Picked up a 1999 Tahoe with 185,000 miles that had been sitting for about 2 years.
The truck belonged to the daughter of a guy I work with and she brought it back to his house when she moved back home after a divorce. She since got remarried and is driving around in a new vehicle and the Tahoe just sat. Two years later her Dad asked me if I wanted to buy it since I was looking for something to tow my dirtbikes around the country. He made me a real nice deal and I took it.
After putting a new battery in it the truck started right up. We cleaned it up and I drove it home and offered my daughter a few $$ if she cleaned it up. She made her first pass cleaning it up and named it Yetti since it was big, white, and smelled.
Found out that the smell was coming from a windshield water leak. Found a rough looking bead of silicon on the top of the windshield and cleaned that all out then used some of the flowable silicon to seal it up. Success
eace: Probably will replace the windshield in the near future but it is not a priority now.
Replaced all four tires with some new Dunlops (these cost me more than the truck), pitman, and idler arms.
Also found that the door bushings were shot and replaced those along with two inside door handles and managed to score a shop manual on eBay for a decent price.
So this weekend I actually took it out and put a couple of hundred miles on it. Runs great and drives pretty good - probably needs the shocks replaced. During the drive I had the SES light come on and when I got back I scanned for codes and had a P0420 Code which when I looked it up in the Service Manual appears that it could be due to the LH cat, sensors, or wiring. Looks like they want you to monitor the sensors before and after the cat to help determine if it is the cat or the sensor. I don't think my little scan tool has that capability. So for now I just cleared the codes and took it out tonight to get some dinner and everything appears to be ok.
Is there a 'redneck' way to diagnose this issue if the code does come back?
For now we will just keep working on cleaning up Yetti. The leather seats are in decent shape except for the drivers which tore up pretty good. Thinking about ordering some new seat foam and bottom cover to redo it or going to a local upholstery shop and seeing what they can do with it.
Got an Enduro down in Florida in January and so far I have 4 bikes and 3 other riders that I will be carrying down there for the weekend. Sure as hell beats towing the bike down there with my Focus.
The truck belonged to the daughter of a guy I work with and she brought it back to his house when she moved back home after a divorce. She since got remarried and is driving around in a new vehicle and the Tahoe just sat. Two years later her Dad asked me if I wanted to buy it since I was looking for something to tow my dirtbikes around the country. He made me a real nice deal and I took it.
After putting a new battery in it the truck started right up. We cleaned it up and I drove it home and offered my daughter a few $$ if she cleaned it up. She made her first pass cleaning it up and named it Yetti since it was big, white, and smelled.
Found out that the smell was coming from a windshield water leak. Found a rough looking bead of silicon on the top of the windshield and cleaned that all out then used some of the flowable silicon to seal it up. Success
eace: Probably will replace the windshield in the near future but it is not a priority now.Replaced all four tires with some new Dunlops (these cost me more than the truck), pitman, and idler arms.
Also found that the door bushings were shot and replaced those along with two inside door handles and managed to score a shop manual on eBay for a decent price.
So this weekend I actually took it out and put a couple of hundred miles on it. Runs great and drives pretty good - probably needs the shocks replaced. During the drive I had the SES light come on and when I got back I scanned for codes and had a P0420 Code which when I looked it up in the Service Manual appears that it could be due to the LH cat, sensors, or wiring. Looks like they want you to monitor the sensors before and after the cat to help determine if it is the cat or the sensor. I don't think my little scan tool has that capability. So for now I just cleared the codes and took it out tonight to get some dinner and everything appears to be ok.
Is there a 'redneck' way to diagnose this issue if the code does come back?
For now we will just keep working on cleaning up Yetti. The leather seats are in decent shape except for the drivers which tore up pretty good. Thinking about ordering some new seat foam and bottom cover to redo it or going to a local upholstery shop and seeing what they can do with it.
Got an Enduro down in Florida in January and so far I have 4 bikes and 3 other riders that I will be carrying down there for the weekend. Sure as hell beats towing the bike down there with my Focus.
