2020 Suburban Premier w/ 250,000 miles. 11,500$

[LSCALADE]

Hello folks, I am an owner of 2 3rd gen Escalades, both old both with over 200k miles, I know them well and they have been great partners.

I have an opportunity to buy a 2020 Suburban Premier with over 250,000 miles. The vehicle was driven 42k/year and received regular oil changes about once every 7000mi but religiously followed and done at the same oil change place.

Seems to have all the maintenance windows done, such as coolant flushes, transmission flush etc.

Trans was replaced at 130k miles.

Now with such high millage what would you reccomend, is this a vehicle that is on its last leg? Due for 2nd transmission? Lifters? Looking for advice on anyone with high millage and the type of repairs you have had to do.

Seems to drive ok, no noises, but the millage worries me a little bit. Will be going to scan it with a scan tool to look for any potential hints of problems to come.

 

[Joseph Garcia]

Cost? Purchase price may be a significant factor in the decision process. We've got a number of 200,000+ miles members here, and they will chime in on the maintenance/wear questions.

 

[LSCALADE]

Cost? Purchase price may be a significant factor in the decision process. We've got a number of 200,000+ miles members here, and they will chime in on the maintenance/wear questions.

Forgot to include that, about 12,000 out the door with fees. Seems to me like a good deal but it could be hiding some upcoming costly maintenance. Of course, the dealer does not have much info on its background other than it was driven a ton.

 

[Loki223]

When the tranny was replaced, were there any upgrades or just a stock tranny and new torque converter? With that many miles there are defintiely things wrong with it, or a mountain of paperwork. not say it's bad, but if it's truly been well maintained i wouldn't think twice about it. I see these things run to 400,000 miles pretty regularly. When we bought ours i wanted cheap, and close to 150k miles. Turns out the cheap ones are usually 3-400,000 mile trucks. Took some time to find the a 15 in that price range with only 160k miles on it, and it needed some work which i expected. Being a 2020, you get all the features with all the trim cut already. Look at the suspension, see if it's still running active suspension or if that was removed for passive. Very common to see the active stuff removed due to cost, but it's a much better riding set up IMHO. If everything about it is clean with no issues, i wouldn't think twice about it. the worst thing for a vehicle is for it to sit and not get used. Seems like you found one that really liked being used.

 

[LSCALADE]

Drove it. It’s solid, needs motor mount on the left side. Tail light leds are out and has codes for catalytic converters. So I’ll be picking it up in the next few days. It was owned by someone who only used the driver seat a put about 160mi a day and traveled quite a lot and changed the oil religiously. Did not spare cost on dealer maintenance either. Trans and TC replaced at 130k. Decided at such a sharp discount it’s worth it for me. This is also a model pre covid so it did not see cost cutting like the rest of them past 2020.

 

[ReaperHWK]

Hope it works out and you can fix things yourself. That’s a ton of miles!

Also did he clean the guage cluster with a Brillo pad?

I dumped my 2015 with 170k miles because I was repairing things more than I wanted. Final straw was when the torque converter was going so I traded it in while it was still going. Tranny shops didn’t want to do just the converter they wanted to do the whole tranny with that many miles so I was out.

 

[CMoore711]

You didn’t mention that it’s an RST Premier.

Doesn’t have the 6.2/10 speed combo or the 5.3/6 speed?

 

[LSCALADE]

You didn’t mention that it’s an RST Premier.

Doesn’t have the 6.2/10 speed combo or the 5.3/6 speed?

I had no idea that they made an RST (blackout package) and this is what this is 5.3L with 6spd FFV, the 6.2L is awesome but paying for premium and getting 12mpg is not fun. And I think for my driving which is super chill the 5.3 has plenty of power and feels about the same as the old escalade. Now my BTR cammed escalade is a different story but that thing will stay as the fun toy. Im quite impressed by the Suburban and if a tranny decides to fail, so be it. I have a CTSV converter that I can drop in it if that day comes.

I know how to tune for shudder with HP tuners so that will be happening next. The idea is to not lug the converter with high load and low RPMs, so increasing enable speed for the TCC and then unlocking it past 50% engine load does the trick, feels like a half gear downshift and that is while you stay in load and as soon as you return the throttle to cruising speed it locks up. Fixed my shudder on my escalade but it took 9mon of revisions and learning.

 

[Loki223]

Yeah, our 15 has plenty of power to move and get out of it's own way or overtake someone. I guess i'm getting old, i don't feel the need for a bigger faster engine anymore, i'd rather be comfy and get better fuel economy. I do keep going back and forth about retrofitting a 10 speed into the burb though....doubt i'll actually do it, but who knows

 

[Bigburb3500]

Yeah, our 15 has plenty of power to move and get out of it's own way or overtake someone. I guess i'm getting old, i don't feel the need for a bigger faster engine anymore, i'd rather be comfy and get better fuel economy. I do keep going back and forth about retrofitting a 10 speed into the burb though....doubt i'll actually do it, but who knows

I support the 10-speed retrofit. If my 6L90 goes out it’s only a grand or two more than a full rebuild these days. Finding a good, low mileage 10L80 is really easy and the 10L90s are becoming more available.

The only difference from what I was told on installing the 10Ls is that the top bolt is left out because there is a “missing” hole for perfect alignment but does not affect anything.

