Been having some annoying issues for the last several months. The newest as of last week was my temp gauge pegging. Never had any overheat issues in the 4-5 years I've had it. Checked the coolant level Friday and couldn't see anything in the radiator Topped it off with the hose because it's what I had handy. As a plus, my heat now works for the first time since I've had it lol.

The main/original issue was hard starting in the mornings, especially after a lot of rain, and with that for the last several months was bad stumble off idle. And engine light randomly on and off but solid on for about a month now.

Had similar issues a few years back with the starting and stumbling. Ended up being a bad distributor cap. Did cap , rotor and wires and ran great for roughly two years but is back to the issues again.

Secondary issue when I made the appointment was back flush the heater core as the heat has never really worked all that well. See above for the coolant level. I had checked it several times over the years and didn't see anything wrong.

Made the appointment last Monday and truck has been running fine ever since of course lol. The light even went off Wednesday.

So I dropped it off and gave them the new info. They just called....
O2 sensor bad and oh yea, intake gasket leak also

Fix intake leak, O2 sensor and coolant flush and fill $1200.
Wanted them to do spark plugs as well but that was another $200....something on top of that I can technically do them myself, I just really didn't want to. Oh well.

What make and model truck?

quote:

Originally posted by MRMATT:
What make and model truck?

Yea... ^^^^
and year, engine, trans and milage while you are at it!

2001 GMC Sonoma V6 4.3??, auto trans, 4 door with the half bed lol. Can't remember millage off hand tho.

Not truck related, but do you remember the time when your town's water tower was being repainted, the painters stopped midway through covering the name, and left it that way for a couple of days? I used to live in Hartland.

Sucks about your truck; seems like a lot of money for an O2 sensor and intake gasket.

Well, at least it wasn’t a head gasket or, even worse, bad head.

that seems really high. did you take it to a dealership?

the downside to an older vehicle is the 'suggested' services list when you take it somewhere is as long as your arm. its a 20 yr old vehicle after all Blue Book for probably $3K...

i like independent mechanics who are willing to work on known issues vs. a laundry list of 'suggestions'. i hope you get it sorted out.

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quote:

Originally posted by trapper189:
Not truck related, but do you remember the time when your town's water tower was being repainted, the painters stopped midway through covering the name, and left it that way for a couple of days? I used to live in Hartland.

Sucks about your truck; seems like a lot of money for an O2 sensor and intake gasket.

LOL I don't remember that. I actually work in that business park. I'll have to ask my boss about it. They have been there for quite a while

Just got another call and apparently a EGR tube.... something or other is also rusted out. $200 part and is bad enough that it can't be reinstalled without falling apart completely. So now at $1400 It's coming out anyway to pull the intake so not really any extra on the labor at least.

It's not a dealer. It's a local small shop about 8-ish minutes down the road from me.

thumper yup, at least it's not worse lol. The price..... does seem high but apparently it's 6-7 hours just for the intake alone.

The rusted EGR means they busted it during disassembly , which may be common. I think intake gaskets were common on those.

Six plugs for $200 does seem steep to me unless they have to jack up the engine or something to get to them. I would negotiate that down. “Since you are already in there, how about changing the plugs for cost plus $20 for labor.” Any good shop would agree, assuming they are accessible and easy to change. I can do plugs in ten minutes on every car I have owned , although some cars are longer and more costly.

quote:

Originally posted by cparktd:

quote:

Originally posted by MRMATT:
What make and model truck?

Yea... ^^^^
and year, engine, trans and milage while you are at it!

What color is it?

That quote seems a little high, especially since a lot of the stuff is already going to be out of the way anyway when they do the intake gasket. I'd see if you can negotiate it down some. If not, I guess you could shop around, or just chalk it up to the cost of owning an older vehicle.

I will say I used to own a C1500 W/T with the 4.3 and it was a great motor. Loved that truck. Rust and hitting a deer finally killed it, but that thing ran perfect and was a lot more light and nimble than the 2500HD that I replaced it with.

You may want to consider having a new fuel injector spider assembly installed while its apart. The injectors are around 300.00 for ac delco. Those injectors seem to start acting up at around 150k miles.

The injectors are inside your two piece intake manifold. Bad injectors will also cause your issues. Good news GM redesigned intake gasket to seal better.

New pickup - $500 a month or $6,000 a year.
Keep old truck running $1400 or $116 a month amortized over a year, cheap payment to keep it going.

The idea to replace the injectors while it's apart is a good idea, how old is the water pump and belts, tensioners etc.

If you can, fix it up now while it's in there and apart.