check the wiring: The mega fuse had blown. We had one on the shelf, put that in, and it was fixed.

Thank you, Car Wizard, for sharing your experience and expertise on early 2000's Chevy SUVs. 👍👍

Picked a 2006 Suburban up for CHEAP because they had that oil pressure sending unit fail, but a shop quoted them $2k for a RMS replacement with no guarantee there wasn't engine damage from 0 oil pressure. $20 part and I was one happy buddy!