I'm shopping for a used truck and it will be a diesel. I'm usually a GMC man when it comes to trucks, but I found a "seemingly" good deal on ebay but don't know if I should persue it. Anybody here in Philly? Wanna go look at something for me?
Except for the fact it takes 16 quarts of oil, the Power Stroke is ok. Better than my old GM 6.2. I know NOTHING about Power Strokes. What to look for when buying used/high mileage? What are the common problems with the Power Strokes(1999 model year in question)? What's considered normal maintainence/replacement(on the 6.2's, the vacuum pods would crap out a lot; they also went through a lot of alt belts)? I'll stop there.
Time is in short supply as the auction I'm looking at(#2413710175) has only 3 days, 23 hours left as I write this.
I'm a bit leary of the truck since it has high miles and is so young, but the overall condition looks good from the pictures. I will be calling the seller tomorrow(Monday). It's be great if someone here was in the area and could go take a look at it. I just would like a heads up if it's worth persuing. I'm aware that anything on ebay is pretty much a crap shoot, but I'm willing to take my chances if the price is right.
I really need a lot of help here. A quick education on Power Strokes would me nice, too. While I await responses, I'll be scouring this site and others looking for info. I'm so confused! What to do?

 

one thing to consider on that is diesels dont run good till there way up on the milage! the power stroke is a good engine, especialy when equiped with the turbo, now i dont know if the truck in question has the turbo on it, but that does make a differece.

 

Oh yea, it's turbocharged(one of the requirements for whatever truck I eventually buy). But that's also why I'm asking. Since I own an old diesel, I've learned of a few things that can go wrong with them if not taken care of properly, especially when used for heavy towing/hauling. Call up that Ebay auction number I gave in my previous post and check out all the pictures as make your own opinion. That's what I'm looking for.

 

id go a head and make an offer on that truck if i were you, thats a nice truck with a lot of options. and that 7.3 power stroke is a good engine.

 

The earlier Powerstrokes had a problem with loose turbo bolts. Something to check on. They would eat their own lunch . Other than that, it is a good 300K motor if maintained properly, even though the truck will probably rot out before then

 

Besides the dealer looking like a tool, the truck look spretty clean.

Just some things I noticed:

First front close up pic, seems to be a little puddle of something under it.

Rear bumper looks kind of twisted.

 

I'm no expert by any stretch of the imagination, but I noticed a couple things. First the mileage is high, but probably is a lot of highway miles. The reason I think this is that I noticed the truck has no running boards on it, so the driver is really gonna have to do some climbing to get in and out. However, the driver's seat is not crushed down, so whomever has gotten in there has run a lot of miles before he/she got out...i.e. not a lot of short trips with a lot of mounting and dismounting. Secondly, it appears that the front lug covers are missing. This should be an easy item to replace (if you buy them, lemme know how much they run because one of mine needs replacing, too). Lastly, the KBB trade in value of the truck is about $16,500, so keep that in mind as you bid. Good luck! I hope you are successful in bidding! Need more Fords and less GMCs on the highways.........

 

High Miles!! Boy I guess so. I looked the auction over real close and found a few things that bothered me. IN his history he (the seller) had a lot of negatives and nuetral's and the people were complaining about pretty much the same things!! And to his credit he had some positive feedback also. And if the truck is from the Philly area(east coast) It has taken a pounding on those highways and heavy traffic! For myself the truck has tooooo many miles on it,but thats just me,I guess if it was priced cheap enough and you had to put some money into it it might not be a bad deal,as long as you did'nt go over value of the truck!

This is just my opinion and I wish you good luck in whatever decision you make! Let us know how it comes out!

Lenny

 

If you'll notice, the amount on that auciton just went up. Well, that's because of me. I'm now the high bidder as of this writing, but I royally screwed up the dollar amount so I can be easily outbid with no fight. That's just me being damn stupid.
I'll let you know how it goes over the next 3 days. I'm predicting a loss on this one since the book value is so high. But I may put in another bid give me some wiggle room.
PS-you guy's's responsed have been great and informative! Thank you so much!!

 

thats good to hear, hey no problem thats why we're all here.

 

All Power Strokes have a turbo on them.

By the way, the when changing the oil, the 1999+ Power Strokes, including the new 6.0, take 15 quarts of oil, not 16. It will only take 16 at an oil change if you clean all of the oil out of the pumps and cooler.

 

Well, the guy in the pic looks like kind of a dork, but the truck looks okay otherwise, especially for the price.

I generally stay away from anyone on ebay that has recent negative (especially as visceral as a few of his are) feedback just because I have had bad experiences in the past..

C'mon away from the dark side, Randee...you know you want a real truck, not that boat anchor GMC you're dragging around now ... and, please don't confuse that 6.2 with a diesel engine!!