Thinking about buying 09 Tahoe LTZ

[Ramsay]

I'm thinking about buying an 09 Tahoe LTZ black on black. 2 owners and looks to be maintained. It has 130k on the clock and the dealer is asking $15k for it.

I checked it out and it drove nice, no weird noises or clunks in the transmission. Has a little bit of surface rust underneath which is standard for its age being a Northeast vehicles. (I would plan on doing an undercoating)

The only things that stood out to me was:
- the dashboard was cracked (The dealer did a little fix by gluing it back together but will possibly still need to replaced.)
- rear passenger window rolls down but not back up. Works from driver side controls (dealer ordered a part to fix it)
- arm rest in rear captain's seat is saggy (found a fix online)
- one rear defrost tab not connected (dealer won't fix but found out it just needs to be soldered back)

Are these are deal breakers?

I've been reading up about AFM issues. Is it too late to do AFM delete n save myself from having the lifters fail?

I've never spent this much on vehicle with this many miles before so I'm cautioning for concern.

Is it a smart purchase or should I find a NBS Yukon Denali or NBS Sierra Denali with similar miles for less money?

TIA

 

[swathdiver]

I'm thinking about buying an 09 Tahoe LTZ black on black. 2 owners and looks to be maintained. It has 130k on the clock and the dealer is asking $15k for it.

I checked it out and it drove nice, no weird noises or clunks in the transmission. Has a little bit of surface rust underneath which is standard for its age being a Northeast vehicles. (I would plan on doing an undercoating)

The only things that stood out to me was:
- the dashboard was cracked (The dealer did a little fix by gluing it back together but will possibly still need to replaced.)
- rear passenger window rolls down but not back up. Works from driver side controls (dealer ordered a part to fix it)
- arm rest in rear captain's seat is saggy (found a fix online)
- one rear defrost tab not connected (dealer won't fix but found out it just needs to be soldered back)

Are these are deal breakers?

I've been reading up about AFM issues. Is it too late to do AFM delete n save myself from having the lifters fail?

I've never spent this much on vehicle with this many miles before so I'm cautioning for concern.

Is it a smart purchase or should I find a NBS Yukon Denali or NBS Sierra Denali with similar miles for less money?

TIA

The dash replacement will be the most expensive of those items, about $500-600 for parts and labor. The other stuff about $25.

As for AFM, it could go tomorrow or last another 130k. What most of us do is turn it off in the tune so it will hopefully last longer. Then when some part finally fails, we do an AFM delete.

Now, is this a 5.3 motor or one of the rare 6.2 Tahoes? The 6.2 Tahoes do not have AFM.

Can you get service records beforehand?

 

[mikeyss]

If you get this one, make sure to save about 2k for the suspension. The Z55 suspension is awesome IMO, but at that mileage and if they are original, they shocks may need replaced. I got all of my replacements through rockauto. Mine has a 6.2, so I didn't have AFM to worry about, but if the one you're looking at has it, plan on saving around 1k to get rid of that system. The other thing I had to replace on mine was the front wheel hubs.

 

[iamdub]

All of those are common issues and if they weren't present now, they likely would be later. They are nothing due to lack of maintenance, just mild engineering flaws with solutions that have been well discussed and documented everywhere, including this very forum.

As Mike mentioned, the suspension may need attention and could be expensive. The most expensive is to retain it with new OE or aftermarket/refurbished parts, least expensive is to bypass it all with standard, passive shock absorbers, etc.

I'd recommend you at least disable the AFM with a plug-in Range module to buy you time. The best method would be to completely delete the system as a permanent solution. Unless you do a lot of flat road highway cruising with very minimal throttle changes, you won't miss it. The best way to disabling it is with a full custom tune since you can have a few other flaws cleaned up to vastly improve it's overall operating characteristics.

For your area and how you described it, the price seems fair coming from a dealer but that also means there's bargaining room.

 

[Ramsay]

The dash replacement will be the most expensive of those items, about $500-600 for parts and labor. The other stuff about $25.

As for AFM, it could go tomorrow or last another 130k. What most of us do is turn it off in the tune so it will hopefully last longer. Then when some part finally fails, we do an AFM delete.

Now, is this a 5.3 motor or one of the rare 6.2 Tahoes? The 6.2 Tahoes do not have AFM.

Can you get service records beforehand?

It's the 5.3 motor. What's the best tune to get?

 

[swathdiver]

It's the 5.3 motor. What's the best tune to get?

I'm well pleased with my BlackBear tune, the best part is the improved performance of the transmission.

 

[adventurenali92]

Blackbear performance can shut down the afm via their tuning service. They can also do quite a bit more. I have my 2006 Denali 6.0 tuned from them and it’s the best money I’ve spent on mods. You won’t regret getting a Blackbear tune. Everything else as stated above is common issues with this gen truck and shouldn’t be cause for concern. For a trick that’s 10 years old now, 130k on the odometer is not a big number. That’s 13,000 miles a year. Not too bad on usage. I concur with the guys statements above about the Z55 suspension setup. It’s likely at 130k miles that it might need some attention. Have some cash leftover to put into it whether it’s to delete it and go with passive or retain it with a like replacement setup. I replaced mine with new electronic air shocks. Was expensive but worth it for the ride quality and I also really like the auto level feature built into the Z55 setup. If it’s got all other service records with it that’s a big plus. Have a mechanic that you trust give it a once over. That’s always a helpful tactic when considering a vehicle of this age.

 

[dnt1010]

I thought the same thing about the rear defrost. Just figure in a new SafeLite replacement window with grid at around 250 bones, the glue solder is just a temporary fix and will just end up pissing you off LOL. On other repairs misc I would make a LARGE allowance in the purchase price for front wheel bearings / Upper and lower control arms / all suspension bushings / brakes / full fluid change outs / new battery / new trans / rebuild AFM etc etc. Probably need to buy at around 10k to get good value and allow for some uhohs on a +10 year old +130k GM Truck. If you have a good spot to work on it and the tools/inclination to do the work yourself then the equation turns more in your favor but it still may not turn out to be a good deal financially speaking at 15k.
Personally I would not consider it for any price over 10k unless a large part fo teh above list was recently done with backup paperwork...........................

 

[08HoeCD]

The defrost tab coming loose from the rear hatch glass is a common issue but easily & inexpensively addressed using the tab reattachment kit from Frost Fighter:

https://www.frostfighter.com/defroster-repair-tab-bonding-kit-2000.htm

I'd be most concerned about the need to overhaul the suspension, including shocks, ball joints, hubs. The cracked dash is very annoying but cosmetic---some might not care much about it, but it would bug me greatly. I'd negotiate replacing it into the deal. Even if it raises your purchase price a few hundred, you would still benefit from putting that issue behind you.

Surprised that the dealer seems unwilling to negotiate on any of this stuff. I'd be just as unwilling to pay that asking price with any clearly significant issues not addressed.

Good luck.

 

[adventurenali92]

Plus two on the frostfighter tab fix! I swapped out my rear hatch glass for an Escalade hatch, to make my esky third tail light mod work the way I wanted it to. The tab on the esky hatch was broken when I got it. While I had the esky hatch off, I used the frostfighter kit and repaired the tab. That was three years ago and defrost tab works still works perfectly!