Top High Mileage Issues 2007-14 GMC Sierra 3500 Truck

In this video, we're going over some of the things that you should look at or check if you have a vehicle with high mileage. This happens to be a 2007 to 2014 GMC Sierra 3500 HD.

Let's start with the battery, it's over on the passenger side. And if the battery is over five years old, it's probably about time to replace it. They really don't last that long. And if you have corrosion on it, or if you check the terminals and the terminals are loose, you're gonna wanna address that. To replace the battery, take this plate out. There's just four bolts that hold it in, use a 13-millimeter socket, take that out of the way. Always disconnect the negative side first, and then the positive when removing the battery. There's a little bracket down below there, you use a 13-millimeter socket to get that off as well. Pull the battery out, put the new one in. When installing the battery, make sure you put the positive side on first and then the negative side.

While we're over in this area, let's talk about the air filter. The airbox is located right here. There's four screws. To take those out, you're gonna use a T25. Pop that up, take the air filter out, put the new one in. Make sure you clean out the airbox as well. If there's any leaves or debris in there, you wanna get that out. Make sure there's nothing on the mass air flow sensor you can see right into there, and see if there's any leaves stuck on that. Make sure you get that out of the way as well.

Now, let's talk about fluids. The coolant is located right here. There's no radiator cap, make sure you take this off when the vehicle is cold. And you're gonna use the appropriate coolant for the vehicle. You wanna use a 50/50 mix and never take this off. Make sure the coolant level is up to that line when the vehicle is cold. If you're gonna replace the coolant, you wanna drain it out and put new coolant in. If you just drain and fill it, you probably wanna do it a couple of times to get most of the coolant out. Otherwise, you're only gonna get half of it out. You have your transmission dipstick right here, you wanna check this while the engine's running. And it's a good idea to check it while it's hot. There is a hot line and a cold line. But it's a little bit more accurate when you're on the hot side.

And if the fluid looks dirty or if it smells bad, the fluids gonna have to be changed. But if it smells extremely bad, you probably have internal transmission damage. And that would have to be addressed. You just add it into the dipstick hole right there. And line this up and lock it back down. Your dipstick for your oil is located right here. Pull that out while the engine is not running, make sure you're on level ground. And then you can check to see the condition of the oil. If it's dark, probably needs to be replaced. And you want it to be in between those hash marks. Somewhere more at the top right there.

Oil fill cap's right here and states what kind of oil to use in your vehicle. Power steering fluid is located right here. And check this while the vehicle's off. And there's a full cold and a full hot. So, have it somewhere in between those two lines. And if the fluid is extremely dirty, it's probably a good time to replace it.

And the brake fluid, the reservoir is right here. You can give it a little shake just to see what the fluid level actually is, especially if the whole tank looks a little dark. And you wanna check that, make sure you wipe down the cap before you take it off. And it says what type of brake fluid to use. And there's a min-max line on the side. Max line's somewhere around there, and min line's further down. And if this is about two years old, it's a good idea to change the brake fluid or flush it out.

And washer fluid's located right here. Just top it off with your favorite washer fluid, you will be all set.

You wanna check this ground strap and make sure that it hasn't broken off or it's not gonna crumble in your hand like this one. That's gonna give you some weird electrical issues. So, it goes right here and then down behind the engine block right there. There is another ground strap that goes to your hood. That should be right there. And this one's broken on this one. This one's not as crucial as that other one is.

And you wanna check this area for the valve covers leaking. You may see oil dripping down on the exhaust. So, it's a good idea to replace that valve cover gasket if that is the case. If you're looking in this area and you take a look at the exhaust manifold, sometimes the bolts actually break off the exhaust manifold. It's pretty common. This one's actually broken way in the back there. It's kinda hard to see. But that's gonna need to be extracted and then replaced.

And it's a good idea to replace your spark plugs and wires, and they're fairly easy to change those. It's four on this side, four on the other side.

Take a look at the serpentine belts. See if there's any cracking. If there's any cracking, you're gonna have to replace it. Or if you notice that it is squealing or squeaking a little more than normal, then it's gonna need to be replaced. Also, the tensioner could be causing that, especially if you have high mileage, it's a good idea to replace the tensioner. Also, check the AC belt and tensioner. A lot of times the tensioners are weak on those AC belts and those belts will fly off and then you're gonna lose your AC.

Take a look at your wiper blades, make sure they're not fraying, make sure the ends are not coming apart. And they're pretty easy to replace. Most of them you just squeeze the two tabs underneath the backside here and they fold out. These blades are a little bit different. You just push on these tabs. And this slides out like this and it slides down. But very similar, slide the new one in, and lock it down. Do the same on the passenger side.

You can check the front suspension, make sure everything's nice and tight. Raise the vehicle up a little bit, and put your hand on the tire here and here. Give it a shake side to side. Make sure there's nothing loose like an outer tie rod or an inner tie rod. A lot of times on this vehicle, it's pretty common to have inner tie rod ends go bad. And then from the top and the bottom. And that'll tell you if the hub is bad or sometimes the upper ball joint. To check the lower ball joint, we have videos specifically on how to check load-carrying ball joints. You need to support the lower control arm and use a pry bar, pry up and down on the tire.

Take a look at your brakes, make sure you have plenty of pad material left. You can see in the caliper, there's a little window right there you can see at least the inboard pad there. The outboard pad, you're gonna have to look through here or from the front. While you're here, take a look at the hoses, see if there's any fluid leaking, see if there's any dry rot in the hoses. These are made of rubber, so if they're pretty old, they're probably gonna need to be replaced at some point.

Take a look at your shocks, see if there's any fluid leaking out of the shocks. Or if you notice that it seems a little excessively bouncing while you're driving down the road, that could be from the front shocks or even the rear shocks.

While you're underneath the vehicle, take a look and see if you have any leaks. These transmission cooler lines is a common area for leaking, and same with these oil cooler lines. Then you can see the power steering pump, right there you can see the bottom of that, see if that's leaking. And same with the oil pan. Sometimes you'll find that you have a transmission fluid leak around the transmission pan and you would drop it down, put a new seal on there, and put it back up. You probably wanna replace the filter while you're doing that. Take a look at the fuel lines, make sure they're not leaking. These are pretty rotted away, these should be replaced. And same with the brake lines. Brake lines are all along the frame up there. And a common area for the brake lines to leak is behind the fuel tank. If you notice that you have any type of brake fluid leaking from behind the fuel tank area, it's that line that goes over the top of the frame.

You can check out your U-joints on the driveshaft. Just grab the yoke and the driveshaft and just try to rock it back and forth, see if there's any play there. A lot of times these will squeak while you're going down the road, you hear a squeak, squeak, squeak, squeak, then most likely it's the U-joints. And you also can get a vibration. Sometimes these come in around 45 miles an hour, it is a severe vibration, not like a tire vibration. So, check those out.

And if it's been a while, you could service the rear differential. There's actually a drain plug on this one which is kind of nice. Not a lot of differentials have that so you can drain the fluid out. Make sure you take this fill plug out before you take the drain plug out though. Just in case you can't get that out, you don't wanna drain the fluid out and then not be able to fill it.

Take a look at the frame all along the bottom of the frame, see if there's any major rot that needs to be taken care of. If you have any holes, you can stick a screwdriver through. That needs to be taken care of. Another area for rot is these rear shackles, see if these are rotted away before they actually break. So, it's a good idea to check those.

So, those are some of the things that you should check out on your GMC Sierra 3500 HD. If you enjoyed this video or it helped you out, make sure you subscribe to our channel, ring the bell, turn on all notifications so you don't miss any of our videos.