So I am going to look at two different used LMLs... I have never bought a used diesel before, only bought a brand new one back in 2013 but had to get rid of it. Question is... is there anything I need to look for when looking at these 2 used LMLs. One is a 2011 Denali which is the one I am mainly looking at and it has 70k on it... the other is a 2014 with 95k.
My bad on bothering all of you I just dont know much about diesel and I am learning but not sure what to look for in a used one. Any input would be awesome...
They are used from a GM dealership if that makes a difference.
The LML is a good truck. Emissions equipment is not ideal, but that's with any newer diesel. Only big thing with the LML's is the CP4 high pressure pump. They have been known to fail and usually take the whole fuel system when they do fail (injectors, pump, fuel rails). They do offer CP3 conversion kits that have been proven to be a more reliable pump, around $2K. The biggest thing with the CP4 is making sure you run good clean fuel. I'd recommend running an additive that helps with water separation and lubricity. Also i would highly recommend a lift pump for filtration and the fact that it "pushes" fuel to the CP4 pump so the CP4 pump does not have to work as hard to supply the motor with the fuel and also work on pulling fuel from the tank. Most guys run Air dog, Fass, or kennedy.
Ok, also is there anything I should be looking out for when I go look at the truck in about an hour or so? I mean is there anything that I should physically be looking for on a used LML?? it is a 2011 with 70k...
Maintenance records. Dealer can print out history of anything done by GM dealer from day 1. I've always found that pretty much an owner will maintain a vehicle the same across the board - meaning they're not going to detail the exterior/interior and forget about oil changes. This is generally speaking of course, but you can tell if a truck has been beat on.
Alright I will ask for records... and to be honest it looks like its in perfect shape from the photos.. I know in person will tell the whole truth but it looks almost perfect in the pics.
LMLs are great trucks. The early emissions DEF tanks were a real problem when they came out. Lots of sensor issues. If I were to look at a LML I would make sure it was not running an aftermarket tune. The CP4s are not very reliable especially if they are an aftermarket tuner. Very hard on the pumps and you shell out a CP4 you are looking at big bucks to clean things up, replace the injectors and all the hard lines to the injectors. There are two mods that I would look at, a CP3 conversion kit and a good lift pump to feed the CP3. If your state doesn't require any diesel emissions checks I would delete the DPF and program the computer to do away with it and the regen mod. The LML are strong trucks and will last a long time if you know what to do to them. The emissions stuff really hurts these diesels.
Also, if wheel well flares were added I will guarantee you have rust above the rear fenders. Anyone trying to sell one of these trucks will do this to hide the rust issues. Very common on this body style. I know dealers that will discount the trade in then put these flares on to get full value on the truck when they sell it. You would be surprised how often that happens. D
I just bought a used lml a couple of months ago. Biggest things I looked for were, rust, maintenance, and making sure it was 100% stock. Maintenance means it was taken care of and that's what makes a diesel last. The stock part of that usually assures it hasn't been beaten to death. Then the rust for obvious reasons.
Hope that helps. Take your time and really crawl all over the vehicle. Look at rockers, cab corners, rear fender Wells, check the undercarriage. All those things will help you decide which truck to buy. How do ball joints look. It is a leaker etc.
My decision would be heavily weighted towards the 14.
The early LMLs had more issues that were resolved by 14. Also there is an updated/upgraded CP4 I understand ad it may be in the 14, but it is certainly not in the 11.
This was talked about in another thread. There is no "updated" CP4 out there. There is the CP4.1 & the CP4.2. The difference between the 2 pumps is the amount of shafts in the pump. CP4.2 has 2 shafts for larger diesel engines & the CP4.1 has 1 shaft for smaller diesel engines like cars. If it were my truck and I planned on running it til the wheels fell off (which is the plan for my current truck) I would get rid of the CP4 and put a CP3 pump in.
If you're stayin emissions compliant i would look into S&S fuel 50 state legal CP3 conversion. If you plan on removing the emissions equipment i would look into a CP3 conversion with a sportsman pump. The sportsman pump allows more fuel to be had over 3k rpm.
May I add my "second" to the excellent advice you have seen in here. I couldn't be happier with my LML - bought it around 80,000 miles.
Yes, ANY modern truck will be a "do-it-yourself" kit till you get it the way you want it. As you have seen elsewhere, even "bone stock" these things give outstanding, reliable service forever.
With the qualifications you have been warned about elsewhere in this 'thread'...its a gamble…....you will most likely win that gamble if you do NOTHING to the truck..just drive it and change the oil regularly.
