Looking at truck with high miles - need advice - what to look for???

[Stephen1]

I am looking at a 2002 3500 with Duramax and Allison. It has over 160,000 miles on it already. It looks like the maintenance on the truck has been good. There are a stack of records from a local dealer.

Any advice? Anything I should look at real close before I buy the truck? The price is right for the miles. I can probably get it for around $20.

Thanks. Any advice is appreciated.

Steve

[Paintdude]

That is a tough call. My guess is if the truck is in good condition and is a Diesel with good records. you might be ok. I would sure like to see a oil analysis on it before I bought it. but that would be real difficult to get. Ask them if they will hold the truck for you and you will pay for a oil change and the analysis.

Good luck..

[dmaxalliTech]

email me the VIN and I can get you all the info on it, including all repairs that were performed under warr.

[Trip]

After getting the info from Eric, I would be concerned about one of your largest possible expenditures...and that would be injectors and a pump. If you had to do these reletaively soon, and add aprx. $5K to your purchase price of $20K, I think that's fairly high milage for that kind of money, and you're really not that far off from a new one. Just food for thought.

[Stephen1]

Dmaxallitech,

Thanks for your offer to look up the history on this truck.

VIN 1GCJK33132F131055

The truck is a 2002 Crew 3500. There are 161,000 miles on the truck at this time.

A couple of quick questions for you:
1 - The frame coating is coming off in a few places. Is that normal? Can the undercoating / wax stuff be purchased from GM and reapplied to the frame.
2 - It looks like there is some grey stuff all over the front bottom of the oil pan. It looks like silicone caulk? I have seen this before when there was a leak in the oil pan, but it is impossible for this thing to bottom out and damage the pan. Maybe it is there to cut down on the noise?

This truck has seen a lot of towing. It was used to transport 5th wheel RVs around the country. I have heard that large towing miles are not a concern with the diesel / allison drive train. What does your experience say. Trans rebuild soon, or the truck could easily run another 100,000 miles trouble free?

Thanks Again,

Steve

[Stephen1]

I got a reply from Eric (Thanks!)

NO engine work was performed under warranty.

Steve