1996 Chevrolet Blazer LX two door from North America - Comments

Since I have owned the car I aside from the brakes it has needed a few factory recalls,

36K Seatbelt refused to extend, made clicking noise. Dealer replaced it.

47K Heater blew cool air, the thermostat was replaced, problem has not occurred since.

55K Truck would not switch into 4X4, brought it to the dealer they replaced the switch.

60K A/C no longer works, dealership told me they had no idea why, but for 60+ dollars an hour they could try to find out… still broke.

64K Seatbelt again refused to extend, now back and front passenger side seats, dealer could not replicate problem. They work the majority of the time now.

64K the pulley/belt tensioner broke, but it was a cheap and relatively easy fix.

80K Transmission started to slip going into reverse.

The truck up to 96K was a good truck. The concerns were with an ever decreasing gas mileage and the cold day transmission slippage.

At the 96K mark the transmission started hesitating even more going into reverse. Since it was normally a cold weather thing, and it was February in Jersey, I attributed it to that. I had the truck shipped to Germany. After 45 days in storage it really had a problem getting into reverse and hesitated into first. With in a thousand miles it completely failed and would only stay in 1st, the transmission was replaced. That was a very expensive 3,600 euro fix.

97K 4x4 no longer works, made an appointment to see what is wrong with it.

I really wish I had read the other reviews prior to purchasing my 96 Chevy Blazer (LS). I think it would have swayed me a bit from buying this vehicle, or at least forewarned me to some of its problems. The most worrisome part of all of this is the similarity between the faults reported by previous owners and what I myself have experienced with the truck. Apparently this is just a truck that could have been great had there been quality parts or pride in production. My brother owns a 96 Chevy S-10 pick up – standard transmission. The parts we do share have gone out near the same time. I have owned my truck since October of 1999, bought it with 34K miles on it. It now has 98K miles. I am in the military and had my truck shipped to me here in Germany…. Since then – oh my god, the nickel and dime’ing became thousands upon thousands of dollars being spent on this vehicle. When my windshield wipers stopped working last month the on base mechanic looked up my VIN # to see if my truck was under the recall for the same problem that another blazer had had just a few weeks earlier. I was a number off, no joke, the kicker is that my truck had a rap sheet 2 ½ pages long of problems before mine!!! Dealing from brakes (go figure) to Air Conditioner problems and more – all this prior to hitting 34K of life of the truck!

The brakes are just not good enough for this vehicle. Two weeks ago plowing into a ditch because of them made me just that much more frustrated at lack of stopping power. I have purchased new “high performance” pads and even upgraded to the sport slotted rotors to help out. My drums apparently don’t do much more than keep some weight on the rear wheels even after full replacement of those. I have had to replace my pads 5 times, and I had to bring it to the dealership every time I had my vehicle inspected for failing the brake tests. I am not sure if others have this problem too, but when it rains, and I drive my truck for the first time that day the brake locks up all the wheels at slow speeds the first couple of times I hit it.

I love my 1996 Chevy Blazer LT. I had to fix a $400 some odd dollar oil leak and the timing belt. It has 109,000 miles on it. I just recently replaced the water pump and now I constantly hear water swooshing around in the dash. No matter what I'll always love my Chevy truck!! Imagine how much worse it could have been, it could be a FORD!! Tell your blazer you love it every night and she'll treat you fine.

Water swishing in the dash? Your heater core is probably partially clogged. Back flush it and you should probably switch to green coolant. Change that coolant every year so it "might" not happen again.