[pbernardini]

Hi,

I am looking at buying a 1998 YUKON with 220000 km (approximatly 140000 miles). The truck history is know, it was an import from CANADA and had 2 owners in France. On the picture it seems pretty clean but I wonder if there is any thing in particular I should be looking for and what are the know week points of this véhicule

Thanks for your help

 

[phoebeisis]

Transmission-rebuilt?

4 months ago I bought a 1998 Suburban-2wd-(about the same drivetrain etc as the Yukon, but 14" longer)with 196000 miles(300,000 km) on it.It has been prefect in the last 2000 km. However-144,000 miles is about when you can expect the transmission to need a rebuild.A rebuild/reinstallation is about $2300 here in the USA-1500 Euros.
If you are handy and game you can buy a new-not rebuilt OEM trans from GM for about 1000 Euros.The duties,and shipping will be extra, of course(I sent a motorcycle head to France for fancy porting,and ended up with 25% duties on the very inflated worth of the head-I exaggerated and said it was worth $500 when it was worth more like $50-BIG MISTAKE).
Check to see if a trans rebuild was recently done. The AC compressor usual dies about that time also.The motor can still be nice and tight at 140,000 miles.Eyeball the dipstick;I've noticed that ones that had frequent oil changes and checks don't have a build up of crud above or below the oil level line.
Listen carefully for engine noise.Items attached to the engine might rattle-no big deal-but the engine itself should be nice and quiet with no odd noises.
The electrical gadgets-power windows/mirrors/radios can be surprisingly durable, but check everything.Having a power window motor replaced will be several hundred $$.
Luck,
Charlie
PS I get 13+ mpg in mainly city driving with about 40% in city expressways.Pure city stoplight to stoplight-with careful driving-gets about 10-12 mpg.

 

[pbernardini]

I will be looking at the truck on Tuesday. The owner sent me some picture and it seems very clean, wich is always a good sign, people who don't take care of the outside and the inside of a car rarely take care of the maintenance. I know the water pump has been changed and the second injector rail (it's running on propane gaz - LPG I think you call that - which here is about half price than gazoline)

I let you know about it.

 

[MrShorty]

Do you know if the intake manifold gasket has been replaced, yet? That's another common failure point for that era Vortec engine. The debate still goes on whether the problem is caused by the switch to Dex-cool coolant or whether it's just coincidence that the problem showed up when GM introduced Dex-cool, but you can look forward to that repair if it hasn't already been done.

2wd or 4wd? If 4wd is it the standard 4wd system (NV 243 I think) or Autotrac (NV246)? Occasionally I hear of someone having trouble with the Autotrac t-case because somebody put Dexron III in instead of the requisite Autotrak II fluid.

 

[pbernardini]

It's an autotrack model, what's Dex-cool?

 

[MrShorty]

Dex-Cool is the name GM used when they introduced their "extended-life" antifreeze in the late '90's. In theory, the formulation is supposed to allow you to run 150000 miles (240000 km) before flushing the coolant. However, at the same time, with all of the other changes they made to the engine, they started having a lot of problems with intake manifold gaskets, water pumps, and such. IMO, if it hasn't been done, yet, just figure that into the cost of buying the vehicle -- it will most likely need it.

 

[pbernardini]

This could be worrysome because I don't know the availiability of this coolant in france, and from what I've read, it doesn't like to be mixed with regular water coolant. If at a early stage this coolant has been flushed and replace with regular coolant, this would have been ok?

 

[MrShorty]

A lot of people flush out the Dex-cool and replace with regular coolant, so that's fine if the previous owner has already done it, or if you decide you need to flush it out. Like you said, there's enough evidence that you would need to be sure to get the Dex-cool out before adding the regular coolant.

 

[pbernardini]

I finally purchased it

I got the truck on on Tuesday, a lot of work has been done on t, water pump, alternator, a big maintenance including all the fluide etc...

I've done 1500km since and it's great, running on Gas it cost 11 Euros per 100km, which is about the same than a middle sized european car on diesel, with less pollution and much better confort and room (which make it more complicated to park in european center city, but that not where I use it the most)

my wife who wasn't to hot for the deal is asking me know to consider when will change that on to get the new hybrid truck - too funny


Thanks to all for your advices on that truck

 

[KJLegend]

I just bought a 97 Yukon yesterday and the trans runs soooo smooth its crazy and its at 104000 miles. Is that really true at 150000 miles the tranny needs replacing/rebuilding??? it really does not feel anywhere close on mine it runs soooo smooth all around.