It never ends!

[The_Mountain]

Just had to re-do the lower balljoints, and also do the uppers, and the front wheel hubs. Had that done about a month ago. Ever since, I've been fighting the alignment. The caster is way off (wants to pull further into turns). Finally went to a new shop to have the tires balanced, and they had a freebie deal on alignment. The old shop had told me that caster wasn't adjustable on the H2. I know that's not true, but didn't want to press the issue. New shop acknowledged that it is adjustable, but the upper control arm bushings are shot, so the right side can't be properly adjusted. So now I need to do the right upper control arm too. Grnrgngnngnggnnrrrn.

And on top of that the tailshaft bind is gradually getting worse, and the transmission is still weird. I need to take the truck into a good shop up here (just moved) to get that looked at; maybe the mechanics here in NH will be better at finding the problem. There's a lot of slack in the trans at very low speed, it still flips in and out of torque converter lock, and it still occasionally slips or doesn't fully go into gear under acceleration.

And the KYB shocks are also weird. They seem to work for high-speed damping, very stiff over rough pavement/potholes/etc. However, over larger irregularities, like dropping off low ledges (mismatched bridge section height for example), the truck wallows like a 70s Cadillac. I've had two separate places check the shocks, and they tell me there's nothing wrong with them, it's just the characteristic of the shock.

I'm worried that this truck is becoming a money pit. I don't mind spending for regular maintenance and the occasional larger repair, but this is a lot of expensive things going wrong in a fairly short timespace.

 

[woodwardsh3]

what year and how many miles are on it.

 

[The_Mountain]

what year and how many miles are on it.

2005 with 155k miles.

 

[GreatDaneHummer]

So a 12 year old 155k super heavy truck is having issues with its suspension and transmission? I know I sound like a jerk but its kind of par for the course with a Hummer buddy. I have the smaller H3 as my daily driver and I have put a new transmission and all new front suspension 2x times in it with only 85k miles. I am a moderate at best off roader so my truck doesn't see much in the way of hard core abuse either. Once you get past this little bit of expense it will get better and you will be in love with it all over again.

 

[woodwardsh3]

It still cheaper then a new truck payment in the long run

 

[GreatDaneHummer]

Very True

 

[The_Mountain]

So a 12 year old 155k super heavy truck is having issues with its suspension and transmission? I know I sound like a jerk but its kind of par for the course with a Hummer buddy. I have the smaller H3 as my daily driver and I have put a new transmission and all new front suspension 2x times in it with only 85k miles. I am a moderate at best off roader so my truck doesn't see much in the way of hard core abuse either. Once you get past this little bit of expense it will get better and you will be in love with it all over again.

It's not the repairs I mind; I've owned plenty of older vehicles and am very familiar with the more intensive maintenance. It's that they seem to be all hitting at once. In addition to the stuff I've listed, I also have a broken exhaust manifold bolt, the sunroof linkage is loose so it rattles and flaps on the highway, the stepper motors are starting to go in the dash plus I'm losing lights in several of the controls, plus a bunch of rats-and-mice fixes of cosmetic things like the scuff panels behind the door handles (the tabs have broken off on three of them, so they flap and rattle), the center console lid latch is busted and the hinge is starting to separate from the base, and on and on. And the shocks thing is for brand-new shocks, and KYB's warranty is very tightly written, so in order to have the shocks checked, I have to pay to have them uninstalled and shipped to KYB for analysis, which means I either buy more shocks so I can drive it while they're making up their mind, or I'm without my truck for the duration. Plus I think now I also have a bent rear axle shaft, which may be the root cause behind a couple of other things the truck does, but which several shops have checked and dismissed as "normal". The only bright side is that the transmission, the tailshaft, and anything going on in either differential is covered under the extended warranty, so I hopefully can get at least some of this stuff sorted with a minimum of additional expense; the warranty requires a $100 co-pay, and I have no doubt that they'll ding me for the co-pay for each issue separately. The Sunroof and the control arm are the two big expenses I'm looking at right now. There are a few shops in my area that claim they repair sunroofs. I'm figuring at least $300 to repair that, and probably around $400 for the control arm fix.

