1998 Chevrolet Blazer LS 4.3L vortec V6

Summary:

I've never gotten stuck, and I live in new england

Faults:

Alternator went at 100000 miles.

Needed to replace all 4 brakes (calipers, rotors, and new emergency brakes) around 100000.

Windshield wipers only shut off when they want to.

Rear wiper not functioning.

Rear driver side seat doesn't fold down any more.

General Comments:

This truck has pretty good power, but not enough for street racing or burn outs.

The interior is very roomy and comfortable.

The gas mileage is very low.

The appearance is clean and simple and with just enough trim.

Looks much better with large tires (i have the biggest I can without lift)

Also looks much better with after-market lights (fogs, parking lamps, tail lights head lights)

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes

Review Date: 2nd May, 2006

1998 Chevrolet Blazer LS 4.3L

Summary:

Stay away for your own good

Faults:

Ball joints and idler arm failed every yearly state inspection.

It eats brake pads every 8,000 miles.

Both wheel bearing hubs.

3 rear wiper motors.

Many anti-freeze leaks (including heater core $550 cost, intake manifold, water pump gasket and others never found!)

Rear went $700.

Tranny went at 90,000 Miles $2500.

Alternator 95,000.

Front axle and 4X4 problems which I never got fixed because of insane amount of money already spent on repairs.

I had countless electrical problems, nothing ever seems to work properly.

Heater blend door snapped off leaving me with only the defroster, required taking the whole dash apart.

Air Bag light kept coming on, spent over $500 to fix electrical shorts and it started doing it again right before I traded it.

AC compressor died 2 times.

Thin paint wears off on door corners.

Door hinge pins replaced 3 times.

Seat recliner handles snap off.

General Comments:

This is the worst vehicle chevy has ever made.

The interior is comfortable, but annoying. Everything is made out of a hard plastic that creeks, squeaks, rattles, cracks, and falls apart more than anything you can imagine. Seat recliner handles break right off and are not repairable.

Handling is very poor, it leans very hard in turns, steering is completely unresponsive, the steering system is outdated and never stays aligned, and is very high maintenance.

The engine is powerful, but not powerful enough to compensate for the barely 13 mpg it gets.

The transmission has to downshift often to increase speed.

The 4WD system has failed several times.

I spent over $4500 in repairs in 2 years, and I did most of the work myself.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? No

Review Date: 19th March, 2006

22nd Jul 2006, 23:15

I don't know what you were doing to your blazer, but mine has almost 170k miles, and I've had almost no problems with it. I did have to replace minor things like the alternator, battery and stuff, but nothing else major except the dings and dents we've put in it. As for everything breaking, nothing has really broken like you say... you must have really been rough with it to break everything. Just my opinion... take better care of your vehicles, and you won't have so much to complain about. ;)

1st Aug 2006, 17:36

The car works fine and you must have ran it too hard, this stuff would break on any car if you treated it poorly.

2nd Aug 2006, 12:12

I have a 97 blazer with 113,000 miles on it. The only things major that were replaced were upper ball joints, ignition lock (twice) which was contributed to the transmission fluid needing changing and alternator and battery. Brakes I do myself and the stupid Dex-Cool coolant I removed and replaced this past weekend with regular Prestone Antifreeze because of high water temp. Transmission fluid was changed at 110,000 miles which helped. Other than that I love my blazer. Its 4 wheel drive works great in the snow.

23rd Jan 2007, 12:48

I completely agree with everything you said, I have had to replace more things on my truck than I can count. Heres a short list of all the problems I have encountered.

New Head Gasket

New Transmission

New distributor

New battery

Complete overhaul of front and back suspension

2 New rear wiper motors

Brakes every 7 thousand

New radiator

Alignment every 6 months

New tire hoist for spare.

There are more smaller things I have had to replace, and things continue to break, I have a little over 100,000 on the truck and I bought it at 60,000 miles. All of these repairs have happened during the only 40,000 I have put on the truck over three years. Ill put it this way, if you want to spend far more on repairs than you did on the original list price, buy this truck, if you want to keep your sanity, BEWARE!!!

In reply to 22nd Jul 2006, 23:15

10th Oct 2017, 00:52

Well said.