Beyond 300,000 miles
Hi Folks, just a quick drop in to update on the CargoMax. Truck is still running strong and has required nothing other than regular maintenance. It will require paint in the spring (on the GM part)...there is no rust but the white paint has started to de laminate from the primer underneath in 6 locations..ranging in size from dime size to an area on the door the size of a Snickers bar. The primer (or whatever it is underneath) is holding up well..the first area has been exposed for almost a year and is still fine. GM touch up paint SUCKS...and has not been effective in covering any of this up. After 350,000 or so its time to make the paint look good again anyways.
All the belt components (idlers tensioner etc) were replaced just after 300,000 as preventative work. At this time the coolant was also replaced as I took the rad out to gain easier access to parts. Front tires still seem to crap out around 70k no matter the brand or model nor how many alignments I do. I gave up trying to figure it out.
With the cruise control switch installed and a bunch of time passed fuel mileage has settled in to the 23mpg range on average..big headwinds still hurt and will drop those days into the 19-20's and some days I can coax 25's out of it (usually running on a bio blend). I have also replaced a few of the LED marker lights, all of them the amber forward facing ones.
While the vehicle wasn't exactly crisp handling when new..I am surprised that it hasn't seemed to age that way. Every other GM I've owned has aged this way, the difference on the Cargo Max might be its the first one I used synthetic PS fluid in and Chevron Delo Extended Life grease from the get go.
Oil samples still come back clean and fine, still on a 20,000 mile service interval. This doesn't surprise me as all my Duramax's have always returned good oil results...it was obviously a design priority for the engine.
Slowed down a bit more so 80,000 miles a year is going to be the max per year now I think..Vacations seem to be getting longer and more frequent...I'm getting old already?
The transmission idea's didn't pan out...waaay to expensive for the payback. If the original transmission decides to give out..maybe then. Fuel mod parts are still sitting on the shelf.
Of note, this summer, the original emissions system parts were all re installed for a trip out west. Except for one of the exhaust temp probes (it failed as soon as it got hot again) the system still worked and the process to covert it back took less than an hour and was done in a parking lot in Wyoming.
Speaking of emissions systems, the tuning that was done to the truck experienced a problem this spring that was altitude related..a few values were not written properly back in 2011 and since it had never seen more than 4000 ft they never showed up..at 7500 ft on I-80 one night things got...weird....to put it mildly and disappeared at 6000 ft. It took us a few tries to root out the offending line of code but it did get fixed. Based on what I'm hearing about the newest Duramax's as far as reliability and mileage..my next one will be left completely stock. Seems like everyone's post 2010 diesels are much better than the 70-09 variants so tuning isn't worth it.
I miss this forum a lot....I hear good things from folks I meet on the road about the 4cyl new Sprinters.
