6th May 2010, 03:14

I bought a 2000 Blazer 2WD new. I have 147,000 HARD miles on it.

All of the problems (except transmission) mentioned I have had to deal with either through extended warranty or out of pocket.

The brakes, hubs and poor overall quality of the vehicle build & accessories are the major weak points. At 60,000 miles, expect things to begin failing frequently due to wear out.

The engine is solid if you can keep the rest of the vehicle from disintegrating around it! Change your transmission fluid every 50,000 miles. Get rid of the DEXCOOL ASAP and make sure to flush completely.

Don't bother cutting rotors, buy (premium) new ones all around along with new ceramic pads, and have the rotors turned true by an expert before you install them.

You can expect to replace wheel hubs every 60k or so. Make sure the ball joints get lubed during LOF service. The drive train will hold together if you take care of it.

I still have the vehicle. It was a lemon from day one due to many, many repairs under warranty. After 30,000 miles it settled down and went from Key West to Anchorage and back. It has seen severe use.

It has been a love/hate relationship with this vehicle. The 2000 was a particularly bad year from what I have experienced and heard. I would not buy a used one unless it was a steal and I knew the complete history of the vehicle. Hope some of this helps.

1st Jul 2010, 07:52

2000 Blazer, 4.3L V6: 273000 km and counting.

Major problems: 4 times truck wouldn't start when I turned the key:

~150000 km: dead battery (wouldn't charge - replaced).

~200000 km: electric fuel pump failed.

~250000 km: wouldn't fire in salty fog on Atlantic coast. Local garage rebuilt ignition system (had never been touched before).

~270000 km: ignition coil failed. Dealer said previuos repair had used a cheap whitebox coil.

Other problems (typical for this vehicle):

- front wheel bearings replaced 2X (1 warranty, 1 paid). No problem in last 100000 km.

- 4WD solenoid replaced once.

- hazard switch replaced.

All in all, not bad for "cheap low quality North American crap" as typically seen on auto forums. At least it has never run away uncontrollably.

Now if I could just reverse the rusting... :-(

12th Jul 2010, 13:28

I must say, I have read with great interest the comments on the Blazer and while I too have had some of the similar "ailments" with my truck that many others have had, I would not trade it for the world.

We bought our 2000 LT in 2001 with 18k miles on it. I have driven it for 9 years and put almost 250,000 miles on it.

I am having some problems now and did have others recently (had to have the fuel pump replaced 2 times, but it was my fault, driving it when the low fuel light was on), so can't blame the truck, just my being lazy & not stopping to put gas in it.

I am having problems now with the ABS system and am looking for another vehicle. I am keeping my Blazer though, to use as a company vehicle because it has been such a great truck for me. It has all the bells & whistles on it and none of them have ever caused me a problem. Well I take that back, the window did jump out of its track once, but I put it back & no more problems. The leather seats have lasted better than any seats I've ever had in any vehicle, they still look new & warm up nicely in the winter.

I'm hoping to put 300k miles on it before it is retired from everyday work, at which time it will proudly be used as our primary company truck for deliveries.

18th Aug 2010, 23:14

I, too, have had a lot of these problems.

Re: the tailgate/rear window switch where the little plastic arm breaks, I used the emergency access hole to open the tailgate so I could remove the cover panels. After that, I just removed the broken actuator arm and took some stainless steel electric fence wire and tied the solenoid shaft to the unlocking lever and it's been working fine so far. The replacement switch assembly costs about $50 at Autozone or O'Reilly's. If the wire breaks, I'll probably just get a new assembly. It'd cost about $300 to get a shop to fix it.

For a while before I took the panels off, I just tied a wire tie to the lever and let it stick through the emergency access hole to make it easier to open. You could probably tie a cord to the wire tie and run it to the front and open it that way.

But my new problem is the A/C working intermittently. The wife says (I rarely drive it) it cools fine, but will just quit cooling and blow hot air, then later it cools again. What's up with that? Any hints are greatly appreciated.