New to forum- 2018 Yukon XL SLE

[Boiler89]

Hi there!
I’m a recent ford expedition convert and new owner to a 2018 Yukon SLE. 95k mileage. After weeks of searching I found what I thought was the best vehicle in this range after testing many other suburbans, expeditions, etc. This beauty drove the best by far, had a decent service history and felt right. She’ll probably get lightly driven by my wife for her very short commute and hoping she’ll do great pulling our camper around in the summer.

Still nervous about buying previously loved so I did buy a powertrain extended warranty since I know I could be in for lifters and transmission.

But honestly I hope I threaded the needle and found the sweet spot in this unit to beat most of the depreciation and get some juice to squeeze for the next few years.

Hope to learn from you guys and hear some success stories on these vehicles because I always get a tad nervous buying used car. But hey. Still better than forking out 80-90k new. Cheers fellas

 

[tuckerrnr1]

Welcome from Florida. Beautiful vehicle.

 

[BlackBearPerf]

Welcome to the forum from Idaho! Great find!

 

[OR VietVet]

Welcome to the forum from Oregon.

 

[Joseph Garcia]

Welcome to the Forum from NH, and to the right side of the truck brands.

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.

Excellent find!

One very important item that you should consider right from the start is to disable the Automatic Fuel Management (AFM) function, by purchasing an OBDII plugin device to stop the cylinder deactivation process. This 'gas saving' function is an engine killer, and if you are not familiar with this type of device, @Marky Dissod can give you some pointers regarding the specific OBDII to consider purchasing.

 

[Fless]

Welcome from the State of Colorado!

You mentioned short trips -- those can leave the battery discharged and cause more wear and tear on the drivetrain by not allowing it to get up to full temps. The GDI systems can accumulate fuel in the oil. Consider taking the long way...

 

[Miami-Dade]

Welcome from Miami&NYC! Nice find!

@Boiler89 I agree with @Fless take the long way.

 

[swathdiver]

Welcome from Florida! Looks like a great find!

My first thought when you said short trips was like the others, a discharged battery over time. Consider getting a tender or driving 50 miles on the weekend for lunch in another town.

Get that lower temp transmission thermostat ASAP too.

What did you like and not like about the Ford?

As for your screen name, do you work with steam?

 

[Marky Dissod]

One very important item that you should consider right from the start is to disable the Automatic Fuel Management (AFM) function,
by purchasing an OBDII plugin device to stop the cylinder deactivation process.
This 'gas saving' function is an engine killer, and if you are not familiar with this type of device,
@Marky Dissod can give you some pointers regarding the specific OBDII to consider purchasing.

Don't think I'm the authority on specifically which Engine Half@$$ disablers to endorse. This forum has enough experience on which disablers work well.
Fell better recommending an ecm & tcm tune, better bang for your buck, you may never get to fully appreciate everything a thorough tune does;
but all the disabler does is disable, and you may still need to unplug it a week before you get a state emissions readiness test.
The more often you change your oil & filter (if you wait til OLM says 15% left, you're already too late), the further into the future you put off an AFM failure.

 

[Boiler89]

Welcome to the Forum from NH, and to the right side of the truck brands.

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.

Excellent find!

One very important item that you should consider right from the start is to disable the Automatic Fuel Management (AFM) function, by purchasing an OBDII plugin device to stop the cylinder deactivation process. This 'gas saving' function is an engine killer, and if you are not familiar with this type of device, @Marky Dissod can give you some pointers regarding the specific OBDII to consider purchasing.

Thank you! Yes I’m familiar with the issues of AFM. And deleting it is on my list of things to get around to. First is some Woolwax undercoating. It’s a northern truck, (Indiana), but had some time in Michigan. Considering that it’s faired really well with rust but definitely want to punt that rust down the road.

 

[Boiler89]

Welcome from Florida! Looks like a great find!

My first thought when you said short trips was like the others, a discharged battery over time. Consider getting a tender or driving 50 miles on the weekend for lunch in another town.

Get that lower temp transmission thermostat ASAP too.

What did you like and not like about the Ford?

As for your screen name, do you work with steam?

Thank you! Yeah I’ve always encouraged my wife to let our other gdi car idle for a bit before heading out. I do plan on taking the Yukon at least once or twice a week to take out daughter to daycare (about an 18 mile round trip) should this be enough to burn off any fuel accumulated in the oil?

I loved my 04 expedition but it had an old school 2v 5.4 V8. I couldn’t find anything with V8 that wasn’t a torn up old 3V that had 200k. The 3.5 ecoboost scares me at the mileages in my budget.

I got in this Yukon and the moment I fired it up I could feel it had been maintained. Buttery smooth GM V8 purr. Smooth and powerful acceleration and smooth shifting. Way better than any other I had tested GM or otherwise.


The screen name is an homage to Purdue. I’ve been a staff member there for the past decade.

 

[Boiler89]

Thank you all for the participation on this thread! I appreciate the insight on afm and giving the Yukon a long trip or two once in a while.

 

[RoadTrip]

I'm a little late to the party, but beautiful vehicle! Nice find. You are correct that the previous owner's maintenance plays a huge part in its long term health.

As @Fless mentioned, you could get carbon build up with short trips. The 18miles round trip is okay, but once a week spent some freeway time. There are injector cleaners available and there is also a carbon cleaner spray that you can use to remove the valve carbon that may already be there, and then again occasionally in the future. It's easy to do.

