I had trouble starting it when the engine was warmed up. It was under warranty so I took it to the dealer. They said it was the Fluid Sensor, but that wasn't covered under the warranty. I had them replace it anyway. That fixed the problem.
The Fuel Pump went out at 99000 miles. Just before the warranty expired. That would have cost me $1000.00. They said I should change the fuel filter every 30000 miles instead of 60000 miles like the book says. The filter gets plugged up at about 30000 miles and this puts extra strain on the Fuel Pump and it can burn out the pump.
One of the rubber boots on the front Half Shaft leaked grease so I looked in the repair manual to see if I could fix it myself, but it says you have to remove the brake assembly and the torsion arm, the steering arm and of course you have to have special tools to do it. I took it to the Dealer and they gave me a reasonable price of $130.00. They got half way through it and told me the bearing in the Half Shaft was shot. I asked them if it could be rebuilt and they said no. It had to be replaced with a new one. To make a long story not so long, it cost me $700.00 to replace the Half Shaft with a new one. When the other Half Shaft started leaking, I did some investigating and found out that you can take the old Half Shaft to a Auto Parts store and exchange it for a rebuilt one for about $100.00. I also took a good look at the Half Shaft and front end and it looked to me like it would come out without taking the front end all apart. I tried it and sure enough it came out. All I had to remove was the shock absorber. Don't believe the repair manual.
At about 147000 miles, I noticed the steering was acting funny when I would make a sharp turn. It would jerk toward the direction I was turning about half way through the turn.
I took it to a mechanic and he replaced the Idler Arm and the Pitman Arm. There is still some play in the steering and he says it may be either the ball joints or most likely the Steering box. The Dealer wants $600.00 for a new Steering box, but I can get a rebuilt one for $165.00.
On two separate occasions the transmission would shift from 1st to 2nd gear really hard. It would just about give you whiplash. I happened to find an honest Transmission shop and they said that is a problem with that particular vehicle. Sometimes the solenoid valve gets stuck and causes that to happen. They said not to worry about it unless it happens often. If it continues, they can replace it with an Aftermarket Solenoid.
At about 149000 the engine seemed to idle rough and have a misfire. I took it to a mechanic and he said the number 7 fuel injector was not working properly. He called the dealer and find out how much Fuel Injectors are and the parts guy said that Chevy had just sent out recall notices to all the owners of that particular model truck for that same problem. They even extended the coverage for that problem to 200000 miles at no cost. The problem is that the poppet valve gets dirty and sticks and that causes the misfire.
I took it to the Dealer and they flushed out the fuel Injectors and now it's better, but it still is a bit hard to start at times. The service writer said that if it continues to act up, just bring it back and they will change out all the Fuel Injectors at no cost.
I just replaced the Water Pump at 151000 miles and it's running great once again.
This is the nicest vehicle I have ever owned and I just love it.
It's got lots of power and handles great, rides nice and is very comfortable. It's just like having a Cadillac with 4 wheel drive.
In my opinion the 1998 body style is the sharpest looking truck ever built.
I also love the extended cab and the third door.
I am just a little puzzled about your review. You said that a mechanic told you that the number 7 fuel injector was malfunctioning.. How can that be? The 1998 Chevy k1500 5.7l did not come with multi-port fuel injection.. It has Throttle body sequential fuel injection...i.e. there is only 1 fuel injector...
88-95 trucks had throttle body injection. The newer vortec models DO have a separate injector for each cylinder they're just inside the intake manifold. Know your stuff before you leave comments.
I am currently having the same steering problem. I have 98,000 miles and have had the problem since around 40,000. No one seems to be able to find the problem. I have had the pitman checked and it was OK. Someone said it could be the internals in the steering pump sticking and suggested that I use Lucas power steering treatment. Anyone else had any experience with this issue. If so how did you resolve?
I just purchased the exact same vehicle with 86000 miles on it. Since I tackle most car repairs myself I found your article very informative. I owned a 1990 Cheyenne 4X4 for 7 years before upgrading to this one, so I have been through most of the normal repairs already. Both trucks major components are very similar.
The first thing I did with the newer truck was a change all the drive train fluids, except the transfer case (it's on my list). The transmission filter was clean and there was little metal dust on the pan magnet. Not bad for 86000 miles and I am pretty sure it was original. The front axle oil was extremely dirty. When I removed the rear axle cover I found a black residue covering all the gears. From what I have heard this could be burnt oil. The magnet on the cover also had an acceptable amount of metal dust on it. All and all no noticeable wear could be noted on any of the gears.
