We have a 97 Chevy S10 Blazer that we are trying to figure out what to do with. It has an oil leak, coolant leak, and the A/C doesn't work. We dished out $375 dollars to do three diagnostics at the local chevy dealer. Their recommendations totaled to $6100 approximately, labor and parts.

Their recommendations include:
radiator
coolant
thermostat
coolant
compressor
belt
accumulator
orifice
seal
seal
a/c control ****
oil filter
oil
timing cover gaskets
cover kit
gasket
gasket kit
gasket
seal
coolant
intake manifold gasket
seal kit
gasket kit
gasket
coolant
spark plug wires
wire kit
distributor cap & Rotor
clean fuel injectors
clean throttle body
spark plugs

Long list due to it being my wife's car. She always left it upon me to maintain but attempting to maintain is always too much of an inconvenience for her since she can't go to work. Anyways, the radiator cracked last week and we finally decided to get her a semi new car, a 2014 subaru outback. So now we are trying to figure out what to do with the blazer.

The blazer lived the first 11 years of it's life in upstate new york, and the last 8 years in Dallas Texas.

 

I guess my reason for posting is I'm unsure what I should ask for it as a private seller. We are also considering a donation to npr but I have a feeling it might auction off for very little and then we only save a fraction of that on our taxes. Any thoughts?

 

Well your first problem is that you went to a dealer for this! Looking at your list the only challenging item on there would be the timing cover because it requires you to lower the oil pan so depending how bad the leak actually is I'd leave it alone for now. Everything else is more than doable in a solid weekend or two in your driveway. I'd say you are looking at around $500 in parts if you do some shopping around online including a new ac compressor if it's even bad which it probably isn't. The compressor has a safety feature built in that will not allow it to turn on without Freon in it so it's more likely that you have a leak at an oring. I just did all o rings, accumulator and orifice tube on my son's blazer a couple months ago and start to finish including making him do the work so he could learn we spent 45 min under the hood. Point is nothing on the list is actually very hard or expensive if you are able to do it yourself. You didn't mention mileage or condition of the rest of the vehicle but it may be worth investing the money to do it yourself before reselling to make a bit more profit.

 

You also posted coolant 5 times

 

My quote lists it 5 times. Actually, technically speaking it's listed 10 times. There's a quantity of 2 by each one with an itemized price of $15.90.

 

Doing it myself isn't an option. I have two small kids; 9 months and 2 yr old. My wife and I both work full time as well.

 

Well at least you confirmed my first statement!!! If you can't do it/unwilling to do it yourself post it for $500 and hope to get $300.

Can you post the itemized list I'd love to see their breakdown. You can omit any dealer information if your the kind that likes to protect shady businesses that's fine by be.

 

I uploaded a pdf of the estimate the dealership gave me.
The dealership is Friendly Chevrolet in Dallas, TX.

 

you can buy a pretty nice blazer for 6000.00. Number 1 problem, is haiving someone else do it. number 2 is having a chevy dealer do it. I wouldnt pay 6000.00

 

That's pretty much what I told my wife.

As far as doing stuff myself... I just wish I had the time because it is my preference to do stuff myself. We are saddened to let the Blazer go, my wife because she loves it for whatever reason I have no clue, me for the fact that it's a 4x4 and I'm a guy, lol. I have a couple other cars, 64 mustang coupe, and 83 Datsun by Nissan 280zx where I could get rid of one of them and hold on to the blazer for those "oh crap I need a 4x4" moments. But, alas, I have a 2011 Ram 2500 as well. I hate temptations.