1996 Chevrolet Blazer LT from North America - Comments

My 96 Blazer has 60,000 miles on it and has been well maintained. Coolant got into the oil and the mechanic said it is a design flaw, no recall and involves several years of Blazer, Suburban and Tahoe. I filed a complaint with auto safety. org and hope others will do so also. I love this truck, but will not buy another G.M. again. I expected more miles before a major break down. Just thankful no one got hurt when it quit.

Guess I'm next,

I own a 98 Chevy blazer. I bought it used off some old lady and it had 61,000 miles on it. Great truck can't complain. A couple of repairs here and there, but I was expecting that. I replaced the multi function switchboard (turn signal thingy) right after I bought it. Some dude at a garage wanted 460 for parts and installation. I bought the part of eBay new for 80 bucks and did it myself. Next in line was my radiator. God only know what happened, but somehow my overflow line blew off and soon after my engine was running HOT. Once again was quoted something like 480 for everything, bought the part new off ebay for 100 bucks, did it myself in 25 minutes. The most recent problem is my center link and idler arm. My 2 cents if it matters, taking a class on basic maintenance for cars helped A lot. Most of the problems you see with the blazers are recognized by GM, but not recalled. Go on google and look up "Technical Service Bulletins" for you make and year. I guarantee your problem will be on there. My truck now has 80,000 miles on it and I love it.

I have read all the comments listed here about chevy blazer.

I now have my third blazer, and have not experienced the above-mentioned problems. I have had to replace a few things that do wear out. I know of many people that own vehicles and know very little about simple maintenance. Many do not know how to change oil in their lawn mower. The statement has been made that if you take care of your vehicle, it will take care of you. That seems to be mostly true. I have known drivers that would drive an auto and never change the oil. They just added oil when it was low, and probably with the cheapest oil on the market. In most glove boxes, you can find a maintenance manual. Read it and have your wife read it too, because some know more about an auto than others.

I am on my second 96 Blazer, and unfortunately I am having one mess of a time with this one. Just can't get it to start when the engine is cold without spraying starter fluid into the intake. Changed the fuel filter and had the fuel pump checked. Pressure tests normal every time. Changed distributor cap and rotor. Now having problems with the alternator. Easy fix... but the cold start problem remains. Several people have looked at it, and no one has a clue about what else could be wrong with it. Any ideas?

I have a '96 Chevy Blazer. bought it used $5,999. After all said and done I'm paying 7400 for it and still owe 4955.

They saw me coming. It's my second car, had an 86 Buick before and I want it back. My car dies EVERY time I hold the brakes, stop signs, backing out of the drive, etc... Any ideas what I should do?

I have a 96 Blazer 2WD. Bought it with 27,000 miles on it, and have had it since 1998. Now has 134,000.

I did have to have the radiator flushed out a couple of years after I bought it. That was a little pricey. Other than that, I just kept up the normal maintenance and the car runs great...

My husband keeps bugging me to trade it off and get something newer, but I just love that vehicle.

I agree with others; if you keep up the oil changes every 3,000, and other yearly maintenance, you get a lot more miles out of your vehicle.

I read your blog about your Blazer. I don't know where you live but I live in the farm land 30 miles from a city. My sister in laws live in Desmoines. We had the same kind of car; she went through a lot of brakes, tires and alternators; all kinds of stuff. I did not. She also had a lot of the things like you have had go wrong. I have not.

She washes her car all the time, under the hood, everything. I do not. I wash my cars outside once a week, and once in awhile in the winter.

I did have the battery go dead two different times. I had the battery and alternator checked at a parts store. This is free, but you do need the alternator off the car to put on their machine.

The first time the battery was to blame. 2 years later diodes in the alternator were bad and I was told if I let it sit for more than a month I should remove battery as the anti thief will drain a battery.

As for the transmission flush, I have this done every 50k miles, and the engine oil and coolant.

I still have my 97 Chevy. She has something else. I have 250k miles on it and it needs a new intake gasket and the A/C quit. I won't fix the A/C; I use it for fishing and pulling things.