Mostly I'm just ranting because none of these repairs are cheap/easy, and they seem to be all hitting at once. I love my truck, I just wish it wasn't costing me so much.

 

[GreatDaneHummer]

I sure can understand a lot of costs hitting all at once. If you take a look at my build for my H3 you will see that our first H3 we purchased turned out to be toast in the first week we owned it. It was like it was held together by duct tape and just the drive home from the dealer killed it. Thank God they took it back.

 

[twinmill28]

I have so far replaced tie rods and pitman/idler arm somewhere back around 80k miles. This was when I put the first set of 37's on the truck.

I'm now at 104,500 miles and just sat down with the Rock Auto website to price out parts for rebuilding my front end; not that it needs it again, just that I anticipate needing to do it sometime soon with the mileage now. Since this was just an exercise to determine parts cost, I estimated all replacement parts using Moog and Timken parts. I came up at $2004 dollars including front and rear shocks, steering stabilizer, sway bar bushings, end links, upper and lower control arms, inner and outer tie rods and idler/pitman arms in addition to the Timken hubs and a new steering box (leaking) and pump with hoses (maintenance items that I'd prefer to replace on my time not when they decide to take a crap in the middle of smoking hot summer). So of course you can take off several hundred for the steering box and pump.

That's very inclusive of a complete front end rebuild for a truck that is not heavily wheeled--I could go to the D-Max parts website and really go crazy but I haven't wheeled my truck hard since I left Utah 6 years ago. If I didn't do the rebuild myself I could anticipate another $1000 in labor for the install.

So yes, this was a wake up call that do it right it will be expensive--but once done I'd have installed the reliability of a new steering system, and with running 37's it's only a matter of time before it will need to be done.

 

[The_Mountain]

Well, sorry I've been away for a while. As it turns out, not only do I now need the passenger-side upper control arm (to replace the control bushings so I can get the truck aligned), but I need to replace the front axle/differential unit and the transfer case. Plus, my power steering pump and the high-pressure PS hose are both leaking, one of the rear swaybar links is shot, and I need to replace both engine belts and the AC belt tensioner pulley, all of which will likely have to be fixed before I can pass inspection in the next 5 days unless I can find a "friendly" inspector.

FML.

The transfer case and axle are supposed to be covered under my third-party warranty, and they swore up and down that they would only ever replace parts with OEM new or remanufactured, or similar from independent vendors like Jasper (the sales guy claimed that was what "like, kind and quality" meant). Well, turns out the warranty administrator is interpreting "like, kind, and quality" to mean "similar condition to the parts that were on the vehicle at the time the warranty was purchased". So they're only authorizing salvage yard replacement parts with over 100,000 miles on them for the t-case and axle. Already filed a complaint on the warranty company because they gave me permission to retain recordings of those calls, so I have their sales agent telling me about the parts and then the administrator contradicting that.

 

[twinmill28]

It really sounds like your truck went through a grinder in its 155k miles of life--it shouldn't have so many problems unless it was beat like a red headed step-puppy

Good luck getting it sorted

 

[The_Mountain]

Been a long, winding road. I never did get the driveline parts replaced. The whole situation became too much of a hassle. I ended up trading my H2 in towards a 2016 3/4 ton GMC crewcab truck. We all still miss the H2, so once this truck is paid off, the plan is to buy another H2, only this time I know what to look for and what configuration I want, so I won't have the hassles I had with the last one. So I won't be around much until then; assuming this forum hasn't gone under in a few years, I'll be back with another H2.

 

[Shortbus]

Stealerships and crooked shops are why I fix my own vehicles...reduces cost of ownership one hundred fold....I ran auto parts stores for 10 years before going back to college and have seen all their tricks. (We dealt almost entirely with shops) I still have my 1999 Silverado 5.3L xcab 1500...has 289,000 miles on it and I could drive from Houston to Maine tomorrow if needed. Thats why I took the time to find a low mileage H2....no matter what make/ model you get...its a used vehicle, some dirt junkie like me might have owned it and ran it through the ringer every weekend for 8 years.

Hope the GMC does you right (I loved mine, 2003 crew cab 2500 4x4 6.0L in gunmetal) they are good trucks...