I have been driving diesels since 1979; mostly in Maryland. My first Suburban diesel was a 86 6.2L. Now have my 2nd diesel Suburban, a 99 K2500 6.5L. Both trucks were/are great although the 6.2 was more reliable. In spite of recurring injector pump, lift pump problems and battery cable problems, I luv the 99. Hoping that the IP problems have been solved with the installation of a Stanadyne aftermarket rebuild and a Heath remotely located FSD. These mods have only been on the truck for 1 year and about 10k miles.
I have 153k miles on my truck. My wife and I are retired and drive up and down the east coast. I want to minimize my chances of breakdowns so I try to do preventative maintenance .... meaning replacing parts when they get near their end of life; but before they fail. I think it saves me money in the long run because I can do some of the replacements myself when at home in my garage; but break downs on the road, especially after business hours is a whole other story; not to mention the safety hazards of being down on the side of the road.
I have been searching all over the internet trying to find out how long vacuum pumps usually last; but no joy. Same for alternators, wheel bearings etc. I would think that a forum such as this would be a good place to collect this kind of data and it could be put to good use by me and other folks like me. I don't know how to collect the data as forum user; but I wonder if the web site management might be interested in starting such a data base? I realize there would have to be some thought put into it to make it useful such as being able to separate failures by the type of driving ..... off road vs trailer towing vs cruising and warm, hot and cold driving conditions etc. But it sure would be a big help to owners like me that tend to keep a vehicle for many years and want to keep like new reliability.
I have 153k miles on my truck. My wife and I are retired and drive up and down the east coast. I want to minimize my chances of breakdowns so I try to do preventative maintenance .... meaning replacing parts when they get near their end of life; but before they fail. I think it saves me money in the long run because I can do some of the replacements myself when at home in my garage; but break downs on the road, especially after business hours is a whole other story; not to mention the safety hazards of being down on the side of the road.
I have been searching all over the internet trying to find out how long vacuum pumps usually last; but no joy. Same for alternators, wheel bearings etc. I would think that a forum such as this would be a good place to collect this kind of data and it could be put to good use by me and other folks like me. I don't know how to collect the data as forum user; but I wonder if the web site management might be interested in starting such a data base? I realize there would have to be some thought put into it to make it useful such as being able to separate failures by the type of driving ..... off road vs trailer towing vs cruising and warm, hot and cold driving conditions etc. But it sure would be a big help to owners like me that tend to keep a vehicle for many years and want to keep like new reliability.