I noticed the front tires were wearing on in the insides and the rear tires were worn evenly. The previous owner said the tires (BF Goodrich AT) were two years old. This would indicate that tires were never rotated and a possible camber problem. I also noted the same problem with the steering having a mind of its own when starting a right hand turn. It's like the truck wants to make the turn for you. I decided to play it safe and take it in for tire rotation, balance and wheel alignment.
I hung out at the tire shop and happened to walk outside to the garage door where they were in the process of balancing my tires. It was kid doing it and he said my two front tires were warped. I have been doing my own repairs for about 15 years now and I have never heard this one. He put one on the balancing machine and showed me. Sure enough the tire, not the rim, seemed warped. Being a kid with little experience he had no explanation either. I chalked it up to the uneven wear on the inside of the tire and left it at that.
Once they took it for the alignment they found the drivers side upper and lower ball joints had play in them. They also noted play in the pitman arm. They gave me an estimate for all repairs, to include the alignment of $725.00. $525.00 of which was labor. So off to the parts store I went. I just finished the ball joints about an hour ago. I had to rent a ball joint press tool to put the lower one back in, but besides that, it was not all that bad. On a scale of one to ten I would put it at a 5.
The pitman arm on the other hand has me baffled! The book said to use a puller to remove the pitman arm from the gear box. According to the book this is done without removing the steering box from of the vehicle. I don't see how this is possible. There is about an inch of clearance under the pitman arm. You can't get a socket wrench in there to loosen the nut, let alone a puller of any type. At this point I have just about decided to let the mechanics deal with the pitman arm and be done with it. Any insights on this topic would be appreciated.
Other than that I am very satisfied with the truck. After driving the 1990 Cheyenne for the past seven years I can relate to the Cadillac comment. Thanks for the fuel filter tip. It has just bumped the transfer case fluid change down a notch on my list.
Subject: After reading all the other 1997 articles, I found a lot of talk about the steering jerking to one or the other side when turning. I also experienced the same problem with mine. As stated above I replaced the driver's side upper and lower ball joints yesterday. I had a chance to test drive it today and found the jerking had all, but disappeared.
The ball joints might have contributed to this problem, however I also read in other comments on the board that the steering is speed sensitive or assisted. I discovered that there is a sensor located on the housing of the front wheel bearings. I assume this sensor is related to the ABS system, but I have not researched it yet. The point is that when I removed the bearing from the truck, I noticed quite a bit of axle grease built up in the area the sensor penetrates the bearing housing. This most likely leaked out off the sealed bearing and MIGHT have contributed to the steering jerk. This is a Best-Guess at this point. Anyone have any inputs?
Regardless, the jerking is just about gone. All I have left to replace is the pitman arm and the steering linkage will be tight again.
From: Alaska 4-EVER.
I've read in magazines that the best way to get the pitman arm off is to loosen, not remove, the steering box enough to get a puller on it. I'm not a mechanic, but thought I would pass this info along.
With regard to the steering jerking in a turn. These are older vehicles with high mileage. Replacing ball joints and some of the other more labor intensive and expensive suggestions will probably help, however, the reason the steering wheel is jerking is due to the steering stabilizer sensor going bad. It is located under the dash under the column. It is about $70 from the dealer and can be easily replaced by you. Make sure your wheels and your steering wheel are straight before removing the old and plugging in the new. I've had a 97 and now have a 98Z and they both did the same thing. The sensor fixed the issue in both vehicles.
As posted above, I finished replacing the driver's side ball joints and I finally got around to replacing the pitman arm as well ($150 at the service station). I also had an alignment done. At first it made a small difference in the jerking. Since then I have put about 4000 miles on it and the temps here in Alaska have dropped considerably (+40 to -10). In the past 60 days I cannot recall the wheel jerking at all. So, either the replacement parts worked it out, or the colder temps have somehow deadened the jerking. I will update my findings this spring. If it continues, I will try the steering sensor as stated above. Thanks for the input.
AK4EVER.
Winter has past and as promised, I am reporting on the jerky steering problem now that the climate has warmed up. Although it is less intense, the jerking still remains. I plan to look into replacing the steering sensor; however, I have bigger problems on my plate.
About two weeks ago, 99,000 miles, the truck developed a misfire problem. Each morning when the vehicle is at its coldest, it will have a single cylinder misfire until it reaches full operating temperature. Once it hits the 200 degree mark, it seems to run just fine. The check engine light also eliminates at the time of the misfires. I bought a code reader and sure enough it confirmed a misfire (code 0304, 0307). The first day it was cylinder number 7. The next it was number 4. To date I have replaced the cap, rotor, plug wires and plugs (Bosch Platinum +4s) and the MAP sensor. I actually replaced the MAP sensor a few hours ago, so I don’t know if it has made any difference. I have been searching all the forums and found the MAP sensor, among others things, to be a possible problem, so I picked one up.
