A Sad Day for the Silverado.......

Great post. In my 45+ years of messing with this stuff I find most vehicles are as good as the guy keeping them going. Ford, Chevy, Dodge or whatever. Not a lot of difference. I get a big kick out of the "mine's better, longer, faster, better looking guys.

Al

2004 Dodge 2003 Ford 2002 Chevy 2002 Chevy 2000 Ford 92 Dodge 91 Isuzu 74 Chevy 73 Chevy 69 Ford 63 Chevy

I needed a good laugh this evening..... :-)

barrage of

Al, While I agree that how you take care of the vehicle is critically important I don't agree with how reliable they are. I have serviced all my vehicles the same, cars, truck, motorcycles, snowmobiles, ATV's, boats, etc.. I really take care of my vehicles (maintenance, cleaning, etc...) However despite this I never had good luck with Fords. I spent more money and time trying to keep them running than any other vehicle brand I have ever owned. They were a disaster. They say that companies will advertize the hardest on what there biggest problem is, to try and change opinion. I notice that Ford is alway going on about "quality is job 1". I find that pretty interesting. My GM's cost me more up front but so far they have had way fewer problems and cost me less in the long run. I pretty much won't buy another Ford (except unless they really do release a production version of that rocket ship Mustang GT-R they keep taunting us with).

Al

I had the same problem with Chrysler. I changed the oil like clockwork every 3000 miles with name brand oil, kept up with all the other maintenance and still had nothing but problem. My 88 S10 I might have changed the oil once per year and put 170k on it when the cab got so rusty you could poke a finger through the metal.

Glad I could provide a chuckle!

As far as good/bad manufacturers... I had problems with the Dodge but since we tow a small 5th wheel, which is WELL within the tow rating for the truck, I was never sure if the accelerated wear was from that..... It destroyed 2 rear ends in the first 60K. BUT, some things can't be explained that way - like the 8 visits it took to get the check engine light to go off... Finally wound up with a new intake manifold gasket and TWO new heads before the thing stayed off...

Having spent 10 years as a mechanic back in the misspent days of my youth, I'm familiar with building/rebuilding rear ends. I suspect the first time, when the bearing went out, the dealer didn't do a good job - replaced the bearing and left everything else - which caused other components to fail within a year...

I sometimes wonder how much of the major complaints with "I have no luck with " (pick your favorite manufacturer) is actually a dealer problem where actually FIXING the vehicle the first time when its under warranty would prevent a lot of later problems...

My example was the Dodge check engine light... First visit they SWORE it was fixed. It came back on BEFORE I EVEN GOT THE TRUCK HOME. Then followed an oddesy of visits over the next year where they repeatedly attempted to make the problem something that wouldn't be covered by the extended warranty. Which did nothing to fix the problem and everything to piss me off royally since I always maintained the truck on the severe duty schedule.

I have not run into that squeak yet!! Maybe the Sierra HD uses a different seat belt mechanism!!

Only comment I have gotten from my wife is that she says it "sounds like the wind blowing" when the turbo winds down.

Do you find the tranny shifts a little weird on the 2500HD diesels (2005) with the 6spd allison?

I feel a bit of a hesitation during hard acceleration. I also get a bogged down feeling between 40 and 60mph

Mine is still the 5 speed (2004). From what I understand the shift to the

6th speed doesn't happen until you are almost at 60 mph. I have also heard there is a pretty wide range of when shifts will occur.

Turbos take a while to react to hard acceleration, but they sure are nice when pulling over the 12000 ft. mountain passes that I do on a regular basis.

I just checked on the Chevy website and the Allison is still advertised as a

5-speed. No mention of a 6-speed version at all. Do you know something we don't?

Cheers - Jonathan

When I went looking I thought I saw something about 2005 and 6 speed Allison. Maybe it was 6 speed manual.

I now see that for 2006 there may be a 6 speed Allison and the Duramax is being upgraded to 350 HP and 700 ft. lbs. of torque.

what in God's name could one possibly need 700ft/lbs for in a LD truck? talk about tire punishment.

-Bret

That is about what Dodge (Cummings) is now marketing.

The Duramax presently puts out 605 ft. lb.

You only can get those engines and transmissions in the 3500 and 2500HD models. Not exactly a "LD" truck. The 2500HD has a GVWR of 9200 and a GCWR of 22000. A 3500 had a GVWR of 11400.

It's nice to see that when Chevy got the Duramax they got a motor that was capable of being upgraded and remain competative and still meet the new diesel emissions standarads, something that kept their former 6.5L turbo diesel from excelling. I also see now where the Duramax/Allison combo is making the transition to the Hummer line, which is a long time coming IMHO. They needed that several years ago so now I guess that's pretty much the end for the venerable 6.5.

I checked the Allison website also and they didn't have anything about a

6-speed automatic tranny in the 1000 series either, but then again they typically don't advertise upcoming products, just what they have available now.

Cheers - Jonathan

Doing a "google" on "6 speed allison" I see a lot of chatter about the possiblity of a 6 speed in 2006. More gears are always welcome with a Diesel. Hard to beat the present one though. As someone told me before I got mine "It's so smart it's spooky".

a LD truck is under 12,000 GVW a MD truck is 12,001- 26,000GVW a HD truck is over 26,001GVW.

-Bret

oh and the C*U*M*M*I*N*S puts out 610ft/lbs. I'd still rather have a CAT C7 in the 330HP/860TQ trim.

After all this commotion I went to check my owners manual but didn't get any smarter....

The sales guy said it was a six speed but they'll tend to say anything.

What's the code for the Allison 5-speed so I can check in the glove box and put this to rest?

Hey Doug, Not sure this is just a Dmax thing. I have an 01 Chevy 1500 with the

5.3l V8 and I started to experience that same hesitation, mostly at about 50mph, although I do feel it from 40 - 60. If I'm driving at a constant 50 or so and come to a slight hill I get this hesitation, like the tranny isn't sure if it wants to shift down or not. My 5.3L is so gutless that it sometimes needs to shift down even for slight inclines. I have had it back to the dealer multiple times because I just don't think it should run that way but they keep telling me that is normal. BS I say. They say it is something called transmission lock. Well I have had a pile of Chevy trucks and never had this happen before.

Also I recently bought an 04 2500HD with the 8.1L and the Allison tranny and I don't experience any of this. That truck is so solid and the tranny is always right there. Driving that truck with that tranny is like no other vehicle I have ever driven, just so solid and smooth feeling. Before I picked it up from the dealer someone told me about "how great the Allison was going to be". To be honest I never thought I would be able to tell the difference. Well let me tell you I sure can tell the difference!

Since your Dmax has the Allison I would think something isn't right. However I have never driven a Dmax.

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