Hi, 2 days ago I bought the wife a very nice '03 suburban. So far all I can say is what an awesome vehicle! This is the nicest vehicle we've ever owned, and we only paid 5,500 cash for it. It has 160k miles but is in great shape except for a gash or two in the paint and a tear in the leather seat. We plan on keeping this truck for a while, and so I'll try and stop in from time to time and learn what I can, and help out when possible.

So the only known problems with it are 1) The speedometer works intermittently. and 2) Only some of the speakers work and some popping noises that come from the speakers sometimes.

The person who sold it to me only had it for only 9 months and said the previous owner (who looks like was the original owner according to the VIN check report) had just replaced the transmission. Is the transmission a typical problem for these?

For the speedo problem I already searched and have ordered 6 new stepper motors that I'll be soldering in to the instrument panel circuit board.

Any pointers on what to look at to fix the speaker problems? The head unit is the 6 disc changer type and the speaker grills say BOSE on them. I'm pretty good with electronics but I have to admit I've never messed with anything BOSE.

Again, glad to be here and I'll be around.

 

The transmissions are pretty reliable. The failure was either bad luck or, more likely, lack of maintenance. I do trans maintenance every 15k, alternating between ATF flush and filter change (which also swaps around half the oil.) This is more often than recommended but half my miles are relatively heavy towing.

Congratulations on your purchase. If you can figure out what's going on with the radio, it sounds like you got a bargain!

 

My guess on the speakers would be poor grounds, loose wires, nicked wires and/or poor/corroded connections.

 

I got the parts for the speedometer in yesterday and fixed it this morning. It was a little more difficult than I expected it to be because when removing one of the old stepper motors, I broke a trace on the circuit board. Really had to step up my soldering skillz at that point, but on the third try I got it fixed.

Now I need a little help getting at the factory bose amp. I've read that its in the middle console. Is there any good writeups on getting at the amp? Someone wired up an aftermarket kenwood sirius satellite reciever with a reciever box and head unit display. My guess is that whoever installed it hosed up one of the connections, because there is no sound in the front left speaker. The front right seems to work.

thanks!