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Hummers produced between 1994 and 1997.5 have poorly designed
heating and air-conditioning systems that were supplied to AMG
by Acme. The reason AMG specified this unit is because it was
physically small. The first Hummers that came out for civilian
use were targeted for commercial / industrial / and the mining
market. They wanted to have as much space inside the cabin as
possible. Creature comfort was not a priority. As it turned out
AMG misread the market and the biggest user by far turned out
to be us civilians. The Acme unit became a major headache.
Aside from it's poor A/C performance it is plagued with numerous
problems. The largest problem by far is leaking heater cores.
The cores develop pin hole leaks which can be immediatly recognized
by a strong smell of antifreeze and the major fogging up of the
front windshield. Along with the heater core there have been reports
of air conditioner evaporator leaks, blown controllers, and sticking
heater valves.
AMG decided that this system was so bad that they started replacing
the whole thing complete with core, fan, wiring, and all the controls
in trucks that were still under warranty with a completely new
system. The newer system comes standard on all trucks that are
1997.5's and newer. At the same time they discontinued all repair
parts for the older Acme system.
If your truck is older then 1997.5 and your heating and/or airconditioning
system develops a problem you have 3 options:
1. Get a replacement unit from Lefty for $750.00 and either install
it yourself or have it installed.
2. Upgrade to the "new and improved" system which costs
about $2700.00 in parts. The fully installed price for an upgraded
heating / airconditioning system with labor is about $4,000. This
modification is major and requires new holes to be cut in the
truck.
3. The third option is to repair/ rebuild the unit yourself.
Most people agree that it is impossible to fix the existing unit,
because it cannot be taken apart and re-assembled properly. That's
why AMG always replaced them. The Acme units are assembled with
rivits and black mastic glue. Dealers estimated that it would
be an 8 to 9 hour job to disassemble and repair an Acme unit.
At 75 to 95 an hour (not including parts) it can get expensive
fast.
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