Chevrolet Forum - Chevy Enthusiasts Forums - Express, Savana & G-Series Vans

I need of a competent, honest shop/mechanic

Bixy — Sat, 16 May 2026 19:38:27 GMT

Hello everyone - Can anyone recommend from personal experience, a good shop in S. Orange County, CA for my Chevy Express? I'm a little wary of shops that "specialize" in everything. Lots of unethical shops out there too that don't think twice about ripping women off.

Thanks in advance.

unknown hose

Crankor — Fri, 15 May 2026 10:46:29 GMT

While I was switching out spark plugs on the passenger side, I was fighting with one of the spark plug wires and after finally getting it off I noticed a long hose leading from what looked like the engine bay somewhere to about the length of the valve cover just under the spark plugs. I was in a rush to put things back together but didnt see anything that immediately looked like it was connected to and assumed maybe it was a drain for the ac?

Well after I got the plugs back in I started getting a noticeable misfire ( there was already a leaser exaggeraed one before)every so often and not sure if it was related to that or if my coils are just on their way out. Its a 6.0. I didnt think to take a picture of it but hoped someone may know what one im talking about

Tire size

urwuis — Thu, 14 May 2026 21:09:54 GMT

Good afternoon! I have a 2024 Express and looking to upgrade tires and wheels. I will be leaving the suspension stock. Can I run 265/75/16 without rubbing. 8 inch wheel. TIA!

4WAL ABS bleeding on OBD-1 vans (93-94-95)

William Kisselstein — Thu, 14 May 2026 19:06:03 GMT

I just went through a huge hassle because after replacing a line between the ABS unit and the brake hose I got a bit of air into the Kelsey-Hayes ABS unit on my 1994 G20.

You have to cycle the solenoids to get all of the air out. Parts of the system do not flow during normal use, but if they get air you will have a very low pedal.

You can mess around with a pair of special tools and bleed the unit manually (working blind under the van as bleeders are on top of the unit), you can track down an early diagnostic tool to try to do it - I had no luck accessing with an OTC 4000E even with an ABS cartridge in it - but there is a much, much easier way.

The same paperclip trick as one uses to pull codes, except you connect terminal A to H, which is bottom and to the left. It will be the only one towards the left side of the connector with a terminal in it. Connecting them will make the unit cycle just a bit. If you leave it connected, the ABS light will flash any codes in the system. Just like with the ECU a 12 is normal. Cycle it 4 or 5 times and that should be enough. It will have a good pedal again compared to previously.

Once you cycle it, bleed it again and it should be good to go. If you're using the Harbor Freight vacuum bleeder or a similar device, have a helper make sure the small reservoir (rear wheels) stays full, it doesn't hold a lot and you don't want to accidentally empty it and have to bench bleed the master. Mostly because 90% of the time that's probably going to mean replacing the lines from the master to the combo valve.

I struggled with this through the OTC and a MAC 2500 "brick" (which has some other problem as it won't connect and stay powered on) only to find out from Grok on the X app this was possible. Why it did not come up in Google or other searches I have no idea.

This is only needed if you have the 4WAL ABS unit. The 2-wheel ABS you can gravity bleed or use a HF vacuum bleeder on pretty easily.

Changing gear ratio in computer

UnderwaterStroke — Wed, 13 May 2026 02:27:44 GMT

Has anybody changed the rear end gearing in a current generation express?
I have a �24 3500 extended with the 6.6 and the 6L90. It has about 50k on it now and I really want to change out the rear end for a 4.10 instead of the 3.42.
All 50k has been pulling a very oversized load weighing in at 10k. It would be great to get the rpms up and use more than 4 gears. That is the only thing this van is used for. It tows 100% of the time.
Before I order the ring and pinion set, has anybody attempted to have the ECM/TCM reprogrammed with a different ratio?
I know it was easy enough with the old 6.0 but not 100% with the new ones.

2008 GMC Savana 1500 AWD vibration at highway speeds

acwmn3 — Tue, 12 May 2026 15:28:27 GMT

Hello all,
I have come to the end of my patience and frustration and am hoping someone out there has had the same experience and can point me in the right direction with this issue.

I have a 2008 GMC Savana 1500 AWD with 145,000 miles. I just purchased it so I don't know the history but it is overall in really good looking shape so I had no reason to think it was abused.
Here are the highlights, I'll go into the story further below.

-Vibration started out of nowhere at 50 mph. Bad vibration, like unsafe.
Replaced both front hubs, control arms, tie rods, stabilizer bar links, upper and lower ball joints, aligned. They also added a bit of fluid to the transfer case.
This changed the vibration and made it a lot better. Now it only happens above 70 or so and is not as bad.

-Brought back in. Found the rear yoke was seized in the transfer case. Everything rotated ok but it wouldn't come out of the transfer case. Had a rebuilt transfer case put in, and used rear driveshaft as they had to cut it to remove it from the transfer case.
-I thought it was fixed, didn't notice the vibration but it was winter and I had studded tires on it so the road noise was a little loud. Come spring I put on the original tires. Vibration came back, or never went away. Feels the exact same to me but mechanic thinks it is different.
-Brought back in. Mechanic thought the tires were "feathered" and that was the problem. Bought new tires, road force balanced, all good. Vibration continues.

