2001 GMC Sonoma 4x4

[Dougnuts]

Last week we lost my 90 year old Grandfather. You all would have loved him. He rarely, if ever, sold a vehicle and he had his own junkyard. His hobby was scrapping metal, so he would always buy little trucks to run around town, hauling scrap back to his junkyard or to load onto his trailer. He lived 1200 miles away from me, so I didn't get to see him but once or twice a year, unless he came my way to visit. He was a GM guy, always cycling through large GM trucks and small trucks for runabouts and the aforementioned scrapping. Sometime in the last few years, he bought this 2001 GMC Sonoma SLS 4x4.

Last weekend, as the family was meeting every day to divide up the estate, my Mom asked me which cars I would like her to try and get. This truck was marked as non-running, but it appeared to be in good shape. Like a lot of other car people, I have begun to appreciate early 2000's vehicles, for their reliability and repairability. We knew he parked it for a reason, but I figured that worst case, I'd tow it home and fix it. Put me down for that one, Mom.

Once the cars were divided up, and I received the news that we got the truck, I enthusiastically pulled around the block (Grandad also seemed to have a proclivity for buying up cheap land), hooked up the jumper cables ( 2023 date code battery) and turned the key.

I was greeted to a huge cloud of dust coming off the cooling fan and a dash that looked like this:

The temp gauge would quickly resolve itself and hitting the trip button revealed that it only had 120k miles, score! I pressed the A/C button and it also works, winning!

I put it in gear and drove it around the block, back to the house. One of my family members was outside, and the look on their face was shock and a little jealousy. I left it idling to charge the battery and wait for the inevitable issue to rear it's ugly head. Why did he park it, what surprise does it have in store for me? Will it be expensive? At least I know I can drive it onto the trailer.

 

[Dougnuts]

This same morning, we had gone to a local Walmart to get some fresh fluids. While we didn't know which vehicle(s) we may end up with, we knew they would be from GM, so we knew which fluids to get.

With that said, let's inspect the Sonoma a bit further. Fluid levels looked good, the oil even looked clean. However, the coolant overflow was a little low and the coolant in the radiator, while full, didn't look very healthy. No problem, I have what I need and will change it out tonight, before leaving tomorrow.

Let's look over what kind of cleanup is going to be required.

Interior:

Bed:

I decided not to worry about the interior, as I had a plan. The bed got cleaned out into a local dumpster. Yes, I reluctantly scrapped the Eeyore toothbrush holder. I drove to a local gas station and added about 15psi of air to each tire.

After dealing with estate items all day, we loaded up and drove the 20 minutes to where we were staying......is that a slight odor of coolant I'm smelling? These 15 year old tires sure do make some noise at highway speeds.

I pulled the truck into the garage and didn't find any coolant leaks, nothing even dripping on the ground. I could smell a little oil burning off the engine, but the underside looked dry. Still winning! I drained and filled the coolant in the radiator and topped off the overflow bottle. FYI, that radiator petcock was not easy to reach! The next morning, I am beginning to feel confident that the truck would make it a few hours, where we planned to rent a U-Haul trailer and tow the truck the remaining 1045 miles home.

 

[Dougnuts]

At this point in the trip, our goal was to make it 196 miles, RoadKill style, to rent a U-Haul trailer in Ogallala, Nebraska. If things went well, perhaps we'd keep on trucking on I-80, where the speed limit was 75mph. The sense of adventure was palpable. I donned my Grassroots Motorsports shirt, for good luck, and we hit the road at sunrise.

We stopped for gas at the nearest station, just to check if the nearly full tank reading was accurate. It wasn't. Twelve gallons in.....I wondered out loud what the tank capacity was. Google said 18.5 or 19 gallons, depending on trim. Great news, but what kind of fuel economy do I get? That's something that I'd have to figure out. We pulled off from the gas station, with the slight odor of coolant keeping my eye on the temp gauge for hours.

We made it to Ogallala, where stopped to eat and contemplate our options. My brother, whose truck we took, has zero experience towing a vehicle, and I only have a little. Did we want to drive across the windy Nebraska plains for our first long tow? We decided to risk driving the truck, against my Uncle's recommendation. We had tools, fluids, and the tow from Lincoln (if we made it that far) would be 275 miles shorter, so we filled up the gas tanks (21mpg), stopped at Walmart for a 12V to USB plug, threw away the old air freshener hanging from the mirror, and set the cruise for just over 75mph.

Edit: At this point, I had my wife call to have the truck added to our insurance, which costs around $30/mo. for liability. That seems high to me, but it's way more palatable than the $150/mo. I had been paying for full coverage on the new Tesla MY Juniper.

 

[2025 deleted member]

GM’s from that era had comfy seats

 

[NORDFORD]

Awesome! I’m sure you’re through already, but I’m in Lincoln and have the tools you could need….

 

[ThundahBeagle]

We dont see enough of these - or the original S10/ S15's - as far as I'm concerned

 

[Dougnuts]

As we sped eastbound & down across I-80, I made sure to top off the tank every time we stopped. I was averaging between 18 and 21mpg, which should net a conservative range of around 324mi., if I achieved 18mpg on an 18 gallon tank. I made a mental note to cap it around 280 miles per tank, just to be on the safe side. I haven't smelled coolant since Ogallala, maybe it was that old air freshener that I had been smelling.