What I'm saying is wires and computers don't like water, and oils need replacing and things need to be flushed from time to time, and depending on your driving habits and where you live is what causes wear.

If you don't want to fix your A/C bearings, you can buy a by-pass pulley. It's been awhile but I hope you still have that Chevy.

I've hit 202,000+ Miles and my Blazer has been remarkably enduring compared to all the issues you folks have had. I've pulled a trailer across the country with it, hauled heavier trucks out of wrecks and mud, and driven in 100 degree weather in stop&go traffic for hours, daily.

-Gaskets are shot (Will be replacing them soon)

-Ignition switch replaced ($450) 2 months ago

-Runs rough above 55 but that's probably my vacuum seals.

-AC is leaking somewhere but the windows work well enough.

-Transmission work about 200k miles, $350

-Side view mirrors broke off due to 75+ mph on CA highways (Thank God for gorilla glue)

All in all the only time the truck didn't get my wife or me home before quitting was when it ran out of gas. (I remind her of this often) Priceless.

Perhaps I'm the lucky one.

I have a 2003 Chevy Blazer that I bought with 87.000 miles on it. The only work I put into it was a new timing chain and gears, lower ball joints, idler arm and pitman arm. I have also done a lot of preventative maintenance on it. All of the fluids have been changed on a regular basis. I run Mobil 1 oil in my Blazer, and I change it every 5K miles. My Blazer just hit 100.000 and it runs like a brand new one. I absolutely love it, and I plan on keeping it for a long time.

I have a 1996 Blazer its, my 2nd and I wouldn't trade it for the world. I have had only had to replace the starter. I'm not easy on my vehicles and by far the blazer has withstood the test of my driving. Snow, sleet, rain, or 100degrees its never failed me.

I have a 1996 Chevy Blazer.. I was told that I have a problem with my catalytic converter, and that it is so backed up that it is making the manifold heat up and it is smoking, and the other day it got hot enough to catch on fire. Has this happened to anyone?

1998 Blazer LS 4 door 2WD 4.3 V6 with 136,000 miles on it - original owner.

This has been a pretty good car, despite rough service of short trips (less than 3 miles round) and almost purely city driving in very hot weather.

I can't believe what I'm hearing about brake problems. I don't think I've ever changed the front pads or rear shoes in this car. I've taken them apart a couple of times, thinking they MUST need changing by now, but I don't think I've actually done it. If so, only once max.

I've done a poor job of maintaining this car, although I've always used synthetic motor oil. Probably waited too long between changes, but that hasn't seemed to hurt the engine so far.

Have had a couple of the nuisance problems like broken seat adjusters, the crazy wiper controller, and a water pump, but those were cheap fixes (done by myself). I can't actually fault GM for the water pump since it would be pretty normal to replace at least one in that number of miles.

I wish I could find after market wiper blades as good as the GM originals - am about ready to buy GM OEM because everything else, all other problems, I blame directly on myself!

Had to get a transmission rebuilt while on a cross country trip. Here's a clue: If you're 5 miles from your house, your check engine light comes on, and your transmission begins to bang shifts, DO NOT drive on toward your 1200 mile destination. Instead, turn back toward a transmission shop and get the problem fixed for $250. The guys who fixed it in Jefferson City for $900 (?) were GREAT, by the way.

Also, if GM says change that transmission fluid every 50K, you should really think about doing it by 86K - I've yet to do it on the rebuilt tranny.

The rear window quit opening as described elsewhere in this forum. Disassembly showed a plastic part of the actuator was broken - another cheap fix, but kind of a pain.

Everybody has mentioned ball joints and/or other front end parts. Well, I had to replace those myself by around 95K. I DO NOT BLAME GM AT ALL for this since the originals never saw grease during their entire service life. Remember this car is almost exclusively driven in the city and the wife can't even get it out of the garage without gyrations of the steering (I pull it straight in - it HAS to be able to come straight out). I only discovered the joint problem when the car started making a loud KEEERAAACK noise going over bumps at slow speeds. This was the joint being bound up then cutting loose all at once (yes, I am a dumba55). Here's another clue: Those Chinese ball joints at AutoZone with the 90 day guarantee? Yeah, figure that for a 90 day SERVICE LIFE!!! Moog joints from O'Reilly this time around.

