Our Astro suffered from a broken water pump on the first day we went to pick it up from the dealership. It was replaced and never broke again.
My dad is a mechanic and has always serviced the van himself. Routine maintenance and an oil change every 3,000 miles using only Valvoline 10w/30 for the winter and 10w/40 for the summer.
Major meltdowns in the past 18 years:
The sides of the radiator leaked in 1992 (Replaced and have not had trouble since)
Starter broke in 1994 (Replaced and have not had trouble since)
Three dead batteries (Not the Astro's fault!)
Three clutches worn and replaced. (will need a fourth soon because the current clutch really doesn't act like a clutch. It is more like an in-out box with no feel.)
Radio was never very good (Replaced it in 2001 with a CD player - big improvement)
For the past eight years the van has developed a consistent chuggle (vibration, annoyance, bumpa-bumpa-bumpa - a few choice terms for chuggle) while driving at all speeds.
The driver and passenger front seatbelts like to lose tension for no reason. I have to unbuckle and then rebuckle the belt to get the tension back.
Other than those problems it has been doing a swell job.
I still remember the day we picked up the van in 1986. I was only six years old and we had traded mom's 1975 brown rusted out Honda Civic with painful torn up and duct taped vinyl interior. The Astro was a big change. Ours is a special order model. In 1986 the Astro was a hard-to-get van. The ones that we test-drove as a family were decked out conversion vans and one 1985 salesman's demo with a carbureted V6. This was going to be my moms van. My dad wanted it to haul lumber and furniture that he builds. So they custom ordered a van they could both live with in January 1986 as follows:
CL trim code.
Two-tone silver bottom - red top.
Red cloth interior.
Tilt wheel.
Console running along the headliner with map lights.
Pullout drawers under driver and passenger seats (Chevrolet had this as an option on paper, but never installed on any van.)
AM/FM Tape player with DNR (Tape player stopped working and was replaced with a Pioneer CD player and new Pioneer speakers in 2001)
The custom order part: (Chevrolet sent the dealership the wrong kind of van about three times for us to pick up.)
5 speed stick shift (1 of 3 in Pennsylvania in 1986)
No A/C installed (Would have been nice for the many hot days spent in the van.)
No cruise control (Long trips for my dad - 6' 3" and me 6' 3" are painful.)
No tilt seats (Ditto on the cruise control complaint.)
Crank windows (Only bad if it starts to rain with the passenger side window is rolled down and there is no passenger to roll it up. Far reach.)
No power door locks.
Our Astro has served us well over the past 18 years. It has met and surpassed all of our expectations. When we got the van we had the only Astro in the neighborhood. Dodge Caravans and Plymouth Voyagers dominated the driveways, but our bright red Astro stood out. It also proved to be the best of the neighborhood because it is still on the road today. The Chrysler products have long since disappeared. Our Astro has hauled everything mom needed to haul with two kids going through elementary through high school. My dad has always treated it like a truck and has been used to haul lumber, furniture, and tools. It has been used to take family vacations to South Carolina, driven to Maine, and all over Pennsylvania, New York, and New Jersey.
I was able to learn how to drive stick in the van and although it is not my car I use it on a monthly basis to haul friends or large items around. It is also great to take to undesirable locations - always there when I walk back to it! I have also used it to move to college and also help my friends move all their stuff to and from college.
Our Astro has been in a few fender benders over the years.
In 1990 a '90 Lumina decided not to stop and rear-ended it. That crash peeled the front end of the Lumina like a can of sardines and wrecked the bumper on the Astro.
In 1991 a '81 Chevette also decided not to stop and put a dent in the Astro's bumper, but blew out all of the lights, smashed the grille, and pushed the bumper to the ground on the Chevette.
In 1992 mom sideswiped a '75 Nova in a mall parking lot on Black Friday. I believe the Nova was totaled, but the Astro only needed a front fender.
In 2002 I was driving down a road and a 1994 Buick LeSabre drove out of a Wegmans parking lot and into the front passenger side of the van. That was the one that made me think that was the end of the van. The front end was messed up and it was still drivable - but 16 years old. However the Buick owners insurance company covered the repairs and looks great today.
The Astro sits idle for many weeks at a time these days. We all have our own cars now and the van has a problem with eating gas - especially when the cheap grade costs $1.65 a gallon, hence my nickname for it "The Cantankerous Gas Guzzling _____"
All in all, our Astro is great and it is part of the family. Had we waited two more years we would have gotten an extended Astro (EXT) because the extra few inches in the back of the van would be great for hauling plywood or anything else that my dad or I have hauled with the back doors open, breathing in that great Chevy exhaust, but it wasn't offered in 1986.
