Maintenance on a 2004, minimal offroading, driving on the weekends.

[Rexhaven]

I am planning to purchase a 2004 H1. I will only drive the truck on the weekends on pavement 95% of the time. I live in Dallas Texas, and have heard Hummer dealerships consider our weather extreme conditions (haha). I was wondering if I am going to have the nightmare on my hands that I have heard from tons of people in the form of having it in the shop every other weekend. Again, I am planning on getting a 2004, diesel, assuming that they have come a long way maintenance wise? The particular truck that I am looking at has about a year's worth of warranty left on it. Any input would be much appreciated.

Thanks.

[Rexhaven]

I am planning to purchase a 2004 H1. I will only drive the truck on the weekends on pavement 95% of the time. I live in Dallas Texas, and have heard Hummer dealerships consider our weather extreme conditions (haha). I was wondering if I am going to have the nightmare on my hands that I have heard from tons of people in the form of having it in the shop every other weekend. Again, I am planning on getting a 2004, diesel, assuming that they have come a long way maintenance wise? The particular truck that I am looking at has about a year's worth of warranty left on it. Any input would be much appreciated.

Thanks.

[JollyRoger]

You should not have any trouble at that frequency of use, however it all depends on the way the previous owner took care of it.

My truck was abused, and it took me a while to catch up on all the fixes, but now, it's great!

Just basic stuff, and I do wheel as often as I can!

[Beastmaster]

Most Hummer dealers will consider the desert or higher temp areas (Dallas and Phoenix included) as extreme weather areas.

The biggie about that isn't much. It basically means that you should at least follow at the minimum the standard A/B/C service schedule, and at best you should also follow the severe duty cycle in which you change the fluids a bit more often.

In my particular case (living in Phoenix), I do the following:

- Follow the A/B/C schedule like clockwork
- If you go into any water that is as deep as the rocker panels, lube all the grease points as soon as you can
- Before and after off roading, lube all the grease points
- Replace the stock mushroom cap with a centrifugal air cleaner (SMA and Predator both sell this). This mimics the AMG Desert Filtration Kit for HMMWV's.
- Replace the fluids in the geared hubs, transfer case, and transmission more often. Going to synthetics will help alleviate the need to do this.

If the prior owner took the truck in for service religiously, you will have little to no problems at all. Like JollyRoger, my truck's prior owner was not good about maintaining the truck, and I took about 6 months of time to get the truck to spec.