I have an 01 blazer with 118402 miles that has been sitting for about three years. I parked it with a coolant leak. I pulled it out of the swampy yard a couple days ago and is now in my garage. The issues I have found so far, are as follows.

1. Coolant is gone. Hoses look fine. I replaced the intake gaskets about 5 years ago. No leak in heater core. No coolant in oil. I obviously need to do a pressure test and see if I can find the leak. Debating on green or orange when I get the leak taken care of.

2. Windshield fluid reservoir. No Crack in the bottle, pump grommets are sealed. Probably going to replace all the hoses. Yay.

3. Rodents have gotten in and claimed it as their new habitat apparently. So I get to rip the carpet out and clean the hell out of it and the seats.

4. Slow rim leak on one of the tires. Easy fix.

5. 4x4 don't work. I've fixed it in the past and it worked fine for a few years. When I hit the button, every once in a while you can hear and feel it clunk, trying to engage or the opposite.

6. ABS, light is on, so obviously it dont work. I changed the brake lines about 3 years ago as they rotted out. Bled the 4 corners properly.

If anyone has or has had any of the issues, insight is appreciated greatly. Gotta get it going as my jeep got repossessed, as I let it go because it needed a transmission. Overwhelmed, and adhd is killing my mind on where I want to start. Ugh.

 

1. Your on the right track with a pressure test for the coolant system. Pick a name brand coolant and stay with that one, do not mix
2. On the ABS light, you may need to bleed the ABS unit with a scanner or the redneck gravel road hack, especially given the brake line replacement. Did you get a good firm pedal after that work? Did the reservoir go dry during the line replacement and bleeding?

George

 

what is this redneck gravel road hack you speak of?

yes the brake fluid reservoir sat dry for almost a year before I had time to run new lines. ABS light was actually on before the leak now that I think back.

 

The ABS system has a series of pistons and passageways that can trap air and be hard to bleed once dry. The proper way a garage deals with this is to use a bidirectional scanner to exercise the the ABS and push the air out. In the absence of this tool you go out on a gravel road and repeatedly brake so that the ABS units starts randomly manipulating the 4 brake line pressures and if your lucky you bleed the ABS unit. Then you do one more four corner normal bleeding routine.

George

 

I spoke too soon about the coolant being completely empty. Turned out to just be the radiator cap. That takes a huge load off my shoulders. Cooling system held pressure perfectly. Radiator cap failed the test completely. Picked up a good WIX filter and some high mileage valvoline, wiper blades, and hose for the windshield wiper fluids, and a new radiator cap along with a bottle of Lucas fuel system cleaner. Now I'm just not looking forward to the mess rodents made. Ugh.

 

Standing by.

George

 

Apologies about not keeping updated. I was racking my brain for a bit. I ended up changing out my fuel filter, which helped with the inconsistent acceleration immensely. But did not cure it. I changed the pcv valve, oil, and filter as well. After weeks of beating my head against the wall. I popped the hood to check and see if there were any plug wires that had evidence of chewed insulation from rodents. While inspecting, I found I neglected to hook the hose back up from the valve cover to the intake. Hooked it back up, runs like brand new again. I guess we could chalk it up to an ID10T error. When I replaced the fuel filter, there was copious amounts of black debris that came out of the filter. I was thinking that maybe it plugged back up again. I am happy to say, the old girl had been officially resurrected. Still have to bleed the ABS system, and replace the canister purge valve. Some new rocker panels wouldn't hurt either!

Time to sit back, enjoy a beer, and wait on my valve to come back to me that I left in my fiancé's truck! Cheers!

 

glad to hear that you’re back on the road. Anybody who hasn’t made a few bonehead moves in their life isn’t trying hard enough to learn new things. My list is impressive. Trust me.

George

 

Lol I can recall my first time on the road by myself as a young teenager going out of state. I changed the air filter in my car, it was one of those where you had to remove the upper air box to replace. Drove a few hundred miles from michigan to Wisconsin. Car would not stay running. Friends dad showed up, noticed the intake tube wasn't attached to the maf sensor housing. I felt like an idiot. But that experience alone has taught me not to think about a possible huge problem is from an easily overlooked ignorant move. He hooked it back up, ran fine from thereafter.