I had been looking for a replacement tow vehicle, and came across a great deal on this 02 Tahoe Z71. For what I paid for it, I cant really complain about the issues, I would just like to get them fixed.

First, the HVAC blower doesnt work on the first two positions, but blows good on 3 and above. From what I read, this is probably related to the blower resistor. Also, the control panel backlight doesnt work. Where should I start looking?

Next, the rear (barn) door doesnt unlock electrically. It looks like there may be a problem with the contact plungers above the doors. I think this because the lights didnt come on with the rear door open until I played with the plungers a little. Does anyone have a pinout of what these contacts do?

Lastly, the engine has the cold startup lifter tick. It clears up after it warms up, and the truck maintains good oil pressure. I bet the check valves in the lifters are going bad. I will probably replace the engine down the line, but I am not too worried about it at the moment (I will drive this less than 2k miles a year).

Any advice would be appreciated.

 

The cold start tick, I have been told is a spark plug knock that is common with the 99-02 5.3s. Apparently it's not a bad thing, it can be fixed with running higher octane fuel. That is just what I heard, I could be wrong but mine has been doing it since I bought it. The control panel problem, I'm not sure but my switch just started doing the same thing. It only works on level 4 and 5. I'm not too worried about it for now, but eventually it will get on my nerves enough to fix it so, hopefully someone else can help there. I thought that would be just the control panel which I found on ebay for around $30, once again I could be wrong. Hope this helps.

 

Here are some pics

 

Sweet looking truck man. i like it.

 

Nice ride, congrats and good luck with it

Blower resistor is a common failure, as are bulbs in the climate control panel. A couple of mine burned out and I de-soldered them out of the circuit board and soldered in new ones that I matched up at Radio Shack.

Sounds like you're on the right track with the rear door lock problem...if you get the contacts cleaned and working properly and the problem still persists, you may need a door lock actuator, but I'd troubleshoot the contacts first.

The noise that you're hearing upon cold start up may be the famous piston slap that the GENIII is known for...there's a wealth of information about it here and everywhere on the net. It's extremely common and not a problem, just annoying.

 

Mines definitely not piston slap. My '09 has that and this is much worse. I am pretty sure it is lifter related because its a pretty loud knock. It goes away after about a minute of idle. It was probably caused by the oil pump o-ring being bad from the factory.

 

Lifters usually sound like a tick more than a knock...but the oil pump o-rings have been known to cause problems as you mentioned. What I'd do is install a nice cam and heads and just change the lifters while you're in there to know for sure

 

It is a tick, it is just louder than piston slap. My 09 has piston slap, so am familiar with that. My friends new G8 does it too. This almost sounds like a rod bearing, but it clears up in a minute or so. I think I am hearing the pushrods banging around until the lifters get pumped it up. After a minute or so, it is perfectly quiet. It actually seems to run quieter than my 09. I will probably put a PD blower on it down the road, but a new longblock will come before then.

 

Nice
How much did you get it for? I'm actually looking for a 2000-2005 Tahoe myself.

 

I took the door panels off tonight to do a little diagnosis on the speakers. I thought the woofer wasnt working, just the tweeter, because I was only getting high frequencies out of them. Turns out the factory speakers just suck and all of the bass just comes from the subwoofer.

Also, something a little weird happened when I unplugged the rearmost connector on the power window switch (while the front was plugged in) . It made a buzzing sound and the radio came on. WTF would cause this? There doesnt seem to be any problems with the radio or windows, so what was the buzzing noise?