Hello all! I fell in love with Blazers when my Dad bought his 2wd in 2003.

My Blazer is a 2000 4WD 2dr 4.3 V6 auto trans. Bought it used in Oct of 06. It has 106,000 odd miles on it.

Here's what's going on, any help is appreciated as I am a home mechanic-in-training!
I drove it to MI from NC for the Christmas holiday. Trip there was no problem, Blazer ran perfectly (why I love her). In MI, we replaced the rear brakes because they were worn down and were squealing. Unknown to me, my brother was under the hood. He noticed the upper radiator hose was weak, but never told me! He also topped the coolant off, but (also unknown to me) he added the green stuff on top of my Dex-cool. The dex-cool is (was) in good shape up to this point, except for the res tank being a bit low.

Well, on the way back to NC, we get a hole in the upper radiator hose, after about 600 miles on the road. My Service Engine Soon light came on and we decided to pull over, needed gas anyway. As we pull in andI park and turn off the truck, white steamy smoke(?) comes out of the hood. We see it's the hose, and it gets replaced.

Now the hose is fixed, but I haven't driven it much in the last 2 weeks. When I do, I was getting the Engine light again. I took it to Advanced and hooked it to the scanner. I'm getting codes P0171 and P0174 saying the fuel is too lean.

Before the hose problem, I had no problems with her and she ran like a dream. Now these codes and the RPM's seem higher than normal. Are these two problems related? What do I do about the fuel leanness?

Sorry about the length, and thanks for any help.

 

It's posible that this is related to your blown rad hose.
Did you flush out the sytem after the 2 coolants were mixed? Is the engine temp higher than before?
If the coolant sensor reads high, then the computer will add less fuel to the engine. Check for vacuum leaks and any disconnected vacuum hoses.

 

Haven't flushed yet but plan to tomorrow. Since the incident, only have driven it twice around town here.
Engine temp is perfect, right around 200* when warmed up, where it normally is. It's never gone higher. Even when the hose went on me, it didn't overheat. Unless thesensor is off...but I don't know.
Wouldn't a lean mixture burn higher? So if it's already too hot...sounds like it'd make it worse.

Thanks for the reply!

 

Depending on how the coolant leaked out of the weakened hose you could have a bad sensor (shorted when it got wet with coolant). I would check on any sensors that would relate to these codes in the engine bay that might have gottened soaked with hot coolant. MAF, IAT, TPS, IAC, MAP or even the "Spyder" electrical connector... These would all be potential problems along with and coolant temp sensors in the block that might just be going bad... Maybe even distributor cap and wires...

 

The break in the hose was about 3 inches long running along the length. On the end furthest from the radiator, on the side/bottom. Right side of hose if you're looking in from the front end. If that makes any sense hehe.

Someone suggested fuel injector cleaner in the gas tank. Would that be something to check out also?

 

Fuel injector cleaner is good to put in at least once a month..My Dad told me that and he has never had Injector related problems EVER..and he has owned a 98 Windstar since new..And so ive done this to all my FI's and have never had Injector Failer..So id try that its a cheap fix

 

http://www.obd-codes.com/trouble_cod...gen-sensor.phphttp://www.obd-codes.com/trouble_cod...gen-sensor.php


from reading this and what happened to your blazer with the hose letting go id clean the mass air flow sensor. coolant may have caused your maf to throw the codes. use this product to clean it.

http://www.crcindustries.com/auto/co...=05110&S=Y

hope this helps

 

Thanks to all who replied. I will clean the MAF and put in some injector cleaner. Hope it does the trick