Other possibilities listed have been a multitude of emissions sensors. The code reader is not reporting any problems with these sensors, so I am at a loss. Due to the misfires happening in conjunction with temperature, I am convinced this is a timing issue of some sort. Anyone have any ideas?
AK4EVER
The MAP sensor seems to have done the job. I started it up this morning and it almost seemed to jump to life. Later that day after work, same thing. I am sure changing all the other things helped, but it still misfired right up until I replaced the MAP sensor. Hope this helps someone.
Now I have to start looking into that steering sensor.
AK4EVER.
I just bought my first 4x4, a Z-71 with 123,000 miles on it. I have question for you. Do you have a problem with the warning "service engine soon" light being on? I mean the dealer told me to disconnect the battery positive post for about 20 minutes, and replace it back the light should go out, well it did. By doing so he said if It does well its not the O2 sensor, but about 20-30 minutes. later I was driving and I looked on the dash and the warning came back on. I told the dealer,and he replace the sensor anyway. Well after a four day work week (driving a different vehicle) the weekend was here Friday it was still off, by Saturday afternoon after a tank refill of gas (the low grade due to high pricing) I drove off and the light came back on. I screwed the gas cap on good. Any ideas???
Signed confused.
My fiancee has a 1998 K1500 4x4 with 99,000 miles on it and all of his switches to the heater and a/c don't work anymore, anyone have any ideas what might need to be replaced or fixed?
To 4x4 Z71 with 123,000 miles.
Well first of all, when the “check engine” light comes on, normally a trouble code is generated on the computer. Your mechanic should have an OBDII code reading device of some sort to read the code. This should point you to the problem part. Notice I said SHOULD. At the very least, it will give a general area to look at.
With 123,000 miles and being that you said you just bought it, my question to you is, when was the last tune up? By this I mean when were the plugs, wires, cap & rotor changed? For that matter, how does it run? Rough, smooth? What about different speeds? Basically, other than the light, what is going on?
If you do not know about the plugs, pull one of them out and inspect it.
See this chart: http://www.autolite.com/tech/PlugTips.pdf.
Another idea is to purchase a code reader yourself. You can pick them up for $80 or so. I have one by INNOVA Model 3030. (www.canobd2.com) Your trucks computer monitors a lot of different sensors to include your O2s. If they were bad, it SHOULD send that specific error code. By the way, you have more than one O2 sensor on that truck.
Hook me up with some more details and I will be glad to help if I can.
To My fiancée has a 1998 K1500 4x4.
I might just be repeating what your fiancée has already tried, but here it goes.
There are two different types of heating controls that I have dealt with in K1500s. The first being completely cable driven. By that I mean just a couple of levers and a fan control. The second is more electronic in nature. Everything is controlled by smooth turning dials and a few buttons for the AC. I assume this is the type in his truck.
With that being said, Lets start with troubleshooting-101.
Check the fuses. There are two fuse boxes. One right on the dash visible only when the driver’s door is open and another on the driver’s side under the hood near the windshield.
If all the fuses are good to go, but it still does not work, jump in and turn the key to the ON position. Do not start the engine. You should see your check engine light and a few others come on, but do not start the engine. Close the doors and windows as well. It needs to be quiet in the truck. Turn the heat on and then adjust the dial that directs the airflow. If you turn this dial and you should hear what sounds like a little electric motor running for a few seconds as you change from defrost to floor and so forth. It is very quiet so you might have to get your head down by the dash to hear it. If you can hear the vents changing, we are getting close.
At this point we might be looking at a bad blower motor, or somehow it got unplugged. On the passenger side, below the glove compartment is where the blower motor is located. It has a black cover and is round in shape. On the upper left hand side are two plugs. Check to see if they are securely pushed on. If they are, and you heard the vents change, but no blower, I think we have found your problem. The blower is most likely dead. This is rare, but it happens. Most of the time they start to go with an annoying squeal before they die, but stranger things have happened.
A 12V test light ($5) would come in handy here as well. It looks like a screw driver with a pointy tip and a light bulb inside it. There is a wire that comes out of the end with an alligator clip. You clip this to a grounded piece of metal on the truck and then pierce the positive wire casing on the blower motor. If it lights up with the ignition key turned on and the heater set to high, you have power to the blower, just no blow. Hence, bad blower.
