Hey everyone. My truck is going to hit 90,000 miles tomorrow. Is there anything special I should be doing/checking? Oil/trans/Coolant were all done recently. Differentials/TC/Brake/Power Steering were all done in 2009. I got a card in the mail a few months ago from a business I am no longer doing business with (the one that tried to charge me $1200 for wheel bearings in February) that tells me that I have to bring the truck in for a 90k mile service but says nothing about what is in a 90k service or what it costs. What does a 90k service involve and can I do it myself? Thanks.

 

You know in the owners manual they have a recommended service list. If it doesn't go to 100,000 miles you can refer back to the 45,000 service.
But, you know, I change oil & filter regularly. I check all my fluild levels at each service. I change tranny fluid when I notice it starting to turn dark red or it starts smelling. Before I added a B&M SuperCooler I would change the ATF & filter every 30,000 to 40,000 miles. Diffs & transfer case I change when I notice them looking or smelling bad. Other than that I just drive them. We have 143,000 miles on our Blazer 4x4 & my wife commutes 120 miles a day with it. I just stay on top of maintenance. Check belts, air filters, I run an injector cleaner every so often through the gas. I check my water hoses closely. Sometime I just stand & stare at the engine just looking to see if I see anything not right. I always watch for leaks, things like going to the store & come out & fluid under my rigs.
As an old retired & tired mechanic I'm not real big on these maintenance schedule things. We drive used cars & drive them sometimes to 300,000 miles or more. We just watch things. My wife is real good about paying attention to different noises or conditions. But she is a daughter of an old, retired, tired mechanic so she is pretty aware.

 

Ok thanks alot for the advice. I do oil/filter/lube every 3,000 miles (2,500 if the oil looks really dirty or if I know that getting it changed at 3,000 will not be possible because of my schedule). I do the trans every 15,000 (which is every year with the filter every 30,000) and I do have a B&M SuperCooler (please see my album/garage on the forum). I am going to have the diffs and t/c checked and changed if needed next time the truck is in the shop for anything else since I currently do not have the means to safely lift and support the truck to get under it to check it. I use Lucas or Techron fuel injector cleaner as needed, with the Techron every 3k. Belts and hoses are nearly new and they still look great. Air filter is only 6 months old since it is a Spectre CAI.
The only leak I know of is a very slow oil leak, possibly out the rear main seal (so I was told) since the oil pan has a film of oil on it, but I have never had to add oil between oil changes since I am not noticing a drop. I already had both sets of oil lines replaced. Since it is so slow of a leak and a difficult fix, I really don't want to have an long, expensive repair on my hands so it is not worth fixing. When the oil lines were leaking in 2008, some idiot I know put stop leak in the oil (which obviously didn't work). Never used anything like it again. The only additive I used to use before this previous oil change was Lucas, but I didn't use it this time since I used Royal Purple 10W-30 as an experiment. I think I am going to try 1/2 a qt of Lucas at the next oil change just for the heck of it since the Royal Purple seems to work fine.

 

Sounds like your in great shape maintenance wise. I say just drive it & enjoy the ownership of a good SUV, I enjoy ours & use the heck out of it. It sees a lot of off-road & highway both. I think they are great trucks even with the problems they can have. Chevy's I think ride, handle, & drive the best of any of the SUV line. I know people with $65,000 SUVs that in my opinion aren't any better.

 

Thanks. Yea they are great trucks. When I was learning how to drive 2 years ago, I drove my mom's Lexus RX330 and later the RX350 (she got that just 2 weeks before I got the Jimmy in Nov. 2007) since it was the smallest vehicle we had at the time (my whole family drives large vehicles, mainly SUVs.) and I like the GMC better. It just feels like a more solid truck. The RX350 is all plastic all over the place. It isn't even 4WD. It is AWD. It doesn't even have a frame. It's tow ratings are about half of what these trucks are! It is basically an oversized Toyota Camry! I actually drove a Nissan sedan for my driving test just before I got the GMC. After driving SUVs all the time, never again. They feel so close to the ground and so small compared to all the SUVs on the road, I just can't drive one for long. I would probably drive over some potholes that would be no issue for the GMC that would destroy any sedan.

Actually, I don't think these trucks are full of problems. Sure, the front end, intake gaskets and 4WD can be a pain in the a**, but none of those are serious enough to actually disable the vehicle and are usually easy fixes.

Also, I am (if I can put it in words) a short computer nerd. Getting into this truck is easy. You don't need to take a climbing course or take Climbing merit badge at summer camp (I did in 2007.) just to get into it. I also drove an 03 Tahoe and a 93 full size Blazer a while back and those were like flying a 767 or 777 on flight sim. They were hard to handle, especially on highways, narrow country roads and parking lots. I even had trouble sitting close enough to the wheel to reach the pedals and see out the windshield. If I could compare the Jimmy to a plane, I would call it a 757-200 because it is long, futuristic (the newer models don't look like late 90s trucks. They aren't "boxy" enough like the full sizes.) and thin. It might be a bit hard to maneuver in parking lots and narrow mountain roads, but on highways, it is the best. It is the right size truck for me. I have no trouble reaching the pedals or seeing out the front (and I am not even sitting in the airbag danger zone). Yea, it is a great truck. I have put 32,000 on mine (just hit 90k tonight) and I would find it hard to drive anything else.