1998 Chevrolet S-10 Extended Cab LS review from North America

When I received the truck it had the left front wheel bearing worn out.

I replaced this with my father for little money.

The seat handles were broken off (gmseatfix.com), I don't care about reclining my seat so I left this alone.

Two gauge illumination bulbs were out in the dash, again I did not care so I left it.

The water pump went at 70,000 miles and I consider this routine maintenance since it happens to every vehicle.

The back-up light switch died recently and I replaced for 8 dollars in 5 minutes.

I did spark plugs and the middle cylinder on the passenger side is a pain. The steering shaft runs directly across the top of the plug so a ratchet cannot be used to remove the plug (4.3 liter). It is solved by using a spark plug socket and a 3/4 inch wrench on the back of the socket (took me 1 hour to get the plug out this way).

Recently replaced the idler arm, but let a shop do the pitman arm since it requires moving the steering box to get to the bolt that holds the pitman arm on output shaft. (shop charged 140 dollar for replacing the pitman arm and an alignment).

Had the lower intake manifold leak (leaking outside not into the engine), but it went away on it's own.

Oil seeping around remote oil filter (the lines possibly), but not enough to create a problem before the next oil change at 3000 miles.

Steering fluid appears to be seeping out near the steering box, but the fluid doesn't seem to be getting any lower, so I have been ignoring the leak and checking all of my fluids every now and then.

Overall the truck is a great truck. It handles wonderful for a truck and is very powerful for a 6 cylinder. With the new set of plugs I can easily chirp it into 3rd gear.

I have been taking it off-road over the last winter with my friends lifted Jeep. My truck had performed poorly on Yokohama tires (car tires it seemed), but now I have Toyo all-terrains and it will take most anything it seems. Even with this added abuse the truck is running great and nothing has broken on the truck.

People complain about the automatic transfer case not always positively engaging and I have not had this problem once. Over the entire winter I was using the 4x4 (4x4 high on-road and 4x4 low off-road) a lot and I never had it not shift.

It gets around 18 mpg with the way I drive, which is a bit lead-footed. This is great considering the size of the engine.

The truck will not fit bigger then a 235/75/15 without being dangerously close to rubbing. The 235/75/15's I have on it now are only about an inch away from the bottom of the front fenders right now.

Lift kits are very expensive for this truck, so don't plan on using it off-road unless you want to spend the cash (it also will never accept very large tires without fender modification).

It is great for on-road and as a work truck, but off-road it is too long and low as most modern compact pick-ups are.

That is why I am selling my truck and getting a Wrangler, which has a spotty reliability record. I am a kid though and don't mind doing the maintenance on it, as long as it gives me a fun time off-road.