Project Canyonero

[WRXtranceformed]

:lol: Yep, a gentle way to say you lost the sale. With the successes and inevitable losses I've had in my sales career, it is nice to be on the other side of the table.

And yeah Rex, if I could take the new Tacoma Limited's interior minus the seats and plug it into this truck, I think you would have the perfect mid-size truck. This is the most comfortable of all of the trucks I test drove though and I am glad they made the cloth ballistic nylonish seats in this so comfy. It's no yaguar but I don't think I will have trouble on long trips with this!

Speaking of which, I have been texting back and forth with the new owner of the Jag as I was finally able to get the title released and sent down to him. He loves it and is getting tons of compliments from his friends and family. He has also been asking me about what I used to keep the interior in good shape, maintenance advice, etc. so I know it went to a good home and will be really well taken care of!

[Senor_Taylor]

Wow, that's a very nice looking truck! I'm curious to see how you like it down the road. Pretty impressive that you worked out such a deal to save money and get more! Maybe you can sway me away from Tacomas!

Good job!

[Jake]

Looks good Lee! LOL'd at "lubricated parts powertrain warranty" :lol:

These trucks definitely look best in darker colors. Is the bedliner a drop-in or spray-in? Should be perfect for you guys size-wise, they aren't really far off from Silverados of 10 years ago, which... weren't small trucks.

[ScottyB]

solid pick, man :thumbup:

that's a pretty ballsy looking beast from the front...for a sec i thought you went balls out and got a 2500 pickup after all.

[Mike]

God. damn. I would recognize a GM interior anywhere.

The 90s are alive!

[WRXtranceformed]

Thanks guys! My whole garage smells like new car and the burning-off of new car lubricants :lol:

Jake, I thought of you when I read that hahaha. That one is the factory-ordered spray in bedliner. I liked it because it has a lifetime warranty and they put that "GMC" logo into it on the back of the cabin.

Scott thanks man! Yeah I think they did a great job giving it beefy styling while keeping it classy. The new Sierras look even more beastly, the 1500 HD I saw a guy buy the other day looked so nasty. There is already a pretty healthy aftermarket for the Canyon but I've got a pretty defined short list of stuff I really want to do with it. Not really trying to go all lifted brodozer because it doesn't need it and it fits nicely in the garage as it sits. Also, apparently a lot of that suspension stuff does not play nice with the warranty. Leveling kits I am told are fine and I could see the appeal but I'd rather see it get the catch can, tint, detail and tune.

[WRXtranceformed]

20% tint done, matches the rears almost perfect. Tired of the dingy yellow dome lights on all of our last cars including this one, so I did a little DIY LED swap. $11 on Amazon for 10 bulbs and a decent trim removal kit, took me all of 10 minutes on this car. The license plate bulbs were the easiest on any of our last vehicles, you literally just reach under the bumper and twist them out. I have generally used higher dollar bulbs in the past but I heard good things about these, so if they suck I've still got 3 replacements :lol:

Before:

After:


Before:

After:


Front done, rear OEM:

All done:


Before:

After:


The company that makes the catch can I ordered is redesigning the Canyon mounting bracket, but it's ordered and on the way. I have to say I really really like this truck. It is the perfect size, I have had no issues parking it anywhere I have gone. Ride is super comfortable for a "stiff" offroad suspension, Bose sound system is awesome for my not-really-discerning taste, the tech is still surprising me. My perennial GM complaint is the way they tune the throttle response and shift logic, it feels like your vehicle is on valium. Granted I'm going easy on it and following break in procedure but it's a good 3-3.5 seconds before you start moving when you hit the go pedal. A tune like I had on my CTS is going to be mandatory and will be the next thing on the mod plate. Oh and 2 golf club bags fit perfect across the back seat when you fold the seats down

I parked kind of far out at the course today to avoid dings and I came back to a pretty new GMC Sierra 4x4 parked next to me but he left me a nice berth by parking into the spot next to him (kind of like a jerk ha). Almost like we were staking our claim together there...I don't know much about the GMC community but the "twins" forums seem pretty robust and everyone was very welcoming. I've been on a lot of car forums for each make we've owned but I haven't really felt like I was part of a community since I owned Subarus. Wonder if this truck will be any different!

[JPolen01]

Dome lights look great. It really is the little things that make such a difference.

[D_Eclipse9916]

Nice! It's crazy how big trucks have gotten lately. The 1-tons are huge, the 1/2 tons are the 3/4 tons of yesteryear (in size but still not equipment.....yet), and the "small trucks" liek the canyonero are the size of mid-2000s 1/2 tons.

[WRXtranceformed]

Good review on Android Auto, makes me kind of excited about the free update for the Canyon with it mid March:

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.digitaltrends.com/infotainment-system-reviews/android-auto-review/">http://www.digitaltrends.com/infotainme ... to-review/</a><!-- m -->

I do wonder if I will have to connect manually with a USB cable though or if I can do all of that through Bluetooth. Either way I imagine it will shred my phone's battery so I will probably want it plugged in anyway.

[WRXtranceformed]

Elite Engineering "E2" catch can arrived this afternoon. Super super impressed with the build quality, excited to get it installed.





I've had the RX catch can in the past and it was nice but this seems a lot more substantial, certainly in volume but also in overall build quality. I'm sure they are both nice but I was just really impressed with this package, especially the ability to remove / clean the filtering media. Truck has less than 300 miles on it right now so it's perfect timing, I will probably do my first oil change after I hit the 500 mile break in mark, 1500 at the latest.

