trying to save my ex's 2015 Suburban

LsHart said:

I'm stuck on u had an au pair!!!

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We had 5 actually. And she got a PhD while we were together but never made any money. I did say ex-wife didn’t I? She has an allergy to money it’s like her kryptonite. If near her she must part with it immediately. She comes from a family that doesn’t take care of her stuff also.

Anyway enough about that I’m over it and I am not here for therapy.

I appreciate the reassurance here. I noticed that the aluminum pieces were corrected and the steel pieces were not, which made me think there is some type of chemical reaction with tire grass or something? The squirrels had a field day in there but I haven’t found any chewed wires, yet. The “fish smell” is not that bad at all. The thing has been sitting for close to four years of course it’s going to smell funny inside.

You guys gave me some confidence. I’ll keep you posted. Main fuse is blown. Why do I need a new battery top connector? I cracked it years ago when I changed the battery in the freezing cold. But it worked fine. I’m def going to get a throttle body from a yard. The suspension bits are mostly fine but the shocks are about to disintegrate. One thing at a time though.

Toomanyhobbies said:

We had 5 actually. And she got a PhD while we were together but never made any money. I did say ex-wife didn’t I? She has an allergy to money it’s like her kryptonite. If near her she must part with it immediately. She comes from a family that doesn’t take care of her stuff also.

Anyway enough about that I’m over it and I am not here for therapy.

I appreciate the reassurance here. I noticed that the aluminum pieces were corrected and the steel pieces were not, which made me think there is some type of chemical reaction with tire grass or something? The squirrels had a field day in there but I haven’t found any chewed wires, yet. The “fish smell” is not that bad at all. The thing has been sitting for close to four years of course it’s going to smell funny inside.

You guys gave me some confidence. I’ll keep you posted. Main fuse is blown. Why do I need a new battery top connector? I cracked it years ago when I changed the battery in the freezing cold. But it worked fine. I’m def going to get a throttle body from a yard. The suspension bits are mostly fine but the shocks are about to disintegrate. One thing at a time though.

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I'm interested in your progress. Good for you for giving it a try -- I am willing to bet that your work pays off.

Toomanyhobbies said:

We had 5 actually. And she got a PhD while we were together but never made any money. I did say ex-wife didn’t I? She has an allergy to money it’s like her kryptonite. If near her she must part with it immediately. She comes from a family that doesn’t take care of her stuff also.

Anyway enough about that I’m over it and I am not here for therapy.

I appreciate the reassurance here. I noticed that the aluminum pieces were corrected and the steel pieces were not, which made me think there is some type of chemical reaction with tire grass or something? The squirrels had a field day in there but I haven’t found any chewed wires, yet. The “fish smell” is not that bad at all. The thing has been sitting for close to four years of course it’s going to smell funny inside.

You guys gave me some confidence. I’ll keep you posted. Main fuse is blown. Why do I need a new battery top connector? I cracked it years ago when I changed the battery in the freezing cold. But it worked fine. I’m def going to get a throttle body from a yard. The suspension bits are mostly fine but the shocks are about to disintegrate. One thing at a time though.

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the $199 diagnostic you posted a photo of noted the 300amp fuse was blown. That fuse is part of the BATTERY TOP panel, that whole panel is one big fusible link, each red power connector on it has it's own separate rating, so like 175amp, 125amp, 100amp, etc. If you look at it closer you will see numbers stamped into it for each outlet.
so if even one link is burnt out the whole piece has to be replaced, it is not repairable.
could you bypass a link with a external fuse, ya but that's janky at best and you would still have to buy a decent fuse & connectors to do so
each of those red cables goes to different modules, when one link burns out the rest still have power but then either it wont start or half the system is not working because it's part dead.
I would at the very least use a meter a check each of those links for continuity. I could be wrong but I don't know of any other main fuse on the k2's
**ALSO if you find one or more burnt out, find out why before just replacing the panel because there not exactly cheap and if there is a short to ground, etc it will just immediately blown again

if and once it starts, I would change the oil pronto, followed by the coolant, plugs and wires, new air filter.
at minimum, plugs and wires might not be critical but oil and air filter are.

and like I already said the starter is suspect as the tech noted I would pull it and bench test it's easy 2 bolts and a couple wires.
if it throws sparks that's your clue lol

I'd just clean the throttle body and not plan on replacing it until it can be declared useless.

