OT-2004 GMC Sierra 1500- buy or not?

A friend of mine made me a good offer on a GMC sierra. I've never owned a truck and this seems like a great first truck.

The truck has 184K and he is the most maintenance oriented person I know, he knows the original owner was as well. It does have a 4 inch lift which looks good but I am curious if that could cause costly repairs down the road.

Do you have any experience with this model? Worth owning?

Is it worth it? How much is he asking for it?

6600. It is mint. 8 ft bed and room in the back for a car seat which are 2 of my requirement in a truck.

I guess I meant if it I a vehicle prone to breakdowns or "watch out for transmissions".

We have a dealer installed 3 inch lift kit and do not care for it much.

Hear a clunk often in parking maneuvers and different dealer unable to find cause and just blames lift kit.

Miles seems high but late models do well so may not matter.



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yoke said:

6600. It is mint. 8 ft bed and room in the back for a car seat which are 2 of my requirement in a truck.

I guess I meant if it I a vehicle prone to breakdowns or "watch out for transmissions".

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I haven't heard anything bad about those models, the bad things I've heard about on Sierras were the 2014 models.

You are or in Pa.You have snow and salt. GM barely escaped a brake line recall on these trucks.Dont believe the guys that say this is a minor job.The factory installs the lines and THEN DROPS THE BED AND CAB ON.Look at every brake line from master cyl on back.This should be easy to see on a lifted truck.Edwin Dirnbeck

Fuel and brake lines, as stated above, specifically under the plastic, frame mounted clips. Grab and wiggle, you'll know. Also check the frame under the doors. You'll see where it goes from boxed (reinforced for the engine area) to open c channel. It's right where the frame slopes downward to the rear. These trucks are famous for breaking in half right there, especially when lifted on a two post lift. The amount of crap that collects in the area just begs for it to rot.

Take an awl or pick, even a #2 screwdriver, and see if you can jam it through the frame there, or anywhere. I'd be very surprised if you can't, seeing as you're in PA.

The spare tire winch is most likely bound up from corrosion, see it you can lower it. There is a lever inside the actual tire holding "anchor" that gets frozen from corrosion.

A good lift kit, properly installed, gives no problems. Just check the torsion bar adjusting bolt. If it's bottomed out, it's not done properly.
I personally feel that $6600.00 is a bit much for a half ton 04, but I've not seen the truck.
The body mounts are known to give issues, due to corrosion and the super tuff blue lock tite applied to the threads at the factory. Not a big deal, you can pull the carpet, scrape the seam sealer, and peel off the covers, and get a wrench on the broken weld nut from the top.
If it has an issue with the factory installed trailer wiring, such as turn signal or hazards, there is a one piece relay under the dash, on the back side of the fuse panel on the driver side. They are prone to "welding" the contacts on the relays, due to current draw. Don't bother cleaning them (easy to do, waste of time), just replace. I think they're like 40 bucks. I can get you a part # if needed, I keep them in stock.

Thanks for the info here, fellas. I'll check it out tomorrow and pay attention to these areas.

Thanks.

In my area the heavy hitters as far as GM truck problems;

Brake lines rust out.
Rockers under the doors rot out.
Frames rot out.
Fuel pump will die soon if it has over 100K on it
Front wheel bearings, half the time the bearing is bad, the other half corrosion pushes the ABS sensor away from the reluctor wheel and kicks on the ABS pump at stop signs. You have about a 50/50 chance of being able to remove the ABS sensor to clean out behind it with out it breaking.

I'm guessing that this is gasoline powered? I'd avoid the Diesel.