Been doing more research on tunes and I'm leaning toward Livernois at this point based on what I'm reading. I had a good experience with Trifecta in the past and it's cheaper, but Livernois seems to have a more livable tune (that fixes a lot of the wonkiness of the GM ECU/TCU tuning) and it comes with free lifetime retunes for any other mods. I don't really plan on doing much to this truck performance wise but I might get a hair to do the ported TB or some exhaust work in the future so that's a nice option. Their customer service is supposedly top tier too which is always a bonus when dealing with stuff like that.

[WRXtranceformed]

Nothing crazy to report but had my catch can installed today after work. Great install job by Toxic Detail and Performance, the same folks that fabbed up the custom exhaust on my XFR. It didn't quite go the way the instructions on Elite's site described for the Colorado, but some of that could be due to the new bracket design that they just released for the Canyon (mine was one of the first batches of the redesign). I'm comfortable installing intakes but I didn't want to mess with anything PCV related...and this turned out to be a longer job than even the pro expected. Just figuring out how to take off the engine cover took us a hot minute.

Everything apart:

This engine cover is really dumb. It has an intake silencer built into it and it connects directly to the throttle body. Just taking this off took a long time and reconnecting it to the throttle body is basically a blind job from above. It was also missing a screw from the factory (or from when it was maybe removed at the dealership on delivery?)


This is the best way we found to mount it on a Canyon, which is different than the instructions for the Colorado. A few notes: The stock radiator bolt used to attach the bracket is too short to hold the bracket on, so we had to use a longer bolt. Also, there is an electrical clip (the blue grey one) that is in the way from allowing you to mount it on the right side. As it sits it fits perfectly between the air box and the horn, although I bent the horn bracket very slightly just to give it a little more clearance:

Here's the clip and why you can't mount it on the passenger side of the bracket. I guess you could relocate that clip but the catch can fits fine on the other side:

Install about halfway done, we decided not to route the hoses around the right side of the throttle body like the Colorado instructions described because it was unnecessary and with this location it actually works better and looks a lot cleaner.


All done, super clean:

[WRXtranceformed]

Ghetto "Homelink" installed today:





Also installed LED reverse lights and still have sun spots in my vision from how bright they are. Took me all of 5 minutes. I love how much easier it is to "work" on domestic cars vs. foreign. I'll try to get a night shot tonight, should give me much better rear visibility through the backup cam vs. the stock halogens. I ordered these: <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00K3GBRQ2?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00">http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00K3G ... ge_o00_s00</a><!-- m -->
May get another pair to replace the rear cargo bed lights because those are also super easy to replace (two external torx screws)

The wiring harness and bulbs for the Morimoto low beams are on backorder so I am still waiting on that and the LED foglight housings to ship. Here are the kits:

Went with the 35W with 5500k bulbs because from the pictures I have seen they match the LED accent lighting perfectly and also match up with the foglights: <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="https://www.theretrofitsource.com/hid-systems/morimoto-elite-hid-system-h11.html#.Vu18juIrLX4">https://www.theretrofitsource.com/hid-s ... u18juIrLX4</a><!-- m -->

Foglight housings: <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="https://www.theretrofitsource.com/complete-headlight-fog-light-housings/morimoto-xb-led-fog-lights-chevy.html#.Vu187eIrLX4">https://www.theretrofitsource.com/compl ... u187eIrLX4</a><!-- m -->

I don't think I'll touch the high beams because 1) I never use them and 2) I noticed on Rachael's RDX that it looks like her OEM high beams are halogens and they are fine. Pretty excited for the lighting upgrade though because the OEM halogen lights all around are woefully dim.

[WRXtranceformed]

Wow, these are aggressive haha. I didn't get a before shot, but just imagine a much dimmer, more yellow light. Backup cam visibility at night is much better as well as visibility through the sliding window tint:




Parking lot soccer moms: you better see me pulling out of my spot now~

[Jake]

Ooh, nice! I should do the same with my truck - the backup cam with just reverse lights (i.e. if your foot is not on the brake) is really dim. This would be a nice and cheap upgrade.

[Kaan]

Ooh, nice! I should do the same with my truck - the backup cam with just reverse lights (i.e. if your foot is not on the brake) is really dim. This would be a nice and cheap upgrade.

me too... its dark as crap at night where we live. I was going to cut in some LED lights into the rear bumper, but this might just be "better."

[davej]

those are brighter than my headlights! looks great though

[JustinG]

Hook em to a toggle switch for those asshole tailgaters

[WRXtranceformed]

Nice! Yeah I highly recommend these particular bulbs so far but I will report back with any issues that might come up. They seemed much more well built than other bulbs I have bought (even from the higher end LED sites) and the non-polarity is a nice bonus....no guessing whether it's plugged in the right way or not.

Hook em to a toggle switch for those asshole tailgaters

:lol: Yeah I am 99% on getting them for the cargo bed light, which is an easy flip of the switch in the cabin. I'll have to see if the throw with the LEDs could blind anyone behind me, for better or for worse

[WRXtranceformed]

Bonus shot of the backup cam at night with these beasts:

BLAM!


And I learned last night that I can't activate my cargo bed light while the car is moving? Wtf? Might have to try to find a way around that