I'd also drain a little oil from the pan; if there's water in it the water will come out first. That will help you determine the condition of the oil, better than what you see on the dipstick.

I revived one that sat for 4 1/2 years with no trouble when it was parked. Before I worked on it a “friend tried to help”. He added some fuel to the fuel in the gas tank thinking he could delute the fuel and it would be good enough?

He got it to fire up with a new battery, the engine quickly lost several cylinders. Engine ran sounding like it had 3 cylinders firing.

Same guy put the car in a shop, they said fuel injectors are all plugged. Wanted $5,000 to fix it.

At this point the owner, a gal I have known 50 years called and asked if I could help. She was married to my best friend and she is still a good friend.

I went and got the rig, towed it home. Gave it a test fire to see what was wrong. It started but really ran rough, sounding like only 3 cylinders were working but other wise quiet.

That same day I pulled the fuel rail and injectors. The injectors at the foot were all gummed up with a gel like substance. Had a very bad smell, which is the norm if trying to run old gas in an engine.

I cleaned all 8 injectors till I had a good spray from each. Reinstalled them. Drained all the gasoline from the tank. 1/2 came out gold in color and gel like. 1/2 looked OK but I did not trust it.

Installed fresh fuel in the gas tank, checked fuel pressure, it was perfect. Turned the key and it ran like a brand new engine.

Old Gas is very bad for gasoline engines. In this case it plugged the injetors. If you get it running on old gas and it gets up to normal operating temps the Old gas starts to shellac the piston tops and the Valve heads. This shellac like substance is very sticky and stinky. It can make the valves stick, top piston rings stick. It continues to build up on the piston head till you can do far more damage. It would stink bad and have very low power as the engine dies.

So moral of the story. Do not run old gas. 9 Months old it is probably fine. Older than that you are asking for trouble. Ask any machine shop or lawnmower shop about old gas. They will give you several examples.

With fresh gas I would start the engine. Let it get fully up to temperature and then drain the old oil and change the coolant., Oil does not age as gas does. I think your first start will confirm the engine is good or bad. Once you know that start your repairs.

I agree with advice already offered, clean that throttle body it is probably just fine.

This is interesting, keep us posted.

Getting rid of old gas in California is a problem, the companies that do this work charge $10 a gallon to dispose of it. I found a guy that makes his own diesel fuel from used oils. He took all 20 gallons and picked it up at my house happy to have it. Said it would help make great diesel fuel. I got lucky.

West 1 said:

Old Gas is very bad for gasoline engines. In this case it plugged the injetors. If you get it running on old gas and it gets up to normal operating temps the Old gas starts to shellac the piston tops and the Valve heads. This shellac like substance is very sticky and stinky. It can make the valves stick, top piston rings stick. It continues to build up on the piston head till you can do far more damage. It would stink bad and have very low power as the engine dies.

So moral of the story. Do not run old gas. 9 Months old it is probably fine. Older than that you are asking for trouble. Ask any machine shop or lawnmower shop about old gas. They will give you several examples.

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Great advice. Old gas is what typically creates no-start conditions for small engines that I work on for a hobby. It smells like turpentine and plugs up carburetor jets (and fuel injectors). I deal with it in small quantities and am able to add small amounts to full auto tanks to get rid of it, but also will set it out in a black container (in a safe place) to let the sun evaporate it.

I run stabilized fuel in my small engine gas cans year 'round, just in case it would happen to sit for a few months. But I also run them out of gas at the end of the season.