We rolled through Lincoln with no signs of slowing down, so I called my wife and asked her to book us a hotel room in Columbia, MO. As we rolled down I-26, in northern MO, dusk was upon us. As I knew from the night before, the headlights weren't bad, but they weren't great either. Someone had swapped some super-white bulbs into the high beams, but the low beams were super-brown, reminding me of the play scene in Tombstone.

When we reached northern Kansas City, my brother and I stopped for a good dinner and I raised the beam pattern on the passenger headlight. We had over 2 hours left until the hotel, evidence of deer strikes was common, and the Missouri Road Safety commercial on the radio, which was full of deer strike statistics, didn't alleviate my concerns. Thankfully, the raised headlight greatly improved visibility and there were no deer seen on the remainder of that day's drive. For the first time, there was no talk about towing, we were just ready for the last 7 hour pull, and home.

The next morning was rather cool, so I swung the HVAC control to heat and we pulled onto the highway. *Sniff sniff* I'm smelling coolant again. That discoloration on the windshield, above the heater core, doesn't look good. I'm starting to put two and two together.

 

[Dougnuts]

GM’s from that era had comfy seats

They sure are, like a lazy-boy. I was concerned that their comfort wouldn't hold up to a 1200 mile trip, but they did!

 

[Dougnuts]

Awesome! I’m sure you’re through already, but I’m in Lincoln and have the tools you could need….

Thanks for the offer, we did make it through Lincoln! We have family there, but they don't have many tools.

 

[ThundahBeagle]

As we sped eastbound & down across I-80, I made sure to top off the tank every time we stopped. I was averaging between 18 and 21mpg, which should net a conservative range of around 324mi., if I achieved 18mpg on an 18 gallon tank. I made a mental note to cap it around 280 miles per tank, just to be on the safe side. I haven't smelled coolant since Ogallala, maybe it was that old air freshener that I had been smelling.

We rolled through Lincoln with no signs of slowing down, so I called my wife and asked her to book us a hotel room in Columbia, MO. As we rolled down I-26, in northern MO, dusk was upon us. As I knew from the night before, the headlights weren't bad, but they weren't great either. Someone had swapped some super-white bulbs into the high beams, but the low beams were super-brown, reminding me of the play scene in Tombstone.

When we reached northern Kansas City, my brother and I stopped for a good dinner and I raised the beam pattern on the passenger headlight. We had over 2 hours left until the hotel, evidence of deer strikes was common, and the Missouri Road Safety commercial on the radio, which was full of deer strike statistics, didn't alleviate my concerns. Thankfully, the raised headlight greatly improved visibility and there were no deer seen on the remainder of that day's drive. For the first time, there was no talk about towing, we were just ready for the last 7 hour pull, and home.

The next morning was rather cool, so I swung the HVAC control to heat and we pulled onto the highway. *Sniff sniff* I'm smelling coolant again. That discoloration on the windshield, above the heater core, doesn't look good. I'm starting to put two and two together.

Tombstone: great movie.

Amber filter for mood lighting is the 6th best use of whiskey, after
-celebrating
-fishing
-numbing the pain. Any pain
-disinfecting wounds (along with, see above)
-general medicinal purposes (non topical)

Anything else is alcohol abuse

 

[NevadaLover]

Tombstone: great movie.

Amber filter for mood lighting is the 6th best use of whiskey, after
-celebrating
-fishing
-numbing the pain. Any pain
-disinfecting wounds (along with, see above)
-general medicinal purposes (non topical)

Anything else is alcohol abuse

I was always told that spilling or "dropping the bottle" was alcohol abuse.

 

[Dougnuts]

We eventually made it home on the afternoon of the second day. The truck made the 1200 mile trip! Beyond figuring out the heater core, the only other issues identified were that the door speakers aren't working (leaving only the dash speakers) and the ABS module is beginning to fail. The ABS module failing is a known issue to these trucks. Oh yeah, the gas gauge will eventually need fixed as well.

I purposely drove the truck home in as-found condition, filthy, because I had a plan. You see, my oldest son is nearly 13, and he became much more interested in cars a few months ago, nearly overnight. I guess the talk about him driving, coupled with the fun we had owning a Tesla for 3 months (7k miles), had him thinking about what he was going to drive. But first, let's take a look at what we have here:

What was the plan? If I had pulled up and said "this will be yours someday" he would have said "Ohhhh no". But, if I said that I could really use his help, well....you all know how that story is going to end.

All we did was vacuum & dust the inside, and spray off the outside, which really cleaned the truck up. Our next goals are to do a paint correction, and install these parts that I have ordered.

 

[Pacific Northwest yetti]

Good rigs,
You can easily get new stepper motors and solder them in for the gauge cluster. Kits and videos abound on amazon and youtube.
They are a known issue, way cheaper then replacing the entire gauge cluster. And a easy cold day project.

Sorry to hear about your Gpa,

 

[2025 deleted member]

My son is 13- noticing they all have the same lack of fashion sense .😆

 

[Dougnuts]

My son is 13- noticing they all have the same lack of fashion sense .😆

Need a last minute Halloween idea?