1998 Chevrolet Blazer LT review from North America

Driver side seat recliner lever fell off in my hand. The passenger seat lever failed shortly after. Don't bother with replacements they will just fall off too.

Battery replaced around 30K.

Upper and lower ball joints and idler arm need to be replaced about every 20K.

Wipers start to operate all on their own on nice sunny days. Yet wipers will not work in the rain.

The transmission had problems shifting properly. Changed the transmission fluid and filter and found out the fluid had a significant amount of water in it. The transmission worked better for a few months then had problems again. So I too it to the dealer and he said it was the most likely the throttle body, but he was not sure and it would cost $500. So I figured why pay $500 if the dealer is not sure he can fix it. So the service engine soon light stays on all the time and it seems to have problems shifting when it gets really hot.

Upper and lower oil lines leak. The dealer says these need to be replaced every 10k, and could blow out on the highway if not replaced. Dealer says lift the engine off the engine mounts to remove and replace the oil line. But we read on this site all you need to do is just get 2 by 4 and used the wood as a lever to move the engine out of the way to get the lines out. It is a really bad design the lines go to the oil filter which should attached to the engine in the first place.

Turn signal switch keeps clicking. Smoke comes from the steering wheel. The dealer says he will replace the signal lever for $300. Nonsense, the reason why the signal keeps clicking is because the grease they use to lube the gears leaks down and causes enough of a charge to make the signaling sound, but not enough to make the signal lights turn on. I just took off the signal lever sprayed it with carburetor cleaner then clean out all the grease inside and now it works good as new. Amazing! If you replace the signal lever you will have the same problems later on.

The belt started squeaking, replaced at 70K.

Did I mention the interior door panel pulls off every time you try to shut the door? I replaced the door clips. It turns out in the factory they put the clips in the wrong place, no wonder the door panel would not say on.

At first I thought this car was a Lemon, but now I realize all these problems come standard with every Blazer.

The 4.3L engine has good performance when the car runs. And the SUV does very well in the snow.

GM service sucks they still say there is nothing wrong with the Blazer.

The reliability of this SUV is terrible. We have a 1990 GMC Jimmy and it is more reliable then the 98 Blazer. After buying this Blazer we switched brands and bought a Toyota.

I hear the transmission problem is just two small springs, I just don't want to pay the dealer $500 to try to fix it. Does anyone know if I would be able to fix it my self?