I had one gallon of the gas I spoke of above, it was left after the guy took 20 gallons to make Diesel with it. I had my Yukon 3/4 full tank. I put that one gallon of bad gas in the Yukon. Next morning I left Towing 6,000 pounds with same Yukon on a 550 mile drive with several mountain passes. With that Damn 1 gallon in the tank I was setting engine codes for the first 250 miles, I had my scan tool and kept clearing them till I filled up at the next stop. Got Premium fuel in it for that fill up to help flush what was left of the 1 gallon bad gas. The rest of the tow I never had another check engine light even on passes at 8,000 feet. Sometimes I was going 55 mph in 2nd gear floored. The old Yukon took a beating and kept on ticking. I should not have put the 1 gallon in the tank. My mistake. Fless the smell you mentioned is unique and hard to forget once you are exposed to it.

As an engine specialist for Sealed Power I walked into one of my customers, a speed shop. There was an argument going on between the owner of the shop and a customer who owned a large repair shop. I knew both guys. As I walked up I smelled the Old Gas smell, the Machine Shop owner just looked at me and asked, What do you smell? I replied someone ran an engine on bad gas. The machine shop owner looked at the shop owner and smiled. Said I tried to tell you. The shop owner ran a shop with several bays but had never run into a bad gas engine. This engine was torn down already, heads off, engine sitting on a bench and you could smell it all over the shop. The Pistons are actually very pretty, they look like they have 1/16 or more of shellac on the piston heads, shiny and sticky to the touch. They had installed a new engine in a car that had been sitting a couple years and tried to run the brand new engine on old gas. IT needed a full tear down, heads rebuild again and the pistons cleaned in the parts oven.

PS: Stabil and Sea Foam advertise they extend the life of gasoline. If you read the fine print it says the gas will be good for 12 months. Stabil used to say it was good for 6 months but they changed recently as Sea Foam was starting to sell better than Stabil. Now they both say 12 months. So it helps but is not perfect.

Latest update, I got it towed to my driveway and the tow driver was able to drop it on my ramps which was nice and saved me some time from having to jack it up. I took the battery out and went to local parts store and got a battery, 8 quarts of oil and a filter, 3 gallons of antifreeze and some STP water zorb. Their price for the terminal block/fuse and the throttle body was too high so i got them on ebay. Don't criticize me this is going to be a break even/modest gain if I am lucky and I am doing it as much to prove a point to my children that you don't just waste things that have value and because I have deep love of chevy trucks. TBH I don't love this truck and I don't love my 2022 but I do take care of my things. I may sell both of these and build myself a GMT400 or a GMT1200 suburban when I am done but that's for another time.

I am sure it has been said 1000 times here but getting the battery out of these is a joke, and the terminal block on top that i now know is also a fuse is dumber than the dumbest design imaginable. I imagine GM paid either LG or Mercedes to come up with this I can't think of who could come up with worse engineering. Last time I pulled the battery on this truck is was 7 years ago and 20 degrees and dark and I must have blocked it out.

Anyway, my next move will be to thoroughly clean the engine and engine bay, and then pull the starter. I really like the idea of putting the multimeter on the terminal block/fuse and figuring out which bank is blown and what it powers. I will definitely do that. Then I will change the antifreeze and oil, and remove the gas with a fluid extractor. I happen to have 5 gallons of ethanol free gas in the garage so I will use that in it to give myself the best shot.

Also, the smell is far more like a horse stable than fish, which seems more expected. And its not that bad.

Back to you later in the week. Thanks for the continued encouragement.

Get an Interstate Battery from Costco, a fresh 10 gallons of gas, and see what happens. Record codes and reset them as they come up. Check Brake calipers being stuck. Run it until the gas in the tank is gone - use some Techron in there. You can't make it worse.

There are a few videos out on the interwebs that show you how to use the fuel pump to empty the gas tank.