Mechanic wants me to bring it back in to keep trying to diagnose it. I'm done with this shop now though. I am now $8000 into fixing this and I really can't afford to keep throwing parts at it. Yes, all the parts they replaced were worn and had issues, but I really need to fix this specific issue.
I am thinking-
-Unbalanced drive shaft as it was used so no idea if it is balanced.
-U-joints weren't replaced, so maybe that?
-Rear wheel hubs
-rear axle maybe bent axle shaft or flange
-rear brake drum imbalance or bent

Any other ideas?

For those of you that want the whole story or maybe just so I can vent.....

Purchased the van from a small dealer in utah, basically sight unseen. I know dumb but it's hard to find the AWD vans. It looked clean and had a good carfax. Spent most of it's life in Arizona and Utah. Flew in and looked at the van and it looked good. In really good shape, no rust, interior is excellent. No obvious reason to not purchase it. Obviously I will now have a mechanic to a presale inspection but I didn't. So I start driving home. 500 miles into the trip, out of no where a bad vibration started. I thought it was just road noise from a bad road. I was starting up a mountain pass and the roads aren't great. After a few minutes, I can't stand it anymore and am thinking there is no way this is road noise. So I pull off and look around. Nothing obvious other than it looked like there was a spot on the wheels where some weights were at one point and were no longer there. So I'm thinking great, some weights flew off and it's just out of balance. Meanwhile weather gets worse and highway closes. So I find a hotel. Next morning is Sunday, nothing open, so I find some wheel weights at an auto parts store and try slapping some onto the same spot where it looked like they fell off. I start down the road again, no change, still bad. I need to get home so no other option but to get off the highway, take side roads and keep my speed below 50. So the 3 hours that were left on my trip turned into 8 more hours.
I get home and I'm still thinking and hoping that tire is out of balance. So I take it to a tire shop. They call me back and say they can't work on it as the wheels have spacers on it and they won't even touch it due to liability reasons. So I get an uber back, pick it up and take it home. I'm thinking I'll just remove the spacers and bring it back. I take off the tires and realize they are not spacers, they are adapters. So I go on FB marketplace to find some proper wheels. I find some for $700 dollars that came with studded winter tires. Great. Put those on, no difference.
So now I don't know what the issue is. I bring it into a top rated mechanic. My old work had a lot of these express AWD vans for their fleet and the owner would only bring our vans to this mechanic, he also used to work there. So I'm thinking this is a good place to go. They diagnose the front hubs, control arms, tie rods, stabilizer bar links, upper and lower ball joints, and had it aligned. They stated some of these were very very bad. All of that cost $4300. Now I work on my own vehicles often. But I went to this mechanic because I figured they would diagnose it correctly, fix it, and I'd be done as I had no idea what was wrong. I would have replaced all of these things over time myself to save some money normally.
So they say it is fixed. I pick it up and get on the highway to make sure. It is better, but now once I get above 70 it returns, although not as bad. So I immediately bring it back and say it's not fixed. After awhile they believe that the rear yoke that connects to the rear driveshaft is seized in the transfer case and that is causing the problem. They cannot remove it. It is supposed to slip out and then down to remove it. It won't. So they say that I need a new transfer case and rear drive shaft. Okay... Another $3400 and they cut out the drive shaft and replace it and the transfer case. Great.
I pick it up, test drive it, I think it's good. Now I don't drive it much as it was going to be our road trip van. I took it up to the mountains to ski, I didn't notice anything. Come spring, I put the original tires back on, non winter ones. We take it on a 3 hour trip and the vibration is back, or never went away and I just didn't notice it with the short trips and the studded winter tires and the added road noise. I don't know...
I bring it back in because the transfer case has a warranty and they wanted to check everything over after 500 miles. I tell them the vibration is back, or never left. They agree it has a vibration but they they it's different this time. They think it is the tires. They are no name cheap tires that came on the van with the purchase and they think there is "feathering" on the tires and that could cause the vibration. So I get new tires for $1100. No change. They also roadforced balanced them to ensure the wheel was okay. Meanwhile it's getting warm and I figure out the AC doesn't work. So capped off the rear as that is a likely problem with leaking, replaced every component upfront and got it working. Also in the middle of all this, I go to title and register it and am told the title is not the most current one. After many calls back and forth I get the correct title from the dealer. The dealer also refunded my $1500 for the massive repairs I had to do which I know is very uncommon and helped a bit, but not really.
So I get the new tires, get on the highway, no change. Vibration is still there. Then out of no where it sounds like I have no muffler! I get home and see that the pipe going into the muffler is disconnected, like the weld just gave up. No rust... I don't get it. So I have ordered a replacement to put on. I also had a squeaking belt so I replaced both belts and idler pulley.
So yeah... thats the story. I'm sure I'm forgetting some other things.
Would greatly appreciate any help or ideas.

