Big Blue: 2005 GMC Yukon Denali

[Jake]

One Year of Denali

Well, it's been a year of ownership as of today. I've put 18k miles on the big blue beast which surprises me a bit, but I suppose when you have something that is exceptionally good at towing and going on road trips, it lends itself to many miles of just that.

Ownership costs have been somewhat significant, in part due to things failing and in part due to maintenance needing performed.

The "Expected" Stuff

• Tires, set of 4
  
• Front brake pads/rotors
  
• A few oil changes

The "Ugh This Is Getting Expensive" Stuff

• Tie rods
  
• Steering box
  
• Hydroboost lines
  
• Hydroboost master cylinder
  
• Valve cover gaskets
  
• Valley pan gasket
  
• Intake manifold gaskets
  
• Knock sensors + harness

Overall, even though it's been a bit of a pain to own at times, it's still far cheaper than owning a brand new truck equipped to a similar standard. I did (*gulp*) tally up the cost of maintenance for the first year, and it was pretty staggering.

I'm really unsure of what I want to do with this truck. It's still leaking oil (which I need to have addressed regardless), the transmission fluid should be drained/filled, the transfer case is seeping a little, and I'm super concerned with the brake lines, which are known to rust from the inside out, and then *kabloom* you have no brakes.

Between the (small) loan I have on the Denali and the averaged monthly maintenance cost... I could be rolling around in a 2012ish F-150. That wouldn't leak stuff and wouldn't blow out a brake line in a panic stop.

So... my thought is to have the oil leak fixed and trans fluid done. And from there, I truly am not sure what I want to do.

Evap CEL Update
If anyone recalls (or cares) I replaced the evap canister/solenoid at the rear of the truck, in an effort to rid myself of the P0499 code. The code came back after a few ignition cycles, so I replaced the purge vent solenoid under-hood, as some folks said it could be that solenoid throwing the same code. That also didn't work, and someone on the Yukon forum suggested looking at wiring where it plugs into the solenoids. That got me thinking...

When I took it to Road Atlanta in early December, my trailer had some wiring that was grounding out against the frame and blowing the truck's fuse for the trailer running lights. I blew through a few spare fuses as I was diagnosing that wiring and ran out of legit spares... so I thought it was so kind of GM to leave fuses in the box for options my truck doesn't have.

The first two fuses I pulled to use on that circuit were for L/HID and R/HID as the Denalis don't have HID headlights.

The third and final fuse? 4WS, because the Denali never got 4 Wheel Steering/Quadrasteer.

Well, the post about wiring got me thinking - this evap stuff has to be on a fused circuit, which one is it? Fifteen seconds on Google got me the answer.

I guess someone at GM decided that the evap system and Quadrasteer could share a circuit, and that it was smarter to label the circuit with the rare option vs. the standard emissions system.

So... I'll be putting a new 15A fuse in the 4WS spot and that ought to, you know, let the evap solenoid do it's thing.