Just disconnect the fuel line from the rails and attach a hose to it and then turn on the fuel pump fromt he fuse box. No need to hold the key or anything. Saves lots of trouble from trying to use a pump snaked into the tank etc.

The factory fuel pump will do a great job of emptying your tank for you. The pump will move about 60 gallons per hour so you can calculate about how long it takes to empty your tank. The HUGE caution doing this is to not let your fuel pump run dry. The pump is fuel lubricated and when it runs dry it can start to self destruct in as little as 20 seconds. So pay attention, if it loses fuel pressure kill the power quick don't try to get every last drop out.

Today I cleaned the crap out of this truck with my dad although there are still some nuts and stuff down on the motor mounts/frame rails. I put a new terminal block/main fuse on and it powered up. 117,541 miles! Not too bad.

I used a multimeter to test continuity. The fuse is blown at the first post from the positive connection. It has a piece of conduit on it not a single copper wire connection like the other two.

I appreciate the tips on the fuel pump and I was so excited I forgot to check the gas gauge but I am going to use the fluid extractor to remove the old gas. I’m taking my time wife this project and that’s fine with me.

Lastly, the rear power lift gate won’t open. Didn’t check the fuse but will do. It didnt make any sound like it was trying to open.

Also, all I asked the dealer to do was to make the truck power up. They said $4,000. It took me an hour…

Toomanyhobbies said:

Also, all I asked the dealer to do was to make the truck power up. They said $4,000. It took me an hour…

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If only we made $4k/hr….

Toomanyhobbies said:

Today I cleaned the crap out of this truck with my dad although there are still some nuts and stuff down on the motor mounts/frame rails. I put a new terminal block/main fuse on and it powered up. 117,541 miles! Not too bad.

I used a multimeter to test continuity. The fuse is blown at the first post from the positive connection. It has a piece of conduit on it not a single copper wire connection like the other two.

I appreciate the tips on the fuel pump and I was so excited I forgot to check the gas gauge but I am going to use the fluid extractor to remove the old gas. I’m taking my time wife this project and that’s fine with me.

Lastly, the rear power lift gate won’t open. Didn’t check the fuse but will do. It didnt make any sound like it was trying to open.

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check the front roof center console, there is a switch there to turn it off, it should have still unlocked so you could manually open it though.
also if the rear wiper is not parked properly there is safety interlock that prevents the hatch from opening.
try running the rear wiper a few times and see if it even works or if it goes up and parks like it should.
just stuff to check out.
the one on my wifes rig is lazy sometimes you have to hit the button a couple times for it to work, sometimes it works on the 1st try..

I thought the lift gate release is completely power that even with the handle you have to press the button behind it? Not working could well be related to the other electrical problems.

Toomanyhobbies said:

Today I cleaned the crap out of this truck with my dad although there are still some nuts and stuff down on the motor mounts/frame rails. I put a new terminal block/main fuse on and it powered up. 117,541 miles! Not too bad.

I used a multimeter to test continuity. The fuse is blown at the first post from the positive connection. It has a piece of conduit on it not a single copper wire connection like the other two.

I appreciate the tips on the fuel pump and I was so excited I forgot to check the gas gauge but I am going to use the fluid extractor to remove the old gas. I’m taking my time wife this project and that’s fine with me.

Lastly, the rear power lift gate won’t open. Didn’t check the fuse but will do. It didnt make any sound like it was trying to open.

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Excellent progress!

Hi,

Today I tried to get the starter out. The outboard bolt is stuck. It turned maybe 6 rotations. I tightened and re-loosened it a couple of times no luck. I put PB blaster on it and will maybe try again tomorrow. But I wanted to see if you guys had any ideas other than a torch since there is not a lot of room and it’s not like I have it on a lift where I have a lot of room.

Also I tried the fluid extractor in the tank no luck so I will have to do the fuel pump method.

Thanks