RENAMED!! The adventures of Chase and his 2006 Yukon XL Denali!! Follow along on my travels!

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A week or so later had to run off the mountain for some detail supplies and the San Bernardino pick apart had just put a 2004 quicksilver metallic ESV in the yard. Stopped on my way and the roof rack end caps were in perfect shape. Mine are pretty rough. Swiped them and the yard only charged me pocket change for the caps. Also pulled the under drivers seat airbag module. Still trying to figure out my service airbag warning in the cluster and I think the rely airbag module needs to be programmed. Still gotta sort that out but the roof rack end caps cleaned up nicely with some polish and some ceramic coating. Old caps:

 

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Freshly polished 2004 caps:

 

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Popped them on the truck.

 

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Tires were getting to the end of their life span. Still had some outer tread left but inner lines were getting pretty close to the wear bars. Had good experiences with this second set of defender LTX XL load rated tires. Roughly 31k and a littler over 2 1/2 years with these tires which for mountain driving life is pretty good I think. Looked around FB marketplace and didn’t find any good deals on decent branded tires, and nothing good sale wise on any of the online tire retailers lately so I had the current shop I’m detailing for order me tires. I had really wanted LTX A/T2s the last time I needed tires in late 2023, as I’d had such good experience with the two sets I had before running defenders. but they were out of stock everywhere so that’s why I went with the defenders again in late 2023. No complaints at all with the defenders. But the A/T2s were a bit more aggressive grip wise and looked so much cooler. This time around the price difference from defender to LTX was only 50-ish bucks for a whole set so I told the shop “yeah get me the A/T2s” and I’m glad I did. They ride so incredibly well, are really quiet for an all terrain on pavement and the grip is crazy good. Had to make quite a few day trips off the mountain the last few weeks since the new shoes went on and cornering up and down the mountain has been so much better. So planted in the corners. And HOLY TREAD DEPTH BATMAN!!! The new A/Ts have a CRAPTON of tread on them! Should get a good amount of miles out of these!
Defenders before they came off:

 

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New A/Ts at the shop and the odometer when they went on…. Missed 221,221 photo….. lol

 

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All shined up with dura-coating tire product

 

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Ordered new pads and rotors. Really wanted to do the 2021 4 piston caliper upgrade up front but with tire cost and my Utah road trip looming I couldn’t justify the extra cost on the upgrade. Plus running GMT900 dual piston fronts hadn’t given me any problems and the powder coated red powerstop calipers have only been on the truck about 75k miles since installing those in early 2021. Just couldn’t justify pulling them off yet. So I ordered new powerstop rotors and pads and used a Little Rock auto discount code. Everything it shipped to me in less than a week which was awesome. Rock auto got me all the right parts. As I got into the job and pulled rotors off they really didn’t look like they were out of life. I was kinda shocked. New rotors don’t look that much thicker than the old ones. Probably could have gotten away with doing just pads. But I guess for the sake of peace of mind for the road trip and not worrying about brakes it was worth it. Pads still had a little life left in them too. New not rusty edge rotors are nice though. lol. Rotors that came off are just chillin in the garage. Will hang on to them for now…..

 

[adventurenali92]

Transmission pan has been leaking a small amount very intermittently for a while now. My buddy Luis that used to be a tech at the old shop I used to detail for is now working from himself and he’s a good mechanic. He’s a GM guy too. Had him do a trans fluid service for me last July after getting home from the last Utah trip. Trans pan started leaking not long afterwards and he thought it was because I hadn’t picked up the right gasket, after he made sure the gasket was properly installed and everything tightened up. I went and picked up the OEM gasket and it’s been sitting on the parts bin forever. Realized I needed to handle it before the road trip. Got into it Tuesday morning and it was somewhat of a pain to get dealt with. Not having a drain plug in the pan sucked for dumping fluid out. Finally got the pan out after prying on the shifter cable bracket. Then had to fight to get the pan back into proper position. But Luis was able to help me get it back into proper position so I was really thankful for that. Fluid came out a lot cleaner than I was anticipating and it didn’t have much sludge on the magnet in the pan. Got it all back together and no shifting issues on the drive to Utah Wednesday. Temps were cool all the way too. The gasket was torn which is why it kept leaking from the rear of the pan. New gasket is solid though. And is a surprised that the OEM gasket for the pan was only like 12 bucks from autozone.

 

[adventurenali92]

Left for Utah a bit later than planned as the Saturday-Tuesday before the trip was just chaos with work, house chores and packing and making sure the truck was road trip ready. Had planned to leave midnight Tuesday and drive through the night to avoid traffic and high daytime temps. Must have really needed more than couple hours sleep before the drive as I clocked out about 9:30pm Tuesday night and woke up at 4am Wednesday. Dang it but oh well. Got everything in the truck, checked for leaks on the trans pan, and topped off the oil a touch bit. Head down mountain, stop in Barstow for fuel and a restroom break, and before shutting the truck down for fuel I pop the hood to check the trans dipstick in park. Trans fluid looks good, but I hear a loud noise that I don’t usually hear and I’m like what is that?! I look over and see the oil fill cap still sitting inbetween the airbox and the coolant surge tank where I apparel left it and forgot to screw it back on! I swear I shouldn’t be allowed to work on cars…. Such a dumb mistake…. I can’t believe it ran for hour from big bear to Barstow with no oil fill cap in place, with ZERO issue, good oil pressure all the way, and no oil spewed all over the fine bay!! I’m also amazed I didn’t lose the fill cap!! I got seriously lucky! God definitely had his hand over me for sure! Put the oil cap back on, filled the truck with fuel and hit the road. Plugged the tech2 in and monitored temps and pressures and no sign of any malfunctions. Truck cruised all the way to St. George flawlessly. Stopped in St. George for fuel at Costco and a restroom break and hit the interstate again. About an hour or so later a little north of cedar city, I’m cruising at 80, passing big rigs and slow moving traffic. I come up on a rig, move left and make a pass, just as I get a few feet or so forward of the tractors hood, I hear a LOUD bang and the back of the Denali thumps a bit….. I sorta panic and check the mirrors… what the heck was that?!?? I see tire chunks flapping down the highway in the mirrors….. thankfully it was not my new tires but the rig I had just passed losing what I think was a trailer tire…. I see him put hazards on and slow to the shoulder, I moved back right and dropped speed a bit to make sure he made it to the shoulder safely. He did and looks like a major accident had been avoided but dang that scared me. Never experienced that before. Thank god I passed the trailer when I did as if I’d waited another minute to pass him I would have been directly beside the trailer or behind it when the tire blew sending tire shreds into the Denali. Would have not been a good thing. God was definitely in control of that trip!