anyone know the average amount of miles these things last? What known problems may arise?
I'm lookin at pickin up a 98 blazer for around $3k, but it has 175,000 miles. Mostly highway miles though since the guys mom drove 150 miles a day for work. Only thing I'd be using it for really is taking the kids to dr's appts and 2 maybe 3 times a month going to my moms and grandmas which is about 80 miles roundtrip.
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Reasons not to buy:
Guaranteed to have at least one front end part bad
175K on a 4WD transmission
Bastardized drum-in-disc parking brake
Complex fuel injection setup
The mechanical part of the 4.3L is rock solid, save for the intake manifold gasket. It's the rest of the truck surrounding it that screams "Don't buy me!"
well this is everything thats been replaced already
Newer tires (Goodyear Wrangler RTS, 235/70/15)
Newer brakes
Newer Ujoints
New windshield
New trans cooler lines
New thermostat
New electronic climate control unit
Recharged air conditioning (last summer, still worked great last time I knew)
Newer tie rods
Newer ball joints
New intake gaskets
New drivers power seat motor
New drivers power window motor
New drivers power window/door lock switch
Fresh coolant
Oil always changed on time
New weather stripping
New o2 sensors
Fuel Injection system has been cleaned out
New fuel pump and filter
it seems to have everything new basically besides the motor and tranny, which are the main things im worried about
original tails come with it too, thank god.
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Still a 4WD tranny with 175K on it. The question you ask yourself is, are you willing to put upwards of a grand to redo the tranny if/when it goes out in 6 months?
And kick the owners for putting junk tires on it.
not really lol, we're looking for another car around $3k just for a kid hauler basically. And of course I really want an SUV, just hard as hell to find one around that price without a @!#$ load of miles.
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offer him 2 grand
-Borsty
he said the lowest he'll go is $2500, he originally wanted $4000
I'll probably offer him lower though + a trade for some @!#$ I have like a psp and stuff since I never use it.
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I'd rock it.. Looks rust free as well..
Red 2005 Saturn Ion-3 Coupe
Burgundy 2006 Saturn Ion - My winter beater
I'm pretty sure that's the same motor as in my mom's truck ('98 GMC Sierra 1500) but she's just got RWD and the 4spd auto. Pushing over 250,000 miles on the thing and it's still going. I'm not sure how the 4wd would hold up though.
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I had 91500 miles on my '97 and the only thing I had to change out was an alt.(probally due to all the mud and water it went through) and the belt tensioner. After a drunken night of stupid things, I ripped the motor out. and that is when i put the v8 in it. I still have my original ball joints and tie rod ends and have no slack or play in them with 33" tires. I'd say go for it.
j
if your not driving it much then ok.....but i duno, how old were the owners before?
cuz with tails like that im thinking the thing was beat like hell.
The original owner is the guys mom that has it for sale, he just got it from her i think 8 months ago he said. He has a couple cars he's trying to get rid of right now since he's leaving for college. He has this one and a probe up for sale. The majority of miles were put on it from her driving back and forth to work.
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Heather - anghellic wrote:well this is everything thats been replaced already
Newer tires (Goodyear Wrangler RTS, 235/70/15)
Newer brakes
Newer Ujoints
New windshield
New trans cooler lines
New thermostat
New electronic climate control unit
Recharged air conditioning (last summer, still worked great last time I knew)
Newer tie rods
Newer ball joints
New intake gaskets
New drivers power seat motor
New drivers power window motor
New drivers power window/door lock switch
Fresh coolant
Oil always changed on time
New weather stripping
New o2 sensors
Fuel Injection system has been cleaned out
New fuel pump and filter
it seems to have everything new basically besides the motor and tranny, which are the main things im worried about
original tails come with it too, thank god.
Heather-I'd rock it- if that helps....
With all the new parts..you should be fine...I know quite a few people that are driving
97-01 Blazers..and almost all of them are doing quite well...
