Glad to be a new Yukon owner!

Flukedude · 2026-07-25T13:36:22-0400

Greetings from Ohio!

I come from almost 20 years in an minivan and was looking for a family car that had higher ground clearance and could tow. After several months of the run-around used car market I am extremely thankful to have found a 2012 2wd Yukon SLT with 160k. I had her looked over by a mechanic after the sale: The transmission was rebuilt at some point previous but otherwise she is in great shape mechanically. Rust free and tires/suspension are good. All fluids were changed 2 years ago.

Ok forum, I have $1500 to put into the car! It will be a 2-3x a week commuter and a trip vehicle, so tell me where would I benefit to spend my money to ensure this baby is ready!

Thanks guys and gals. think I’m gonna fit right in at tahoeyukon!
-Mike from OH

OR VietVet · 2026-07-25T13:46:18-0400

Welcome to the forum, from Oregon.

On a used vehicle purchase, IMO, the most important info is the paperwork/documentation of repairs and maintenance. Next is making sure the fluids are all up to date. You said 2 years ago fluids were changed. You did not say how you know that. Also, how many miles since those fluids were changed?

You said you had looked at after the purchase. What did he/she say is needed?

Joseph Garcia · 2026-07-25T14:02:48-0400

Welcome to the Forum from NH.

Lots of knowledgeable folks here who freely share their knowledge, experiences, and perspectives. Knowledge is power.

I hope that you will become a participating member in the Forum's discussions.

I'm sure that you will love your Yukon.

It seems that your truck received a clean bill of health by the Mechanic who looked at it. If you trust the Mechanic, then good.

As @OR VietVet recommended, get all of your fluids up to date. If you don't have hard documentation that they were fairly recently changed (2 years), then change them now. They are the life blood of your truck.

Take any left over money and put it into a truck account. Add about $300 every month to that truck account, if you can afford it.

Then sit tight and enjoy the truck, until something goes wrong, as something will eventually go wrong. Then fix it with money that you've accumulated in your truck account.

Flukedude · 2026-07-25T14:04:49-0400

OR VietVet said:
Welcome to the forum, from Oregon.

On a used vehicle purchase, IMO, the most important info is the paperwork/documentation of repairs and maintenance. Next is making sure the fluids are all up to date. You said 2 years ago fluids were changed. You did not say how you know that. Also, how many miles since those fluids were changed?

You said you had looked at after the purchase. What did he/she say is needed?

Hello OregonVet! unfortunately the car came with no paperwork. The lady selling it had a divorce in early 2025 and the vehicle was not maintained since that time. She bought another vehicle and it sat for the last few months. It needs a power steering pump and an oil change right away. Also, the rubber boots on the steering components are ripped. The steering seems solid for now, so I would probably regrease it and replace the boots for the time being? The previous did put LED headlights on the car due to living in a deer-rich area. It also has trailer brake control inside. Besides these things , it seems to be stock condition.

Flukedude · 2026-07-25T14:06:42-0400

Joseph Garcia said:
Welcome to the Forum from NH.

Lots of knowledgeable folks here who freely share their knowledge, experiences, and perspectives. Knowledge is power.

I hope that you will become a participating member in the Forum's discussions.

I'm sure that you will love your Yukon.

It seems that your truck received a clean bill of health by the Mechanic who looked at it. If you trust the Mechanic, then good.

As @OR VietVet recommended, get all of your fluids up to date. If you don't have hard documentation that they were fairly recently changed (2 years), then change them now. They are the life blood of your truck.

Take any left over money and put it into a truck account. Add about $300 every month to that truck account, if you can afford it.

Then sit tight and enjoy the truck, until something goes wrong, as something will eventually go wrong. Then fix it with money that you've accumulated in your truck account.

Sounds like a good plan! Engine is running good, do you think I should mess with the AFM in any way just yet?

Joseph Garcia · 2026-07-25T14:32:22-0400

Flukedude said:
Sounds like a good plan! Engine is running good, do you think I should mess with the AFM in any way just yet?

You could use an AFM Delete dongle that plugs into your OBDII socket, and that would eliminate the 'operation' of AFM, by stopping it from operating from the software side. Easy and inexpensive.