The slogan for Astro in 1986 was "The Van That Can". It should have been "Never Dies"!
In 1986 we purchased an Astro. We were the first family for miles to drive one. My kids at that time were seven, six, five years old and 18 months. My first Daycare children five years old and two years old. I bet you will never guess who drives that still beautiful, safe and well-handling van today. My 21-year-old baby. She loves it like I do. My kids were raised in that van. It was life-saving. It gave me freedom to get out in the world! I cannot imagine my life as a supermom without it!
I won't lie. It gave us problems. Thank goodness and the credit union for the wonderful extended warranty.
When we got it back from the shop, we were again so thankful. I never had to think about having enough room because we always had enough room for kids, friends and groceries.
We brought home over the years three living room sets, all the kids' bedroom furniture, a playhouse, our stove AND the kitchen sink!!!
I used to drive only VW vans from 1970, but with no air and the underpowered nature of them I had to give them up. They never let me down, and when there was trouble I could fix it anywhere. I had 2 86 Astro's with automatic. One was a transmission eater, the other was stolen and wrecked before I had a chance to kill it. I wished for years that I had an Astro 5 speed, but didn't think they existed. The perfect upgrade from my trusty VW's. Then when I had a few dollars to spend, there it was! A factory 5 speed 1986 Astro with 140k miles on it.
It's got 220,000 miles on it now, hauls my Music gear in a trailer, almost never runs out of cargo space, and runs circles around all the automatic astros. Much better on gas than an automatic. It just developed transmission trouble
and I will have to drop the tranny, but, It still made it home after a show, stuck in 4th gear while it was full of music gear. If you can find one, they're great. The T5 trans is similar to the Cobra Trans, but only fits the Astro
so You will have to pay for proper repairs or parts. They don't break often so it balances out.
I have a feeling I may have mine another 10 years.
Hello all.
Yep. I'm still driving the Astro.
Last year the transmission was giving us grief. It would pop out of third gear. At the same time the parking brake pedal bent over and died. It's a manual, so the parking brake is used all of the time.
Parked in the barn with the front end jacked up, we dropped the transmission. Turns out that having a rare 5-speed Astro is not the most fun truck to work on.
For being 20 years old the transmission looked great. There were far fewer metal shavings than expected. The culprit of the fouled transmission was the output shaft. It wore down and needed to be remachined to the tune of $215 and a seven month wait. While the trans was out it was rebuilt and a new clutch was installed. The fun part was the parking brake pedal.
We have the real dealer shop manual for the Astro and in three simple steps it shows how to replace the part.
1. Remove dashboard
2. Replace parking brake pedal
3. Replace dashboard.
What a horrible job.
Once the van was fixed it was back on the road and got an oil change, oxegen sensor, tuneup, and lots of pricey gas.
After spending the time and money on the van it decided to die on a local trip. It was the first time in 21 years that it did that. Turned out to be a bad fuel pump and it is back to normal again.
I also want to point out that I was able to replace both front seats which was the best thing to happen to the Astro since the CD player.
The Astro shares a universal bolt pattern on the seats with other GM makes. I took a chance and went to a local junkyard and bought two bucket seats out of a 1996 Oldsmobile Achieva. They set me back $30 and improved the van 100%. The old Astro seats had a fixed headrest, didn't recline, and had zero side, back, and butt support. The Oldsmobile seats have much better support and they recline making any trip more enjoyable.
I'll keep all of you posted.
Thanks for reading!
Hi all!
Thanks for reading.
Well. Chevy Astro…. dies.
It was a great, almost 22 years with this old friend, but alas it finally gave up – without a fight.
My parents bought it brand new in 1986 and it served our family well. It was the ONLY family car they had to buy. For the past few years I have been using it as a secondary vehicle for work. I never beat it up or gave it a break. Like a faithful friend, it was always ready for work or travel. It has climbed rocky trails as well as sail down the highway at 80 mph for hours on end. It has seen the tip of Maine, the southern states, the big apple and the Jersey shore points numerous times. It’s been camping, moving, towing, hauling, to college, almost totaled, stuck in snow storms, full of raccoons while on one particular camping trip, swapping ends while heading out of control through a busy intersection a few winters ago, full of cub scouts on the way to meetings, full of bikes and buddies, full of beer and buddies, pulling stumps, stacked with lumber, stacked with tools, involved with some late night moving out for some said friends, <sigh>, it’s done just about everything possible.
I’ll remember it always.
R.I.P.
Chevrolet Astro CL.
June 1986 – December 2007.
That's sad... well how did it die? and a lot of those stories remind me of my grandpa's old astro. I wonder if it's still in the barn?
Note: A Comments RSS Feed 
is available. New comments appear in the Members Area before the main site