I am new to the forum, so bare with me. I am looking to purchase a 1999 H1. I am looking to get a decent price, but I am worried about the cost of the more common repairs. Can some of you H1 owners fill me in on some of the prices you have paid for certain repairs? This will help me to determine if the H1 is going to break me or not. Thanks for the help!

 

I just replaces my front break pads, rear break pads, and rear rotors, + labour it set me back $817 CDN and that was a good price cuz I knew the mechanic and stuff the dealership priced me at $1000 for just the pads and labour.

 

Is that a repair that a knowledgable home mechanic could do to save some money? I am sure labor was probably half that bill, right??

 

Come on guys and gals. I know there are tons of you with the information I need. Share the love. Help out a fellow enthusiast! PLEASE!

 

The problem is, there aren't very many H1 owners, let alone many that are on this site. Those that are, don't check in on a regular basis, so it may be a while before you get more information from other H1 owners. The vehicles aren't that hard to work on, I spun a few wrenches on them in the Marine Corps, but my ability was limited because the Marine Corps is finiky about only letting MOS school trained mechanics work on stuff. I just got lucky a few times. I can tell you the hardest thing to do to the military versions is to leave them on the street. We had more broken stuff because of highway time then we did from off road abuse. I would assume this may hold true for the early civilian versions, but the later ones might be more streetable.

 

Well I am not very well off when it comes to mechanic knowledge just learning as stuff breaks and stuff but yea I guess the breaks are tricky because they are up into the frame and not right at the tire the mechanic said he had to take the whole rear end apart just to change the rotors. and I believe $250.00 of the bill was labour the rest was parts and this mechanic is good with me when it comes to parts and labour.
Also I have replaced the alternator and that cost me 315$ CDN 250$ of which was the part.. the mechanic said the retail price for it should be 350$ so i dunno.

As for other work I had done was a bleeding of the fuel system due to a air lock... that set me back 100$ in all labour but that was my own fault idling on a hill back in the trails for like 10 min(to take pics) with only 1/4 tank of gas....

Oh yea and oil changes done at the hummer dealership set me back $80CDN and some change...

hope that gives you some idea of costs...

 

Thanx Injunfarian, the infromation is VERY helpful! Keep it coming! Anyone else with some info / advice?

 

I know that when I had spoken to the salesman at the dealer and I expressed the desire to get an H1, he told me that not only are the repair bills very high, but the are even having trouble getting parts because priority is the military. The service guy told me he had a 3-6 month wait just on tires!

 

Dealership guy told me simular thing that I would have to have a couple thousand a month just for repairs and maintenance, and he also said he wont even sell the H1's due to this etc etc...but I had this thing since May of this year(at 80,000 miles currently has 91,000 miles) and spent less then 1,400$ CDN on it and its 8 years old... And it was very abused before I got it and I abuse it almost every weekend... So honestly I dont think the repair bill is that high on it considering what it is and what i put it through,... I know if i would have bought anything less the repair bill would be much higher due to broken parts. I been trailing with many vehicles and only time I have ever broken down on the trail was due to an airlock in the fuelsystem because I was on a slant so long the pump couldnt get any fuel which was my own mistake.. but I was out there with jeeps just as old or newer then mine and they had blown driveshafts, cracked frame rails, broken U joints... etc etc.

Also forgot about some own repairs I did myself
50$ CDN for parts for the dome light setup in my ride(direct from dealership so paid the dues i'm sure if i shopped around coulda got it alot cheaper) as for installation just clipped in

like 10$ CDN for generic flasher for my turning signals again installation was just pull the old one out and snap the new one in...

like 17$ CDN for new headlight as for installation just unscrew 3 screws take out the coverframe and headlight unit... plug the new one in put on the coverframe and screw the screws back in then goto a large wall and check that the alignment of the lights are correrct and your done...

I believe that is all but if I think of more ill let you know.... but yea honestly I wouldnt worry about repair costs if your really interested in the H1 I would worry about the fuel cost... that is what I spent the most on, but you can expect this from any fullsize SUV.

 

Personally, I think this urban assault vehicle is impractical for a daily driver...Get an H2, becuase at least they are more practical for streets with the brawn to off road too...But that's just my opinion...Good luck.