Miami-Dade · 2026-07-25T14:41:15-0400

Welcome from NYC&Miami!

Flukedude · 2026-07-25T15:14:02-0400

Joseph Garcia said:
You could use an AFM Delete dongle that plugs into your OBDII socket, and that would eliminate the 'operation' of AFM, by stopping it from operating from the software side. Easy and inexpensive.

Ok thank you! I’ll get on that soon.

OR VietVet · 2026-07-25T17:06:00-0400

Flukedude said:
Hello OregonVet! unfortunately the car came with no paperwork. The lady selling it had a divorce in early 2025 and the vehicle was not maintained since that time. She bought another vehicle and it sat for the last few months. It needs a power steering pump and an oil change right away. Also, the rubber boots on the steering components are ripped. The steering seems solid for now, so I would probably regrease it and replace the boots for the time being? The previous did put LED headlights on the car due to living in a deer-rich area. It also has trailer brake control inside. Besides these things , it seems to be stock condition.

No paperwork. How do you then know that all fluids changed 2 years ago? That would have been before the divorce. Did she just volunteer that the fluids were changed? Did you ask and that is what she said? If it cannot be proven, then assume that it was not done. Like @Joseph Garcia said, the fluids are very important. Reason for p/s pump replacement? Does the pump leak? How are the hoses? Is that something the inspecting mechanic found? If boots on front axles, tie rods and ball joints are ripped, then components likely are needed and not just boots. Again, is that what the mechanic found? Rebuilt transmission proof? How was that determined? IMO, you have an easy way to spend that $1500 pretty quickly....and then some. Trailer brake control means that it was used to tow and that could be why the transmission needed a rebuild, if in fact the transmission was rebuilt. So many times the stock transmission cooling package is not set up for the towing that is done and the rear suspension can suffer excessive wear from the towing. Again, it would be great to know what the inspection mechanic said.

Please don't think I and others are picking on this purchase. There is just a lot of assumptions and that always costs money. Better to know for sure so that money is spent wisely.

randeez · 2026-07-25T17:26:50-0400

welcome

Fless · 2026-07-25T17:36:14-0400

Welcome from the State of Discontent.

Flukedude · 2026-07-25T19:51:36-0400

OR VietVet said:
No paperwork. How do you then know that all fluids changed 2 years ago? That would have been before the divorce. Did she just volunteer that the fluids were changed? Did you ask and that is what she said? If it cannot be proven, then assume that it was not done. Like @Joseph Garcia said, the fluids are very important. Reason for p/s pump replacement? Does the pump leak? How are the hoses? Is that something the inspecting mechanic found? If boots on front axles, tie rods and ball joints are ripped, then components likely are needed and not just boots. Again, is that what the mechanic found? Rebuilt transmission proof? How was that determined? IMO, you have an easy way to spend that $1500 pretty quickly....and then some. Trailer brake control means that it was used to tow and that could be why the transmission needed a rebuild, if in fact the transmission was rebuilt. So many times the stock transmission cooling package is not set up for the towing that is done and the rear suspension can suffer excessive wear from the towing. Again, it would be great to know what the inspection mechanic said.

Please don't think I and others are picking on this purchase. There is just a lot of assumptions and that always costs money. Better to know for sure so that money is spent wisely.

No that’s great! I appreciate your detail. Unfortunately in the private seller used market these days it is tough to get any maintenance records, and more so with this particular vehicle. I’d agree with you it’s probably safest just to go ahead and start with replacing all fluids.
The power steering has a noticeable whine and the seller had an OEM new pump in the vehicle that she just never got to installing. As for the transmission, my mechanic works at a transmission shop, so I’m taking his word for it from the inspection. I think he said he saw a note on the top of the transmission.

I attached a picture of the boot from the rack/pinion

OR VietVet · 2026-07-25T20:37:35-0400

As long as there is no play on the inner tie rods then just replace the boots. The boots are there to protect the seals at ends of the rack. No torn boots on the outer tie rod ends then? No ball joint boots torn?

Glad to be a new Yukon owner!

Flukedude

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