Hello Folks,

I have been lurking around the forum for a few days and got a lot of useful info off your tech threads...This forum is a true gold mine!

I love my blazer to death. The car was very generously gifted to me and my wife when we got married (with a little less than 100K on it at the time) and we have been driving it pretty much every day for the past 5 years. It is a white 4.3 LT trim. I love the look, nice engine, comfortable seats, and cargo space. It is just the perfect car for camping, shooting & fishing trips and it is very nice to drive around town as well.

The car now has almost 160k and while the engine still runs strong, I had more than a few issues through the years:

-Cracked radiator.
-Two sets of door hinges.
-Bad wiper electronic board.
-Broker rear wiper gear/motor.
-Leaky engine intake.
-Front brakes wearing off too quick.
-Broken fuel gauge.
-Leaky AC compressor/bad AC compressor clutch.
-Bad Brake booster.
-4WD not engaging.
-Steering wheel play.
-Belt wearing faster than it should and starting to squeek after just a few months from replacement because of pulleys out of alignment.

The car is not in bad shape. I took care of the essential repairs when needed and i do regular maintenance. I still have to fix/Replace AC compressor, rear wiper, and fix the fuel gauge (maybe). Everything else works for now.....

Yesterday i also replaced the flasher relay behind the dashboard (turning signals were not working, hazards were OK).

The main issue i have right now is that the car keeps stalling on me.....

This issue started a few months ago. the car seemed to stall in two different ways. It would either stall randomly while driving with no 'sputtering' or 'chugging', or it would loose rpm while braking at a light then stall. Braking was also harder than usual.

I found a little vacuum leak and a faulty brake booster. Took care of those and now the car brakes better than when i got the car and breaking does not seem to effect the RPM at all. The car does not stall at crosslights anymore.

My blazer however still stalls randomly while driving and I am not sure what to do next.

I replaced fuel filter and cleaned injectors just in case, and the car seemed to do ok for a few weeks, we even went camping with it (500 Miles round trip) then last week the issue came back. it is getting worse.

Two days ago i drove the car around town and the car stalled three times in a 30 min period. Twice while slightly slowing down, once while accelerating.

Again there is no chugging or sputtering. It feels like somebody suddenly turned the ignition key. The car stalls, Engine stops,I loose power steering, brakes, and i hear the buzzing you have when the key is on the ON position before you start the engine, dash lights come up the proper way as well. If i immediatly put the car in neutral while rolling and turn the key, the car fire up instantly without issues, without exceptions. I can put the gear back into Drive and go...

I just spent 950 dollars to do some major work on my other ride (2000 civic) and i really hope this is not going to be horribly expensive...

I am about ready to throw the towel and go to a mechanic, but if there anything to try I am willing to put my time into it.

I am thinking Ignition switch or maybe some sensors?

I do not know where to start when it comes to this kinda issues.

Any advice is more than welcome.


Thank you very much.

 

Is the majority of your driving on short trips? Both of my trucks suffered the same fate...actually, this morning I had to have the catalytic converter replaced. What would happen is that the catalyst would heat up enough to dislodge while on my way to work (+/- 5 miles), and cause my car to run at half strength due to all of the back pressure...eventually stalling on me...once was on the highway about a week ago. Mine is a 2002 w/ 67k...so...IDK...have somebody with a gauge take a look...mine wasn't throwing the SES like it was supposed to either.

 

Thanks for the reply! I will have somebody take a look. The majority of my trips are fairly shorts but the stalls seem to be random. The car stalled both cold and hot. And I cannot find a common denominator.... the car will run ok for days and then stall a few times In a row. Really random.... I also do not feel any variation in strenght or output....... the car always restarts immediatly with no hesitation and no need to cool down...

 

Good luck...I know my problem is solved, for now! Just drove 40mi (30ish on the highway), and it didn't stall, sputter or overheat!

 

Check your fuel pressure if is not ubove 55 psi at all times that can be some of the problem. Also check the mafs on the intake messure the hz while driving and while sitting. You know where the pressure valve is right?? If not look at the intake and you will see 1 or 2 aluminum lines and there should be a little valve that is where u check fp. And by the way thankyou for lovin blazers still, god knows theres not many of us left out there

 

When you say it stalls cold or hot, define "cold." Were you driving or idling? For how long?

My money would be on the coil/ICM or even a loose/corroded connection to the distributor cap from the coil. Cheap diagnostic test is to get a complete ignition coil/module bracket assembly out of a junk yard and give it a go. About $100 for a new coil&ICM from napa/carquest. You might also consider replacing the wire from coil->cap and cap&rotor if they're getting old. You can try getting your coil tested repeatedly at advance auto until it's hot, but that won't definitively trigger faults... could give you false sense of assurance if they can't it to fail. I don't think the ICM can really be load tested, but my local napa may be wrong on that...

I had a somewhat similar problem that seems to have been the ICM overheating because the heatsink compound was degraded, but mine only happened when it was hot outside. [97 blazer, as well]

When was the last time you changed the spark plug wires?? Last time you cleaned the EGR? Inspected your MAP sensor, cleaned the MAF sensor, etc? The forum has saved threads on these procedures if you need info...

Ignition switch is a possibility I considered in my case, too, but I'm honestly not sure how likely that is without other symptoms (I'm still running my original switch).

You could have more than one stall issue going on.....
I had "another" stall problem that was a torn MAP sensor boot. It caused idle stalls at stop lights, traffic lights, drive-thrus.