I personally elected not to gamble - as much reliability as I can get...I go for...…
So I blew four grand getting rid of the gamble on the CP-4. Eight to ten grand or even more, depending on how much damage a failed CP-4 can do, where you are when and if it fails...etc, if you lose that gamble.
And another four grand on...well....let's just say I hate those cute little fuzzy-chinned bunny-wabbets…..and I cant wait to see the end of the world in ten years...…
I should exlain my use of my truck may be different than yours, and I may live further out in the wilderness than you do.......my primary use of my truck is long trips on the Interstate, pulling about 11,000 lbs. of trailer..... where going up grade pulling that load.... and having the thing go, without warning, into "limp mode" may be o.k. if you are short on excitement....but...well.....
My co-worker has an 11 Denali with 250k on it. I drove the truck last week and was amazed how solid it drives for the miles and the fact that he contract plows around 35 driveways with it (in Syracuse NY) The truck is tight and has no creaks or rattles. It does need a pitman and idler arm though.
The truck is deleted and has a cp3 on it and he has it Rust Checked every fall.
Well I went ahead and bought this bad girl!! It only has 70k on the dial and as far as I can tell it is 100% stock other then an added rear DVD Alpine system. I used to have a 2013 and this drives just like my brand new one I bought back in 2013. I will attach some pics! Sorry they were at night and its been crappy weather here to get any other pics.
Thanks guys!!! SOOOOO guess what! The night I bought her, the sales girl and I were in the truck setting up that damn Onstar trial crap and when talking to Onstar lady she said she would put us on hold to send a signal to the truck... Well while we were on hold the truck just shut off and said service stabilitrak control and I was thinking ok that was odd... I thought well maybe somehow this onstar lady killed the truck or something idk.. So then today I contacted the sales girl as she is a super close friend of my fiance, I asked her if they had found the second set of keys yet and to let me know when she does.
So I then got a message back that the other set of keys were over in the service Department AND in fact my new truck had a open ticket on it still for the truck dying and she had told me that service had done some stuff but didnt know if it was fixed for sure. So she wanted me to get it out today and drive the truck cause she wants whats best for me of course.
So I start the truck up after sitting in the garage for a day or two. Seemed to take a little longer than normal on the glow plug light to tell me its ok to start it but thought ok well whatever, so then I pull out of my drive and stop at the corner to let is idle while I set up my set perfect and mirrors and all that stuff since I havent done all that yet and then...... all the sudden it starts idling rough almost like a like my Camaro that has a big Cam in it and then also feels like its missing. So I am sitting there and it almost dies and shuts off completely but someone pulled up behind me so I had to take off. So on the way to drop it off at the dealership it just didnt feel right. Also it had a nasty smell almost like MAYBE to much diesel was being dumped or something idk but was not a good normal diesel smell as I love the smell of diesel!! I also dont remember my 2013 Denali smelling like that when it would do the DPF burn off.
Not sure what to think about all this. I mean I know they will make it right and I wont have to pay for a dang thing but does anyone have any idea on what it could be?
Unbelievable that the dealership was selling that truck when they knew it had an issue as you stated "service had done some stuff but didn't know if it was fixed for sure". I'd be gettin my money back or making damn sure they fix it and give you a rental. SMH
Yeah I am going to make DAMN sure they fix it and they gave me a new 2020 GMC for now to drive. So if they cant fix it or dont fix it to my liking I will be doing something cause I am pretty sure I could get a lawyer involved with this, with them selling me something that wasnt fixed but I am not sure as I am not a lawyer.
I will make sure I keep everything updated on what is going on with it. I just am just wondering what is wrong with it cause otherwise the truck is like brand new shape so I am really hoping that they can and will fix everything that is wrong with it.
All other variables aside, the 14 is a more reliable truck. I’d never buy the first run of a truck model. I bought my 14 in 2016 with 60k on it and have had zero issues with the DEF or anything else on it.
Good luck with the '11 if nothing else I'd demand an warranty to cover it for at least a year to cover unknown condition. Like you I'm on my 2nd D'max bought '05 2500 CCSB 4x4 new put 170k miles with minimum problems other than running warm when towing a 38'TH in Southwest installed a Banks Ecomind Power pak Cold air Intake, Speed brake and AFE turbo inlet only reason I sold after 10yrs was I needed more truck for pulling 40' 18k# triple axle TH. 2nd is '15 Sierra 3500 DC SLT 4x4 DRW only a few issues (oil upper pan leak) all warrantied after 60+k miles all stock except Banks I 1.8, Bilstien 5100S w Sumo bump stops and AirRide bags. I bought GM extended warranty in case CP4 takes a dump. YMMV.
