2018 Yukon XL 85k New to Me. Best Practices?

[texasyukonfl]

Hey all,

Purchased a 2018 Yukon XL SLT this past weekend. Great price.
RWD
Gas V8 5.3L ECOTEC3 with AFM

New to these vehicles other than a 2018 Suburban my mom drives that i have worked on a little bit. Looking for best practices with the new vehicle.

Anything would help, main focus areas are:
What can i absolutely not do myself (not a trained mechanic but not bad with cars)?
Service intervals and best maintenance plan.
Known issues/resolutions
Best preventive maintenance
is the service manual worth it?

 

[Big Mama]

Being 7 years old the first thing that comes to mind is changing all fluids including rear differential, trans, and cooling systems.
An oil catch can, AFM/DFM and auto start/stop would be next. They have obd plug ins that’ll do both.
At this age hubs, tie rods, and end links are probably getting tired too.
If it was owned in a northern state I’d closely inspect underneath for corrosion.
More folks will chime in but congratulations on your new rig. If cared for it’ll last you a good long time.

 

[Basecamp]

Hey all,

Purchased a 2018 Yukon XL SLT this past weekend. Great price.
RWD
Gas V8 5.3L ECOTEC3 with AFM

New to these vehicles other than a 2018 Suburban my mom drives that i have worked on a little bit. Looking for best practices with the new vehicle.

Anything would help, main focus areas are:
What can i absolutely not do myself (not a trained mechanic but not bad with cars)?
Service intervals and best maintenance plan.
Known issues/resolutions
Best preventive maintenance
is the service manual worth it?

I have a 2018 Suburban LT, I just bought the compl

Hey all,

Purchased a 2018 Yukon XL SLT this past weekend. Great price.
RWD
Gas V8 5.3L ECOTEC3 with AFM

New to these vehicles other than a 2018 Suburban my mom drives that i have worked on a little bit. Looking for best practices with the new vehicle.

Anything would help, main focus areas are:
What can i absolutely not do myself (not a trained mechanic but not bad with cars)?
Service intervals and best maintenance plan.
Known issues/resolutions
Best preventive maintenance
is the service manual worth it?

I have a 2018 Suburban LT, I just ordered the full service manual today. I was going to order the paper manuals, but about fell out of my chair when I saw the books were $475 and the shipping was $690. Working on a circuit issue so I needed it quick. Ended up buying the doc on usb stick. It’s like traveling back in time. An .asp website, to order a pdf stored on a USB thumb drive that they snail mail at inconceivable markup on shipping and then throw in an extra $9 for handling. Total for the pdf is $410.

 

[LSCALADE]

I bought mine just 3 weeks ago, its 2020 with 248k miles. I immediately swapped the engine oil for 5W30 Valvoline Restore and Protect and have gone 2000 miles now and I can tell the dip stick varnish is starting to dissapear.

Oil changed in all systems, trans, T Case, Front Diff all can be done at home.

Get OIl catch can they do help a lot. AFM disabler and go drive it. Run some BG44k fuel system cleaner it helps a lot to clean up any hick ups in the engine due to dirty injectors.

 

[Big Mama]

I bought mine just 3 weeks ago, its 2020 with 248k miles. I immediately swapped the engine oil for 5W30 Valvoline Restore and Protect and have gone 2000 miles now and I can tell the dip stick varnish is starting to dissapear.

Oil changed in all systems, trans, T Case, Front Diff all can be done at home.

Get OIl catch can they do help a lot. AFM disabler and go drive it. Run some BG44k fuel system cleaner it helps a lot to clean up any hick ups in the engine due to dirty injectors.

I always wonder what folks do to put on roughly 50-55k miles per year. I’m old enough to remember you never bought a car with 100k miles. It used to be the car outlasted the drivetrain. Now it’s the opposite.

 

[LSCALADE]

I always wonder what folks do to put on roughly 50-55k miles per year. I’m old enough to remember you never bought a car with 100k miles. It used to be the car outlasted the drivetrain. Now it’s the opposite.

Some cars can be trashed at those miles. In my case this was the owner of a company’s personal car and I guess he used it for travel. The long highway miles where the engine is in perfect operating temps for a long time and the transmission sits in one gear while racking up the miles is the sweet spot. It got religious oil changes about every 5-6 weeks and had about 6000mi at those intervals. Chassis is in perfect shape, and the truck was sent to the dealer for all the major maintenance intervals so it saw no cost spared.

Once I took it on a test drive I knew right away this will be one to buy especially at the steep discount it offered. I’ve already replaced all the fluids and the rear shocks and I’m going to see if we can send it to 400k. Has it for about 3 weeks I’ve already done almost 3000miles myself.

 

[Big Mama]

Yeah, you’re right. People just plain drive more these days. Unfortunately the manufacturers still keep the warranty at 10-12k miles per year. I wasnt questioning yours, just a general question. I just bought a ‘25 Sierra 2500 and even those only come with a 12k miles per year average for the warranty. Crazy.