 

[LSCALADE]

Got it home it’s amazing. There were 6 more parties that were interested in it while I was signing the paperwork. Drives amazing and there are zero issues with it so far.

 

[Loki223]

View attachment 476252

Got it home it’s amazing. There were 6 more parties that were interested in it while I was signing the paperwork. Drives amazing and there are zero issues with it so far.

Watch my thread and i'll have some ideas for you to make it feel like a 2026. I'm thinking i should be able to get the new radio installed this weekend. That and the rear suspension, but that's maintenance, not updating. The headlight upgrade is waiting on some secondary stuff to ship. if i'm pulling the bumper i'm doing everything i want behind it now, rather then doing it again. lol


Also, kinda jealous your actually getting snow. Halfway through january and no snow here. Just feels wierd

 

[LSCALADE]

All fluids are good, trans fluid looks fresh, oil looks great, no leaks, I am a little bit surprised.

On the list of things to do:
- Diff Fluids
- T Case fluid
- Trans fluid drain and fill.
- Oil change with Valvoline Restore n Protect. 5W30 from now on, may even jump to 5W40.
- Fixed the burned out tail light. Quoted 775$ for tail light and 1.5hrs of labor so near 1000$ for tail light. It was a burned out fuse.
- Mud flaps on order.
- New key fobs 40$ on amazon.
- Snow tires ready to install.
- It was polished before I picked it up so it will get ceramic coating.
- Bi LED headlights, I will build a set for it, maybe upgrade the tail lights we will see about that.
- Wireless CarPlay for sure coming next.
- 4 piston brakes will be swapped over from the escalade.

And that's the plan for now, let's hope we can hit 400k in the next few years. This is a heck of a car for this $$$$$.

 

[Loki223]

Esky tail lights are a nice swap. Installation was less then an hour in my garage, very easy DIY with basic hand tools. Hardest part is running the optional backup light bar, that requires removing all the plastics on the rear hatch to run the wires. Besides that, a very worthwhile set up

I got mine from DDP Motorsports down in Texas, great people and supporting them since they are a small business, so the money spent there helps feed their family

 

[Loki223]

Also, i should be doing my radio install this weekend. nearly a 16" screen with wireless AA and carplay. Pretty slick set up and should look factory

 

[Miami-Dade]

Hello folks, I am an owner of 2 3rd gen Escalades, both old both with over 200k miles, I know them well and they have been great partners.

I have an opportunity to buy a 2020 Suburban Premier with over 250,000 miles. The vehicle was driven 42k/year and received regular oil changes about once every 7000mi but religiously followed and done at the same oil change place.

Seems to have all the maintenance windows done, such as coolant flushes, transmission flush etc.

Trans was replaced at 130k miles.

Now with such high millage what would you reccomend, is this a vehicle that is on its last leg? Due for 2nd transmission? Lifters? Looking for advice on anyone with high millage and the type of repairs you have had to do.

Seems to drive ok, no noises, but the millage worries me a little bit. Will be going to scan it with a scan tool to look for any potential hints of problems to come.

I have 204K miles on my 2016 Tahoe right now. Just got back from NYC with it and plan on going back in April for a month then back again in July for a couple of months if nothing changes. Have no plans on selling it.

Get oil changes every 5-6K miles. All fluid changes are done on schedule.

When the lifters go out will worry about it then. Will most likely just fix it as the newer Tahoe's are off the table for me.

A forum member on here has over 400K miles on his 2015 Tahoe or Suburban. Have not seem him here for a while.

 

[LSCALADE]

Swapped the tires for the winters and this thing is a beast in the snow now.

Also disabled the DOD and did some trans tweaks.

 

[thefrey]

Great find. Majority highway miles makes a big difference.

My 2013 with 220k has I think around 7400 hours and yours has more miles and a lot less hours. I would almost venture to say that this probably has less wear than a lot of other daily driven high mileage engines.

Did you end up getting any $$ off the selling price?

What's your plans with the cats? I think my cats quit recently. I don't have emissions but trying to decide what I should do.

 

[LSCALADE]

Great find. Majority highway miles makes a big difference.

My 2013 with 220k has I think around 7400 hours and yours has more miles and a lot less hours. I would almost venture to say that this probably has less wear than a lot of other daily driven high mileage engines.

Did you end up getting any $$ off the selling price?

What's your plans with the cats? I think my cats quit recently. I don't have emissions but trying to decide what I should do.

I ran 3 bottles of Chevron Techtron Injector cleaner with PEA through it on a half a tank of fuel, and then did a code reset, and it has not come back since, so whatever it was doing etiher corrected itself or will come back but i have already put 500-600miles on it and no codes so far. Pretty much everything that was wrong with it was caused by a battery replacement so lots of lost communication codes, which all cleared up.

I have new spark plugs and wires, and fluids that I am going to put in it next. Disabled the DOD, it still seems to get 18-19mpg without trying. I also noticed the V4 mode ran very briefly here and there it mostly sait in V8 mode so I wont be missing it.

I got it for 11,000$ they were eager to sell it but not much below that as they broike even on it with the repairs they did to it.

 

[adventurenali92]

Good looking truck! Glad you were able to make a deal! Wagoneer wheels for winter wheels is a good choice! Lol. Don’t ding up those nice RST 22s in the snow