1991 Chevrolet S-10 review from North America

The brake pads were shot when I bought the vehicle, I replaced them immediately.

I also had to replace the horn, which did not work when I bought the truck.

The gas gauge was broken when I bought the vehicle. I never did fix it.

My brake line rusted through at 130,000 miles. It cost about $30 to fix.

My cooling fan (belt driven) went bad at about 140,000 miles, and I replaced it with a $25 flex fan rather than buy the $120+ part.

My clutch and bell-housing failed at 148,000 miles.

My water pump and head gasket failed at 152,000 miles. The mechanic told me I'd mounted the flex fan wrong.

The intake manifold gasket failed at 153,000 miles. I suspect my mechanic broke it when replacing the head gasket, but could not prove it. I fixed it myself and have not been back to that mechanic.

The head gasket blew again at 154,000 miles. I fixed it myself.

The oil pump and screen failed at just over 154,000 miles. This was caused by their sitting in water for several months, due to the blown head gasket. I replaced both parts myself, with great difficulty. Unfortunately, I did not get the oil pan gasket to seat properly, so I have a major oil leak.

Started burning oil at 154,000 miles.

This was the best vehicle I ever owned until things started going wrong. At 154,000 miles, it needs a full engine rebuild--but only because I screwed up the water pump by installing an unbalanced flex fan, and then didn't stop when I first saw the steam.

I really can't complain. I started at 100,000 and got almost another 50,000 miles with no major problems. Over all those miles, it left me on the side of the road twice. Not bad at all.