How to bench test these lights?

neatchevy — Sat, 09 May 2026 08:43:01 GMT

Hello,

These lights were pulled off my chevy express 2015 2500. I did not pull them off, PO did. He gave them to me when I bought the van. I want to see if they work. How can i bench test them? I couldn't figure it out on charm.li

light

new transcooler 03 Savana 1500 195K miles unknow service history

the Brain — Tue, 05 May 2026 15:36:41 GMT

new transcooler 03 Savana 1500 195K miles unknow service history
planning to use this van as primary tow vehicle, even though the 04 express 3500 has the 6 litre engine
this RV van weights in at just over (empty holding tanks) 8100LBs she tows good but I believe the lighter 1500 will a better option, plus I can see out the rear windows for backing up.
I can backup looking out the driver window for getting lined up then the mirror for completing the back up but am used to just looking out rear window.
here's the oil trans fuild that dripped out the radiator appears burnt but does have a tad of redness image.

plan to pump out an replenish w/ new nurcon6 an replace filter.

new trans cooler front image the trans return line is on bottom not sure if I have it backwards or if it makes a differnce sense the aux cooler is much lower that the radiator?

rear note bypassing the rad. note the fuel injector type clamps (much stronger than (worm gear hose clamps are for wennies),opposite side of orginal flared tube.

prior to cooler install the fluid appeared clean an red on the dipstick otherwise I would have pumped out before cooler install dam.

auxillary cooler 26,000 lbs 15 1/2 x 10 x 3/4 Transmission Oil Cooler kit. image

4L80-E dipstick hitting tran pan

Toe-Knee — Sun, 03 May 2026 03:18:06 GMT

Hello to all I am new to this forum I have an inquiry about the dipstick hitting the bottom of my 4L80E transmission pan before fully inserted into the tube. Anyone got an easy fix for this? I guess I'll just drain the fluid again pull the pan down with my reusable gasket and mark the point where it's fully inserted into the tube and even with the pan to casing plane. My thing is I'd like to ask is anybody ever cut the end of this dipstick off so it didn't hit the pan to try to get a good reading I realize the cold markings are down there at the bottom of the stick but I ain't doing any good unless the reading is from the pan up.

2000 Express 3500 Sporadic shifting, speedometer goes up to 70 and staysthere, ABS on

Eric Kothe — Mon, 27 Apr 2026 21:06:33 GMT

Hey

On my 2000 Express 3500 7.4, it will shift randomly, the speedometer seems normal in first gear, but then whatever gear it shifts into next it will climb to 70+mph. Antilock light comes on after a few minutes of driving. Getting a burning smell after driving for 10 minutes or so.

It was running perfectly normal when I last drove it before the winter.
Put a new VSS in, the two front wheel speed sensors seem good, Fuses seem good, wiring seems intact. Oil and Trans fluid are clean.

Any ideas?
Thanks!

Alternator wiring harness upgrade

jamesm113 — Fri, 24 Apr 2026 21:06:53 GMT

Considering upgrading from the 105A alternator wiring harness to a 145A alternator.

I understand you need to upgrade the harness to GM# 84090494: https://chevroletforum.com/forum/exp...52/#post491773

My question- how do I know if my harness was already upgraded or not?

There were two fusible links labeled 8.5mm, and the 3rd cable (not a fusible link) measured 10.9mm diameter.

2009 express cutaway displaying low voltage

Yycmobiletires — Thu, 23 Apr 2026 15:04:21 GMT

Howdy. I have an 09 cutaway 3500 with a Duramax in it, and a few months ago my instrument display panel started showing lower then normal voltage, but my cts is displaying normal system voltage as well as a meter (13.5-14.5). As time went on, I started having problems with my cruise control, then eventually my signal lights and cab light/dimmer switch.. now it displays 9v or below (the gauge is resting on minimum), cruise doesn't work at all, no signal lights etc. my system voltage is still normal at both batteries, grounds are good at both batteries, me and a friend spent a few hrs looking into it but we can't figure it out. We've checked all the basics including pulling the instrument panel and we still have 14v ( and everywhere else in the truck, both batteries, alternator, fuse block, everywhere as verified by a meter) at the back of that. I'm suspecting a corroded to **** engine bay fuse box since it doesn't look the best, or maybe an issue with the bcm... Anyone ever ran into this that could help me find the smoking gun? Thanks!

Express steering wheel cover question

dankellyweir — Wed, 22 Apr 2026 11:17:54 GMT

I really like the factory steering wheel cover on my 2012 Express but it's badly deteriorated and I'd like to replace it.
There are countless aftermarket covers available, can anyone weigh-in on one paticular item that they are very happy with?
I THINK I'd like to keep it similar to the stock one but open to change if others have discovered the change to be better.
Preparing to spend the moth of June exploring the NW.
Thanks!

Cross member Dimple Alignment

jjgonz8band — Sat, 18 Apr 2026 22:29:03 GMT

I'm installing the driver's side suspension after putting in all new bushings and ball joints in a 1980 Chevrolet g20.

The lower control arm has a cross member with a small hole on one side meant to go into a stud on the lower control arm cradle.

I tried my best to rotate the cross member so that the hole would line up with the stud, yet when I go to install it I can't tell if it's lining up, here is a picture

Any ideas, on how to make sure the hole and stud align and go in?