My 1997 Tahoe

[MatSLO]

Hi, this is my 1997 Chevy Tahoe.

It was bought new and imported to Slovenia by the first owner. Between cca 2011 and 2014 it had a few more owners and in November 2014 I bought it. It had 129.000 km on the clock (80k miles), now (April 2018) it has 165.000 km (102k miles)

This is how it looked when I got it (pictures from December 2014/January 2015):

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It had 265/75 R16 tires, black fender flares, stock amber side markers and quad headlights (more on headlights later).

Interior:

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I would prefer light grey interior, but here we are...
(I think it looks better in the photo than in real life)

The office:

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Previous owner wanted to install air suspension. He only got as far as installing buttons and gauges (under the HVAC controls). I have since removed them.
I also removed the original AC Delco radio because I have very few cassettes left, and installed a cheap (cca 30 Euro) 1-DIN head unit that can play MP3s. Hope to get something better soon.

 

[MatSLO]

The first major job was replacing the headlights.
These were the originals:

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They used HB4 bulbs. The lens were quite deteriorated (chromed inner surface was flaking off) and consequently illumination was poor, even with quality bulbs.

The low beam housing on each side also holds a W5W parking light bulb (194 5-watt bulb), in line with European regulation (front-facing parking lights can only be white, not amber).

As I could not find direct replacement for these headlights, I ordered US-style headlights online.
I ordered a set of Spyder "crystal clear" headlights, with clear corner lights. I needed clear corner/side marker lights to mount Euro-style parking lights.

This is the end result (November 2015):

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And at night, also November 2015:

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NOTE: in real life, it looks way less dramatic than in the photo. You would think I have the 4hi mod (I don't, yet), but these are high beams only (and parking lights in the top corners, ordinary halogen 5-watt 194 bulbs).
Taken with my Cat B15Q phone I had back then which does not have a very good camera.

 

[Cheap Heap]

Nice looking truck!

I dont remember seeing too many GMT400’s in Slovenia, it must be quite a rare sight.

 

[MatSLO]

Have you been to Slovenia?
Yes, a GMT400 (actually, any US car) is a rare sight over here. There are probably less than 10 in the country (population: 2 million), and I know about most of them (and I know their owners)

 

[Biggershaft96]

i dig it. see if you can find a part number on those oem headlights. they might be the super rare ones that @88GMCtruck loves. if so they might be worth a bit on ebay.

 

[88GMCtruck]

i dig it. see if you can find a part number on those oem headlights. they might be the super rare ones that @88GMCtruck loves. if so they might be worth a bit on ebay.

Those are the Bosch h4 ECE lights indeed.

If the glass is good, I would see about selling them or possibly having the buckets re-chromed.

 

[MatSLO]

Ufortunately, I managed to drop one of the lights during replacement, the glass broke
I don't know if I still have them.

 

[88GMCtruck]

Ufortunately, I managed to drop one of the lights during replacement, the glass broke
I don't know if I still have them.

The highbeams are still found at times, but the lowbeams are quite desirable.

 

[Cheap Heap]

Have you been to Slovenia?
Yes, a GMT400 (actually, any US car) is a rare sight over here. There are probably less than 10 in the country (population: 2 million), and I know about most of them (and I know their owners)

Yes, Slovenia is a beautiful place, I'd love to go back. My wife has family in Ljubljana and Novo Mesto.

 

[MatSLO]

Continuing the saga on my Tahoe. Last week, I perhaps told the story about the headlights too early.
Now I'll try to list everything in chronological order.

I also forgot to mention that the engine can also run on LPG - the original owner had the LPG conversion installed. Very good for my wallet as LPG costs about 0.60 Euro per liter (2.75 USD/gal) while gasoline costs about 6 USD/gal over here...

When I purchased the truck in late 2014, there were a few obvious problems:

- I noticed that cruise control would switch off every time I used the left tur signal. It turned out that when left turn signal was apllied, the CMSL (3rd brake light) would start blinking with it. Of course, when a brake light ligths up, cruise control is swithed off... I took it to an automotive electrician expert, supplied him with wiring diagrams and it still took him half a day to find the offending short and fixed it. (February 2015)

- Power adjustment didn't work on the passenger side outside mirror. I figured out the cause myself - there were no wires running from the mirror assembly! A previous owner probably had to replace a damaged outside mirror. Apparently they purchased a manual version as a replacement. I have a few theories why they put in a wrong part - either they didn't know which part to order, or they were ordering from a vendor (perhaps in Germany, there are some shops with US car parts there but with limited selection) or the manual version was cheaper... who knows. I eventually managed to get the proper replacement mirror and fixed it myself - pretty straightforward job, except I had to remove the inner door panel to fish out the wires/connector that they just dropped inside... (July 2015)

- Remote key fob stopped working a few days after I bought the truck. I got a replacement fob. It needed programming but it wouldn't work when I followed the instructions. I finally found a video on Youtube how to do it correctly and had success (yay!)

- The lift glass (tailgate glass) can't be unlocked with the key. The key does not go all the way and I can't turn the lock . This still hasn't been resolved. I just use the remote keyfob or the button on the dash.

- Steering was very vague. I went to an alignment shop in December 2014 and there was some improvement, but I still wasn't completely happy. As I later researched more, I think I'll have to get tie rod ends replaced and some other things. Torsion bars were also cranked up as I discovered much later, but more on that in the following posts.