Fortunately I haven't had to repair any of the drivetrain components except for the tranny now at 148k. A couple of years ago I replaced the fluids in the front dif, trans case, rear dif and everything looked perfect.
I bought my truck new and I've always kept up with the preventative maintenance but I done my far share of fixing all the notorious issues:
Fuel pump
Intake manifold gaskets
Steering components: pump, high pressure line, tie rod ends, pitman arm, steering box (adjusted to factory specs to remove the slop), rag joint
^^^ Those are just the major items. I've done lots of other minor work and it runs and drives as good as or better than new.
It would cost a fortune to maintain one of these if you weren't mechanically inclined and can DIY.
I''ll keep this thing until it totally dies or rots out. The engine is solid and since the last oil change, 4,000 miles ago, it's only used about a 1/4 of a quart of oil and I have some very minor leaks.
That reminds me, I also replaced the pitman and idler arm with Moog parts. These trucks last a long time if you do a little preventative maintenance and upkeep on them. Unfortunately, my parts failed because of my heavy foot
. You can only slide the truck sideways so many times before your G80 gives up. They just weren't made for that kind of abuse on the pavement. In all, I'm pretty happy with my '04 sierra 4x4 pickup and my wifes suburban ('99). However, regrettably we sold the suburban last year. Dumb move on my part. The only thing that went bad on the burb was the distributor cap, 3 alternators, and the notorious reaction sun shell. Not too bad for a 17 year old truck..