A co-worker has a 99 LS has one with 205k, and besides updating some old parts
(like above), it still runs like a champ.
I still see quite a few around here for sale with lots of miles on them...
so they must be doing something right....
ZlineDavid wrote:And kick the owners for putting junk tires on it.
I was thinking the samething!
Have they kept up maintainence on the 4WD system.....changing fluids....etc?
I assume they have
Quote:
I don't know if you got my last reply (it said it didn't send or something), but there's nothing that seems like it will need immediate attention. My mom took great care of it and was always on top of maintenence. Motor runs strong, trans shifts perfectly. Only thing wrong is a crack in the lower part of the front valence and a couple of scratches on the rear bumper that were there when we bought it.
im gonna go look at it again before I decide what I'm gonna do I guess. It may be a good reliable truck for all I know, but on the other hand I may just be jumping on this too soon since I really want an SUV.
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do you have any friends that are pretty decent mechanics that you could have look at it for you? you could take it for a test drive and have someone go over it throughly.
j
SUV's have a higher re-sale in general. So if you want a decent SUV thats a kid hauler you're going to have to give up something. A nicer vehicle or some cash. If all you're doing is hauling kids around every now and then I'd say go with a 4 door. Like an old Accord or Sentra. Either that or wait and just pay the money. If you buy something thats getting wore out you're going to pay the money anyways. Just my 2 cents.
I have a 95 with 165k no major problems, car seems to be on it's last legs though.
Crystal(CrazyCavGirl) OR Jacob wrote:do you have any friends that are pretty decent mechanics that you could have look at it for you? you could take it for a test drive and have someone go over it throughly.
j
my husband has knowledge of the motor, the trucks he's had have all been that motor. He's never kept them real long (like until they died) so we're mainly wondering how long the motors usually do last, and what problems usually happen at certain mileage points. (Ex: the 2.4 water pumps usually goin out around 70-90k)
Rabbit(AKA RedAssassin) wrote: If all you're doing is hauling kids around every now and then I'd say go with a 4 door. Like an old Accord or Sentra.
We already have 2 sedans, I don't want another. I want something with cargo room too.
I guess we're gonna go ahead and drive around to little dealers first and see if we could find anything comparable before going for this.
What sucks is if we would have had the money last week we could have got a 97 blazer with 99k for $2800.
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My dad has a 4.3 in his 95 chevy full-size Z71 and the motor is still going strong at over 215,000. However the trans had to be rebuilt at around 190,000 but that was mostly because it has towed a boat and other things a whole lot over its lifespan.
My friend had a S10 with a 4.3 with 305,000 miles, original motor & tranny and I have a 98 GMC Jimmy with 176,000 miles and no problems.
my dad has the 4.3 in his 92 full size with 283,000 miles on it and all that has been changed is the alternator, water pump, and fan clutch. and he drives it to work everyday still yet.
j
stkbadgedcav wrote:My dad has a 4.3 in his 95 chevy full-size Z71 and the motor is still going strong at over 215,000. However the trans had to be rebuilt at around 190,000 but that was mostly because it has towed a boat and other things a whole lot over its lifespan.
yeah, i won't even be towing anything with it.
KBB is $4670
we went to a few different used dealerships and aside from the 03+ ones the majority were averaging around 150,000 miles and they wanted $4000 + for all of them.
It may not be that add, even so spend $2500 for the truck and if need be I can get the trans rebuilt for around $1000 anyway. That's still less than what most dealerships want.
Still haven't completely made my mind up though. We're gonna go over the vehicle again this weekend and decide.
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so we bought the truck, we'd paid a total of $3300 for it because it's having a new motor put in it. Went looked at it drove it some more, paid the guy his money and dropped it off at the shop for the new motor. Still cost $1300 under blue book value. If we need to throw a trans in it it'll cost around $1000 so it'd end up costing us about $300 under blue book value with a new motor and trans. Not a bad deal at all.
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