It's using some oil now and I'm not sure why. It leaks very little - I should post a photo of the place where it has sit every day for the last seven years - just a few drops and many of those because I am too stupid to use a funnel when changing the oil. It doesn't smoke either, but I'm still thinking the rings might be sticking due to the cheapa55 gas the wife puts in it. Beyond that, a new fuel filter seemed to mostly fix the shutdown whine as suggested by some on the internet, and some weird rattle that I would say was the early fuel evaporation (EFE) valve EXCEPT this is a thottle body injected engine that DOESN'T HAVE and EFE.

Doesn't seem to be an exhaust leak (although I think I have one after 10 years).

Today, it has developed a growling that I worry is a wheel bearing, U-joint, transmission, or differential, but it could just be something grounded out. I can hear it inside the cab, but not hanging out the rear door with my head almost under the car and the wife driving through the Walmart parking lot! Hopefully, it will get me back home where I can do a better job of checking things out.

I might mention that I also own a 1991 Blazer that is pretty well clapped out after 130K with many, many miles pulling a competition ski boat on all of the hottest days of a Texas summer. That one suffered more from the neglect of being left for long periods without being driven. I don't think that one ever had a major problem until the very end (and I'm not sure it's completely dead yet).

For all the "I will never buy GM" types in this forum, let me relate a few of my peers' foreign car experiences during the service life of these two vehicles:

TJ blew the head gasket on his Nissan truck driving less than 70K easy, easy highway miles (at 55 MPH speed limit).

Todd's brand new Nissan Titan pickup became full-time 4WD (common for that vehicle).

Chris' Toyota mini-van came factory-direct with a passenger door that required superhuman strength to open or close.

The neighbors required a service call at the Grand Canyon for their Honda mini-van after it wouldn't start (165K of them were recalled for that exact problem).

Marty's Jetta had the power window quit working - he tore the door all apart and I'm not sure he ever got it fixed on his own.

The lady in front of me at state inspection had her 4 year old Nissan flunk the emissions test right before my 6 year old Oldsmobile passed without problem (and 2 weeks after my 10 year old Blazer passed).

I rode to lunch in Mark's Camry one day and we grounded out that ridiculous, dangling-down exhaust system on the driveway into work (that always looked like it would be a problem with those cars - now I have confirmation).

The dope on the local TV station test drove a Toyota Sequoia on a 'cold' Texas winter day and reported that the heating system didn't warm up the cab for about 15 minutes. He said 'he figured that boded well for the hot Texas summer days, though'. Haha! As if! F'd is f'd, but the biased media will always attempt to put the best spin on things for the Japanese cars. I buy American, not out of patriotism, but because I seem to be getting pretty good cars. That Olds Alero has been perfect for 80K+ miles now.

As a side note in closing, I recently sold my old 1971 Cutlass to a guy who wanted to restore it. A '69 model was my first car and we had a '71 as a family car when I was a kid. I almost cried when I sold it - even knowing I'd never find time to restore it myself. Now, can anybody imagine somebody in the future suddenly getting goose bumps, sucking a quick breath and saying, "Oooh. Look, a fully-restored-to-mint-condition 2001 Camry - just like the one my family had when I was a kid."? NO WAY!! American cars are cool! OK, maybe they weren't for a while, but Detroit has recently restored the holy trinity to us: Ford Mustang, Dodge Challenger, and Chevrolet Camaro. I saw my first Camaro driving down the road last week and nearly went into a ditch. The middle-aged coot driving it knew he was cool-by-extension and gave a quick wave to acknowledge my rubber-necking. Oh, yeah, and my daughter wants my 1981 Corvette as her first car. AMERICAN CARS ARE COOL!