So nothing to really update other than I wanted to thank you because I told them I wanted a year warranty weather they "think" they fixed or will fix the problem or no. So thats all I have to update. I will let everyone know things as soon as I do. I like to keep post this up to date for others who MIGHT be going though some shit like this.
So, I have a question for anyone willing to play the guessing game. Y’all know more about diesels then I do so I figured I would ask and see if any of y’all have any ideas.
The issues with this new (to me) 2011 GMC 2500 Denali truck is that before I bought it, the service department had an open ticket on the truck that I was not made aware of. Since a good family friend was the salesperson, she was trying to find the 2nd set of keys and found them over in the service department two days after I bought the truck. At that time she found out there was a open ticket for the truck dying. The service department said they did something but wasn’t sure if it fixed it and it didn’t.
So, the day I bought the truck I drove it around and nothing seemed odd or not working and loved how it only had 70k miles on it. Then later that day as we were waiting on all the paperwork and everything that goes with buying a truck it sat and it was a very cold winter day. As they were working on getting everything ready my salesperson took me out to start it up and do the OnStar stuff in the truck. While sitting in the truck that day waiting for the OnStar person to send a signal to the truck, the truck just shut off and on the DIC said something like service stabilitrak or something similar. At first of course I thought well did the OnStar lady send the wrong signal and kill the truck, just a thought.
So, two days later when my salesperson found the keys and found out that there was an open ticket, she got ahold of me right away. She wanted me to take the truck out and drive it around to find out if in fact the truck was ok. So I jumped in the truck and turned the key and waited for the pig tail glow plug light to go out, which I thought took longer than it should being that it was kept in the garage. I started it up and no issue and I pulled out of the garage. Once pulled out of the drive and got to a stop sign, I sat there for a while as I thought this would be a good time to get my seat all positioned the way I want it. As I was sitting there it started to idle like it had a big cam in it like my Camaro does. While sitting there having the whole truck shake it almost died but someone pulled up behind me to I had to move. Almost felt like it was missing or something, but I am not very familiar with the diesel engine.
I then called my salesperson right away and told her it is defiantly not running right, as I had a 2013 and it never once did anything like that. So my salesperson said bring it in if I thought it could make it so away I went to the dealership. On the 20 min drive to the dealership it started smelling odd like maybe burning to much diesel or something, again not familiar with diesel but I know my 2013 never smelled like that. I like to drive with the exhaust brake on to just help with slowing down without using the brakes and try to save the wear and tear on them. So, since I had the exhaust brake enabled when I got into the town that the dealership is at, all the sudden the DIC said exhaust brake disabled. Again, on my 2013 I never had anything like that happen.
So I dropped the truck off and got a loaner truck in the mean time and I have no idea what could be causing all this weird shit to happen. If anyone of you that know much more about diesel engines and the LML have ANY idea what could be wrong I would love to hear, even though I know it is hard to know for sure.
Thanks!
I feel for you ,they need to be upfront with you and let you know what is going on, explain things to you. If they are a respected dealership ,they will make it right , and stand behind your purchase.
Alright everyone so here is what I got done. I sent an email to the General manager of the dealership last night and he responded very quickly and they are going to fix whatever issues is at hand AND the dealership is going to give me a 2yr 24k mile power train warranty on top of fixing the current issue.
I think this is a very good deal and considering the price I got it for but I would like to know what you take is. I personally think a 2year 24,000 miles warranty is great.
They should print out everything that was done on truck at any GM dealer since day one. If previous owner went in with a "noise" it should have been documented. Make your decision from there, or negotiate from there. I wouldn't agree to their 2/24 offer without seeing maintenance record. That will tell you if it's a garage queen or not.
After reading all of the above posts, I'm with Redwngr - Get your money back, buy a truck that has less or no problems. Otherwise, I think you're in for a big headache after the 2 yrs warranty is up. BTW, most used trucks considered Certified Pre-owned have a 2 yrs 24k warranty. I'm 2nd owner of my truck which I purchased from a dealer who provided a 2 yrs 36k warranty with the 2 years of free maintenance. Back then, my truck only had 26,000 miles on it.
I just sent the general manager an email asking for all records on the work that has been done to the truck to see if in fact this is a truck that has had nothing but issues. This truck since it is a 2011 and had 70k miles I dont think that it qualifies for the requirements for being a Certified Pre-owned. This is what I found on the internet "GM Certified used vehicles must be 5 model years old or newer and have less than 75,000 miles".
Ahh, that makes sense - for whatever reason, thought I read "2014" - I'm old.
In any case, it (truck) started off as a minor headache which hopefully doesn't become a full blown migraine. If you do decide to keep the truck, you're on one of the best forums to obtain all kinds of help.
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