New Truck.

**wooddaniel** · 10-15-2010, 07:40 AM

Hey guys, I just bought a 2003 Suburban. This is my first time owning a GM truck though I have had 4 F bodies and 2 GTO's. Anything I need to know, or Mods that I should do immediately for preventative maintenance? It is stock, 2WD LT with 100K on the Odometer. Well taken care of, and I got it for 8K. Are there any known problems with the 5.3 Vortech? Thanks in advance for any info.

**REVNORR82** · 10-15-2010, 08:21 AM

I have never seen like a very common problem whit these motors but at a 100k thats when all of the tune up stuff is due but the stuff that people have problems with is 4wd components so dont worry about great trucks drive the shit out of it.

**konigandy6** · 10-16-2010, 09:46 AM

Originally Posted by wooddaniel

Hey guys, I just bought a 2003 Suburban. This is my first time owning a GM truck though I have had 4 F bodies and 2 GTO's. Anything I need to know, or Mods that I should do immediately for preventative maintenance? It is stock, 2WD LT with 100K on the Odometer. Well taken care of, and I got it for 8K. Are there any known problems with the 5.3 Vortech? Thanks in advance for any info.

Agree with doing the tune up. Plugs only have 100k life. Change all your fluids if it hasn't been done yet. Trans, coolant, and rear axle. Other than that, you have yourself an excellent truck. Those 5.3's will run forever!!!

**wooddaniel** · 10-16-2010, 07:34 PM

Originally Posted by konigandy6

Agree with doing the tune up. Plugs only have 100k life. Change all your fluids if it hasn't been done yet. Trans, coolant, and rear axle. Other than that, you have yourself an excellent truck. Those 5.3's will run forever!!!

That's what i heard. I got the dealership to do the fluids and plugs as part of buying the truck on top of getting it for 4K under the sticker. Gotta love the recession. Thanks for the suggestions though. Im gonna do duals and a CAI to try and help out the fuel economy, though I have been getting 17 mixed highway city.

**bdub2145** · 10-18-2010, 04:47 PM

i put a banks cold air intake on my truck and picked up roughly 2 mpg . also fuel filter if it has one . i cant remember on the 03 if it is external or not . i know mine is internal .

**REVNORR82** · 10-19-2010, 03:10 AM

Originally Posted by wooddaniel

That's what i heard. I got the dealership to do the fluids and plugs as part of buying the truck on top of getting it for 4K under the sticker. Gotta love the recession. Thanks for the suggestions though. Im gonna do duals and a CAI to try and help out the fuel economy, though I have been getting 17 mixed highway city.

It should have 2 i inside the take (sock filter) and a inline filter some where under the truck on the frame. But on fuel economy stay away from most of the hand held programmers that say they give you better fuel economy most of them just lean the fuel out way to much and cause problems i know their are a few goods ones out their cant think of their names right now. I have a cold air dual exhaust mild tune I took the truck on vacation and averaged 19 on the whole trip was happier than hell about that you probably wont get that in a burb but any little will help oh yea, if you havent cleaned the maf and knocked the screen out do that it helps a little!!

**pajeff02** · 10-19-2010, 03:13 AM

Originally Posted by wooddaniel

That's what i heard. I got the dealership to do the fluids and plugs as part of buying the truck on top of getting it for 4K under the sticker. Gotta love the recession. Thanks for the suggestions though. Im gonna do duals and a CAI to try and help out the fuel economy, though I have been getting 17 mixed highway city.

We just bought an '07 Suburban with the 5.3 DOD engine. Best we have managed so far is 13.5 mpg. It is amazing how much stuff you can pack into the thing, the ride is great, and it's nice sitting up high. Great trucks.

**jiveass** · 10-19-2010, 04:48 AM

Originally Posted by wooddaniel

Hey guys, I just bought a 2003 Suburban. This is my first time owning a GM truck though I have had 4 F bodies and 2 GTO's. Anything I need to know, or Mods that I should do immediately for preventative maintenance? It is stock, 2WD LT with 100K on the Odometer. Well taken care of, and I got it for 8K. Are there any known problems with the 5.3 Vortech? Thanks in advance for any info.

a couple of common issues with the trucks themselves are fuel pump, especially over 100k, dash lights sometimes malfunction too

**wooddaniel** · 10-19-2010, 06:24 AM

Thanks guys. Ill change the fuel filter and clean the MAF and see what happens.

**konigandy6** · 10-19-2010, 07:00 AM

Originally Posted by jiveass

a couple of common issues with the trucks themselves are fuel pump, especially over 100k, dash lights sometimes malfunction too

Also the gauge cluster is known to fail. The speedometer, tachometer needles will get stuck. There is a special policy from GM up to 70k miles to get replaced under warranty. The last 4 Silverados I've owned all have had clusters replaced.

**jiveass** · 10-19-2010, 07:01 AM

Originally Posted by konigandy6

Also the gauge cluster is known to fail. The speedometer, tachometer needles will get stuck. There is a special policy from GM up to 70k miles to get replaced under warranty. The last 4 Silverados I've owned all have had clusters replaced.

oh yea it does seem like i read this somewhere when i was lookin for reasons why my dash lights went out..