Couple of things an amateur wants to learn bout his 04 Tahoe

[Zubb]

I have a 2004 Tahoe 4.8L 2x4 bought, driven, and maintained excellently in the hot streets of Arizona with 52k miles on it, stock.

Now I want to do a few things to this truck myself, but need a couple helpful people to give me some steps to begin, as well as some tutorials if you are willing to give this willingly able amateur a hand.

I want to (not in this order):
1) Perform my own oil changes ( I know how to do this the best)
~But I need someone to tell me how to get under my truck easier to perform them.

2) Perform my own rear differential fluid flush (Kind of unclear in how to do this but I have the basic idea down already)

3) Transmission Fluid Change or whatever its called

4) Change my Instrument panel to look different because that ugly green light is killing me everytime I drive. I'm a nighttime driver 90% of my day. Whats my options, and easy way of getting to my instrument panel cluster?

5) I saw someone mod their stock air intake to make it to a homemade cold air intake on this forum, and I read someone's reply say they want to do the same but put a screen in between the aluminum flex pipe and pvc adapter to trap large particles. I believe that would be a safer bet, but I want to ask you guys if the whole project would be a good idea in the first place?
I have terrible gas mileage for some reason but I maintain this truck better than my own family. Keep it clean, oil changes all the time, maintain correct tire pressure, bought brand new tires for it even before the old ones wore out all the way, dont carry extra weight like my 3rd row seats or junk laying around, and I have a full warranty with my dealership and everything is fine and excellent condition, just needs the first 3 services done to it that I stated above. Any tips?


And once again, I'm going NUTS trying to find sooooomeone to tell me the best way to raise my truck a bit so I can get under it and work on the services myself. My drive way is angled up a little bit, so when I pull my Tahoe in to park, the front looks up at the sky and the rear is angled down at the ground, but is only a slight angle, nothing extreme. Maybe 25-45 degree angle to ground level.
Can I get some safe tips to getting under it to do an oil change? Unfortunately the oil filter is in the middle of the truck and I don't think I may be able to get under its middle area at it's current height.


Thx a bunch to those who can help in any of these cases. I really would appreciate it.

 

[DefEddie]

If you have a ditch you can straddle the ditch,or if you have a curb you can park on it at an angle with one wheel on curb and one on street/yard..
You could get some ramps or just jack it up(use jackstands) but don't do that on an incline-always safety first.

For trans fluid change,you will want to simply pull the trans pan and put in a new filter.
Without a commercial flush machine then you will only change about 4-5 quarts of fluid that way though.
Never seen a rear end FLUSH,but it's not very hard to simply drop the rear differential cover and add new fluid.
Just pull the cover,let fluid drain out-wipe out any debris if any,scrape the old gasket off and install new one with cover.
There is a plug that your 3/8" ratchet should fit into on the front/side of the diff(I think it's on front/side) simply unbolt the plug(small plug with square hole for ratchet) and fill diff till it is right below the hole or running out.
Don't forget Friction modifier-get it at autozone or dealer.

IIRC-the dash on the newer models is just as easy as the OBS.
key on/engine off-pull gearshift to low gear position.
Pull dash face off,just pull on the seams and it will pop off.
The cluster usually has 4 bolts around (7mm usually),pull bolts,unplug plugs-don't worry about where they go as they can only go one place anyway.
The cluster bulbs are in little plastic plugs and twisted into position behind the cluster.
Your only issue will be finding the bulbs-I paid a premium for simply replacing the ones on my cluster one time from dealer(with a dealer discount even!)
There is a website online you can buy the colored bulbs from,offhand I don't remember it though since it's been years since I did mine in an older truck.

Hope some of this answers your questions maybe.

 

[Zubb]

If you have a ditch you can straddle the ditch,or if you have a curb you can park on it at an angle with one wheel on curb and one on street/yard..
You could get some ramps or just jack it up(use jackstands) but don't do that on an incline-always safety first.

For trans fluid change,you will want to simply pull the trans pan and put in a new filter.
Without a commercial flush machine then you will only change about 4-5 quarts of fluid that way though.
.........

Hope some of this answers your questions maybe.

THX A Bunch DefE! You actually, somehow, pin pointed the exact issues I was unsure about and answered them. Very wise man indeed. I'm thinking to change the whole instrument cluster to something a little more attractive. Especially those horrible green lights that are driving me crazy at this point. Its been 4 and a half years of staring at them while driving at nite and I'm definately going to change them to maybe a blue, warm red kinda colors. I'm thinking about something classy like a silver or white background with cool blue and red colored details. What do you think would be a method that balances out a not too difficult install but a very classy look and feel?


And I noticed you said something about the transmission flush, that there is a commercial flush machine? Im not familiar with that machinery, so I don't know whether it is better to do it myself or spend the $75 to have someone else do it.

As for the oil change, Ive been using conventional cheap oil for sometime now, and used Mobil 1 one time. It was so long ago, I dont know whether I got better results out of it or not. But now Im going to do my own oil change and put some new oil I've never heard about til recently called Amsoil for better mileage, longer oil change intervals, and for the better health of my engine. The weather out here in Arizona went from 75 degrees on Sunday, and dropped to 50 on Monday without a warning. Its been getting warmer as the week progressed. So what kind of viscosity should I stick to when I buy the Amsoil, and if you know anything about it, what do you think of it?

Oh one last thing, whats the friction modifier used for when I drain out the rear diff fluid? Do I apply it on the gasket itself?

 

[DefEddie]

The friction modifier is added with the differential fluid,it is for the positraction in the rear end.

Amsoil is a great product,pricey as hell but worth it if you keep vehicles forever.
You usually won't notice alot of difference out of a different oil,most of the differences will be in things like wearing of parts,sludge breakdown etc... and things that happen over the long term.

Personally,I use motorcraft oil in our vehicles. Partly because it's a multiblend synthetic and an excellent oil and partly cause I basically get it for free from the bulk tank at work.
I also use ford motorcraft filters on my GM vehicles-I only use manufacturer filters-doesn't matter which one to me though.

Stick with the oil weight and viscosity your book calls for,bearing clearances and other things are designed for what the manufacturer calls for.

flushing the system will flush all fluid out and change it for new,it also backflushes the filter so you don't have to change it.
Flushing is better,though I would simply go with the filter change if your over 120k and never had a flush.

As for your instrument cluster,honestly anything you want to do with it would be pretty simple.
Once you get the cluster out you can easily change the front overlay or the bulbs.
Take a look at some of the different aftermarket sites like stylinconcepts or summitracing,they have lots of overlays to choose from.
IIRC,there is something you can buy that will allow you to change the color using a dial to what you want.
Check out Ebay etc.. and you'll find plenty of options.

 

[bahollis]

+1 on the ramps for getting under the truck. I bought a set of 12k lb. rated ramps from AutoZone for $50. Ramps also help you to get the oil drain plug on the downhill side, to get most of it out. If you're correct on the 45 degree angle though, I would not park on the ramps in the driveway. 45 degrees is a pretty steep driveway. Can you get it in the garage? I think parking it on the street is dangerous too if you're going to be underneath it.

http://www.autozone.com/R,1681956/store,/shopping/accessoryProductDetail.htm

Just be sure to lock the parking brake before you get underneath your hoe to do anything. There's more clearance than you think, but it would SUCK SUCK SUCK if it rolled back with you under it.

For my Hoe, I've been using Royal Purple 5W-30, and a Mobil 1 filter. The oil is not cheap, but it's a great product.
Watch some of the videos if you get the chance. http://royalpurple.com/index.html 6 quarts usually costs me about $45.

Good luck

BH