I tested this on mine. I unplugged one of the plugs on the motor and went through the motions listed above. I could hear the vents changing, but all else was dead. If your fiancée can operate some tools, this is a fairly easy do-it-yourself fix. However, I would recommend he purchase a Chilton’s repair manual to go over the procedures before he begins to replace it. Or if he is like me, he will buy the manual after half the truck is apart and ya can’t figure out how the heck it all goes back together.
He should be able to pick up a new blower at any auto parts store. In the past they have run me at least $100. But it is a $100 well spent once winter sets in!
Other problem points might be the control panel itself. Those can be spendy from the dealer, but you can usually find them at junk yards for about half the cost. There could also be a short in the wiring somewhere, but lets not think of the worst yet. I would start with the above. Good luck and let me know how it turns out. Up here that would a top priority this time of year.
AK-4EVER.
OK, now some updates for truck.
I listed above that I just replaced the MAP sensor to fix a really bad misfire problem. And it seemed to do the job. Well about three weeks later, it started up again! Yes, that’s right, again. So back to the drawing board I went.
If you also recall, I installed Bosch Platinum Plus 4 spark plugs ($6 each) (R3). Well after endless hours of research on sites like this one, I found a few strings that said the 5.7L Vortec engines were just not meant to have these plugs. They said, they should only have the AC Delco single Platinum plugs installed. That’s the way they were designed and that’s all they will tolerate. Now in my many years of backyard mechanics, I have never run into this with any other vehicle and Bosch plugs. My co-worker races his car in the quarter mile (12.3 seconds) and he said his won't run with them either. Well I realize our 98 Z71s are far from quarter mile dragsters, but at this point I was willing to try anything.
So out I went and purchased some cheap Autolite plugs. Popped those bad boys in and she ran smooth as silk……..for about a week. At this point I was ready to pull my hair out! What the heck it wrong now? We back to the internet for more research. At this point I know more about this truck than my own family heritage!
By the way, one other thing I noticed during all the misfiring is that my Voltage meter in the interment panel was reading about 15 volts. As the misfiring decreased the meter would slowly creep back down to about 14 volts.
The ODBII errors were still only reading misfires on multiple/random cylinders. I even tried unplugging different sensors on the engine to see if this would help, hinder or otherwise produce no change in the idle of the truck. Besides all of them producing different error codes, and or killing the engine completely, no change. This told me they most likely are working properly.
So, we have misfires at cold start and high voltage. OK, maybe the coil has built up resistance over the miles, 100,000 now, and it needs to be replaced. Did that, NO FIX. So…….. more research.
Then I stumbled upon a string that was interesting and in theory made sense. If your battery is weak, or on its way out, it could be drawing most of your voltage during recharge and taking away from your engine spark. Thus producing weak current to the plugs and causing multiple/random misfires.
Well I though…hmmm. I checked the voltage of the battery with a Fluke mulitmeter. It read 12 volts on the battery, however, after a start-up and shut down it quickly dropped to 11 or below. I popped the fill caps on the battery and sure enough, it was low on fluid. The plates inside that battery were still submerged, but they sure did show a lot of corrosion. So I picked up a new battery at Costco ($65) and dropped it in. Since then, it has been running smooth. In fact the gas mileage has improved a bit as well. I will be sure to post if this changes.
One other thing I forgot to mention. The transmission bit the dust about three weeks ago. Right about at 100,000 miles. The mechanic said I got about 20,000 more than I should have out of it. Just some FYI there. The rebuild ran $1750 and I also added a heavy duty transmission cooler ($65 installed myself) to protect the new investment. I tow a 6500 pound camper trailer up and down mountains here, so I am sure I had some part in this failure.
Last, but not least for this episode, I replaced the Steering Position Sensor tonight. This is the gadget that supposing causes the sudden jerking of your steering wheel to the left or right while driving down the road. I talked to the dealer parts guy and he said they go through a lot of them. I am with the rest of the owners out there. This should be a recall item! When you are pulling 6500 pounds behind you at 65 MPH and the wheel suddenly jerks to one side, the stress level in the truck shoots through the roof. This is an accident waiting to happen in my opinion. The part is about $40 and is a dealer part only. It takes about 30-60 minutes to replace and requires no special tools. However you do have to disconnect your steering so make sure you put everything back, or things will get worst in a hurry! I will let ya know if this fixed it. Everyone else I found that did the replacement said it worked. We will see.
AK-4EVER.