So did the trans shop fix the torque converter lock up solenoid?
I have the same tires on my 2000 Suburban. We have about 10,000 miles on them and you can't see any visible wear on them. My wife's is religious about having them rotated about every 9 to 12 thousand miles and we have been getting 50 to 60,000 miles out of a set of tires. These my even beat that!
Oh and to follow up on Larry's comment about Fords. The 97 and up F150's and Expeditions seem to mostly suffer from the modular engine failure. In cars they last pretty well with routine maintenance, but they are not a good truck engine, are expensive to replace and from what I hear not recommended to rebuild. That being said an Expedition with a 5.8 Windsor engine might be comparable to a Tahoe. Unfortunately you could never do this in California since the Air Resources Board won't let you install an older style engine than the year of the vehicle.
Nice! Thanks for the comments.
So quick update here too since you were asking.
I chatted with Larry more on possibilities of this situation I have. Then took all the theories of what could be wrong and went to my mechanic buddy who has been helping me with this thing.
We hooked up the computer and did a live scan while he was driving it and idling and everything.
Sensors all ready proper. TPS, IAC.. We checked for vacuum leaks to rule that out.. Everything looked good.
Then he floored it off a take off and the thing was pinging like crazy (same sound I had going in 4th gear). He instantly says "yep.. The timing is wayyy too advanced."
So we got back and checked timing. Advanced by about 6 degrees. He backed it down to about 3. Plugged computer back together and drove it again.
Much less pinging. Still SOME.. But it was better.
So he backed it down to about 1 degree and then it drove MUCH better. Out of not wanting to then go too far the other way, we left it here.
Today, I decided to take it on a test road trip. We were going to a birthday party about 30 miles inland, so perfect short trip to test freeway driving.
I still hit a couple times that I could get it to ping when about 40% throttle in 4th gear, but if I then stomped it a little more, it would kick down properly and accelerate.
So I definitely know the trans is all good. It's just a matter of timing.
So we're going to give it another finer tuning hopefully soon and see if I can get it dialed a little closer to perfect place for the fuel I'm running.
Otherwise, maybe I'll upgrade to 89 octane for a while and see if higher grade gas burns better. I'm told it will.
