oldmanchevy

I'm looking at a new van for my (home based) business and have been looking at the 1500 awd and a 2500 2wd. I drive 300-1,000 miles a week making deliveries on paved roads and good dirt roads in rural areas. I 've seen reviews in several places online where cargo van owners have heavily criticised the quality of their cargo vans (transmission, trim, Ac, and brakes appear to be the biggest complaints) or generally complained of overall lousy quality. I already drive GM vehciles and, bearing in mind that very unhappy users will post reviews and satisfied/happy drivers probably won't, can I get any feedback or advice from cargo van owners or how they might advise a potential buyer?

golfer

Drove a 00 Express 2500 cargo van with the 350 for 4 years with regular maintenance.

Pros:

- good power
- decent handling
- acceptable A/C and heat
- always started in very cold weather


Cons:

- problems with brake fade
- problems with power steering
- engine ; all eight lifters replaced at 60k miles
- rear axle seals wore out 50k miles
- hinges for cargo doors seize up regularly
- problem with DRL

These are my experiences.

oldmanchevy

Golfer - would you elaborate on the power steering problem(s)? Did it involve a hose somewhere?

jogodlew

Just wanted to add, I drive a 2003 1500 AWD and it does great in the snow and sand boat launches here in northern Michigan. I have the 8 passenger van with rear heat/AC and that works great. I don't know if the cargo version has rear HVAC.

golfer

There was a high pitched whistle sound( normal use of steering ) when the ambient air temp. was warm to hot. This also lead to a slight and intermittent loss of power assist in the steering. Gm had used a system whereby the power steering pump also provided hydraulic pressure boost for the power brakes. This I believe was also the cause for brake fade issues experienced as well, unfortunately treated that as a separate issue and never connected the two.
The dealership went crazy trying to fix it but couldn't. They had also noticed this issuewith other vans on their lot as well.

The factory engineers had instructed them to do a field modification which involved removing one of the hoses ( I don't recall which )and replacing it with 6 feet of hose coiled up. This even made the shop Foreman chuckle and shrug his shoulders... it didn't fix the problem.

tamboklakitiyan

i have a 2005 express 3500 6.0 engine and at 317,000 miles, the lifters are noisy below 50 mph. runs well at 50 mph or over. am saving to buy a surplus engine or refurbished gm engine. did my oil change every 3500 miles at chevy dealers across southern california. body is a cut-away (14-foot box) - makes it easy to load and unload standing upright (unlike cargo van body where you are crouching). gvw is 6500 but suspensions set to carry 6000 lbs. although i often load 6500 to 7000 lbs of new car tires for delivery to car dealers. never had a problema going thru the weighing scale chp checkpoints. will look for band-aid solution to this noisy lifter problem.