Once again, I find myself replacing parts I replaced 4 or so years ago.
I'm beginning to think if I get 4+ years out of anything, I'm ahead of the game.
This time around, the project got confirmed after having driven across town one night out in a raging thunderstorm several nights ago.
I had a suspicion that I was going to have to address this issue for a while now.
I had began to notice a slight amount of moisture inside the driver's side headlight, from time to time.
During this long drive in the thunderstorm, there was a significant amount of water inside the headlight assembly.
I had previously installed new headlights, turn signals and fog/DRL assemblies back in 2020 when I first bought the Avalanche used.
Funning thing is, none of the old original lenses had water leaks but were too badly frosted over to repair, so I opted to just replace.
So, with the current headlights beginning to show some signs of lens wear and with the new water leak, I decided to go ahead and just replace the headlight assemblies.
I removed everything I needed to get to the headlights, which includes the front grill and the turn signal assemblies.
The new headlight assemblies went in properly and the grill and turn signals reinstalled as expected.
Level adjustments were made.
It wasn't until a few days later that I found myself having to once again drive at night in a major thunderstorm, did I realize the headlight bulbs that came with the new headlights did not provide very good lighting during adverse conditions.
They were fine when just tooling down a dry neighborhood street, but during the storm, the drive home down the interstate was a little dicey.
I felt I could improve on the situation so I did some research and I purchased a set of
NOVSIGHT 9005 9006 Led Bulbs Combo 300% Brightness 9005/HB3 High 9006/HB4 Low Dual Beam Bulbs 1:1 Mini Size LED Bulb Combo for Stock Bulb Replacement 6500K Cool White, Pack of 4.
This is the first set of LED headlight bulbs I have used on either of my trucks, so I am relying upon the online reviews (which could be a dangerous thing) and the high approval rating on Amazon.
One thing I am certain of is they are considerably brighter during my daytime testing, than the bulbs I took out.
Now, to find a dark night in a thunderstorm to really test the things.
I do not drive at night very often, so if these things are going to blind any of you, let me apologize ahead of time.
If anyone has any advice or impressions, I would like to hear them, as this is something new for me.
Now, this leads to the next part of the project and the part I did not plan upon.
As I have come to understand, once I touch something on my truck, the target of my original repair is seldom the end of the repair.
In this case, the removal of the grill and turn signal assemblies went without drama the first round.
However, when the turn signal assemblies had to be removed the second time to install the LED lights, the mounting tabs on one of the turn signals broke off clean preventing the assembly from holding in place.
Of course it did.
The two new turn signal assemblies arrived yesterday and were promptly installed.
I'm glad I did not have to touch the fog/DRL light assemblies during this repair or I am certain I would be replacing them, as well.
At this point this repair appears to be complete and functioning as expected.
Now ...
To continue with this theme, I return to the coolant leak saga.
After a few days of no leaks of any kind, a couple of new, small coolant leaks had appeared.
Of course they did.
On goes the radiator pressure tester again and out comes the mirror and LED shop light.
The first leak I found was one I should have known about and repaired before it even became a thing.
As you may recall, in a previous post I mentioned having to replace both the upper and lower radiator hoses to address a leak on the lower hose.
I should have left the upper hose alone.
As I was removing the upper hose from the radiator port, I had to remove the TWO hose clamps, one OEM spring clamp and one newer band clamp.
I do seem to remember thinking that was odd and when I reinstalled the new hose, I only used the OEM spring clamp thinking that would be proper and should do the job.
Now that I am finding a new coolant leak at that location, I am reminded as to why I had two clamps installed there.
Back in early 2020, when I was replacing a lot of parts on my newly acquired used 2003 Avalanche, a new radiator along with new belts and hoses were on the list of new parts.
At that time, I chased a coolant leak at the upper radiator hose port that I now remember as determining had to do with a slightly malformed radiator port that could not be sealed to the upper radiator hose using a single hose clamp.
My solution, at the time, was to install a second clamp and that has worked well for all of the past 4 years.
Until, I failed to install the second clamp when installing the new hose.
The OEM spring clamp has now been tossed in the trash bin and a pair of new band clamps are now installed and that leak is once again taken care of.
The other tiny leak was a little harder to find, but I now know where it is.
Once again (and never again) I chose to use the OEM spring clamp to attach the two heater core hoses to the water pump.
It took quite some time under pressure to finally catch the coolant leaking out at the rearmost heater hose where it attaches to the water pump.
This is a very tiny leak and when I get the opportunity and I feel like it, I am going to dive in and replace the OEM spring clamps that remain and hopefully finish this saga.
If you made it this far, let me finish my suggesting that if you are presented with a similar repair, plan on ditching any old OEM spring clamps and plan to install new modern band clamps.
What a pain this has been.