I'm glad you got the warranty. It sill be peace of mind during your ownership. Make sure all of the driveline fluids have been changed. If you are going to be towing, change to a lower temperature transmission thermostat.

This site is a wealth of knowledge for all the needs you will have with ownership.

 

[Joseph Garcia]

Don't think I'm the authority on specifically which Engine Half@$$ disablers to endorse. This forum has enough experience on which disablers work well.
Fell better recommending an ecm & tcm tune, better bang for your buck, you may never get to fully appreciate everything a thorough tune does;
but all the disabler does is disable, and you may still need to unplug it a week before you get a state emissions readiness test.
The more often you change your oil & filter (if you wait til OLM says 15% left, you're already too late), the further into the future you put off an AFM failure.

I had hoped that @Marky Dissod could give you a more definitive recommendation on a specific AFM OBDII device to start you on this AFM delete journey, but that's OK. Other folks on this Forum will give you a more specific device recommendation, so that you can be relieved that your motor won't self-destruct, as a result of the OEM AFM process, which has been determined not to be in your best interests.

 

[Joseph Garcia]

Thank you! Yes I’m familiar with the issues of AFM. And deleting it is on my list of things to get around to. First is some Woolwax undercoating. It’s a northern truck, (Indiana), but had some time in Michigan. Considering that it’s faired really well with rust but definitely want to punt that rust down the road.

Absolutely a good priority in preserving the longevity of your truck, and there are a number of processes that claim to deter the actions of rust on your truck. Any one of them will work and will serve your immediate needs, but the reality is that you will have to perform this undercoating protective application a number of times over the life of your truck. Not a problem with that, as long as you are diligent on determining when the next application is required.

 

[Marky Dissod]

I had hoped that @Marky Dissod could give you a more definitive recommendation on a specific AFM OBDII device to start you on this AFM delete journey,
but that's OK. Other folks on this Forum will give you a more specific device recommendation, so that you can be relieved that your motor won't self-destruct,
as a result of the OEM AFM process, which has been determined not to be in your best interests.

I've no personal experience with plug-in disablers; my experience is with ecm & tcm tuning, which I consider a FAR better value even for the most conservative drivers.
(To be clear, my tuning experience was with INCREASING how often and for how long the engine would half@$$.
Despite changing oil & filter every 2600-3200 miles, the part-time V4 started dragging on the full-time V4 to the point of considerable oil consumption.)
Other TYFers with plug-in disabler experience will surely tell their tales if asked; or you can search 'AFM disable' or such

 

[swathdiver]

Thank you! Yeah I’ve always encouraged my wife to let our other gdi car idle for a bit before heading out. I do plan on taking the Yukon at least once or twice a week to take out daughter to daycare (about an 18 mile round trip) should this be enough to burn off any fuel accumulated in the oil?

I loved my 04 expedition but it had an old school 2v 5.4 V8. I couldn’t find anything with V8 that wasn’t a torn up old 3V that had 200k. The 3.5 ecoboost scares me at the mileages in my budget.

I got in this Yukon and the moment I fired it up I could feel it had been maintained. Buttery smooth GM V8 purr. Smooth and powerful acceleration and smooth shifting. Way better than any other I had tested GM or otherwise.


The screen name is an homage to Purdue. I’ve been a staff member there for the past decade.

Yes, that ought to be enough time to burn off fuel in the oil.

I used to drive those 5.4 Tritons and hated them. I knew a kid whose grandfather bought him an old city truck with one, the kind with the coil instead of wires and they would break off in the rocker cover due to age and water would get down there, what a mess. I miss the old 302/351s! You're right about the little V6s, everyone knows doing that does not make for an enduring engine in a truck doing truck things.

Keep up with the maintenance, keep the fluids clean and run it on the severe service schedule and she ought to provide years of smiles and service.

Purdue Boilermakers, got it!

 

[OR VietVet]

Yes, that ought to be enough time to burn off fuel in the oil.

I used to drive those 5.4 Tritons and hated them. I knew a kid whose grandfather bought him an old city truck with one, the kind with the coil instead of wires and they would break off in the rocker cover due to age and water would get down there, what a mess. I miss the old 302/351s! You're right about the little V6s, everyone knows doing that does not make for an enduring engine in a truck doing truck things.

Keep up with the maintenance, keep the fluids clean and run it on the severe service schedule and she ought to provide years of smiles and service.

Purdue Boilermakers, got it!

My neighbor has a 2006 F150 with the 5.4. They are known for water dribbling down from the cowling ledge and dropping on to the coils.

 

[fozzi58]

You will spend nearly $500 for a handheld tuner (Diablew, Edge, et al). It will be just under $1k for a mail order tune and you will get WAY MORE for your money. Consider using @BlackBearPerf or BenTunePerformance for mail order tune or someone local in your area.

Not sure what engine\trans combo you have but most likely since its an SLE its probably the 5.3/6L80 combo. Read up on torque converter replacement and "flipping the pill". You can search the transmission posts here. You may literally save the life of your transmission.

Also nice color I approve of the Esky tail lights.

 

[NYBRD]

I have an afm disabler plug-in I can send ya if your interested, I had a lifter go at 75k so now im cammed with no AFM , nice car man