I have a 2002 Blazer, 2 door. Bought it 5 years ago with 110,000 miles on it, great buy , huh ? Opened the hood, checked oil, brake fluid, power steering fluid, etc. A week after I bought it I realized I never took the radiator cap off, so I went outside & took a look.
OMG !! thick gooey slush...rust colored (duh). First stop was to radiator shop for a good flush. But, that wasn't the fault of the car, it was the previous owner. I read all the complaints about squeaky this & that, broken handles, etc. Men are men & heavy handed, ease up on the way you treat your Blazer. The engine isn't the only thing that needs a hook-up once in awhile, get out the W-D & help things along. tighten a screw, shoot a little lube in her.
Smoking & the window thing...there's no hope, ashtray angle is awful, seat handles...is there supposed to be some ? One thing I really bitch about is the length of the sun visor, if you want to block out sun on driver's side window, you gotta sit up & lean forward.
Gas gauge, when my light comes on I hit the trip meter, so far I've run it on empty 48 miles & not run out. CD does skip on bumps. But all in all I love my car, I don't use cheap gas, I run Mobile 1 10-40, high mileage, & AC Delco, fuel, air & oil filters.
The one BIG issue I have is...last year I had a new A/C put in. As soon as I turn on the A/C I see temp gauge move to the middle. A noise starts kinda like a hollow hum, I swear it has something to do with the transmission, cuz I seem to notice a difference when it changes gears. I have no real knowledge about things like that & I hate to take it to a shop, women are easy prey. I do all the lightweight work myself, another reason I try to take car of my ride. Eventually my Blazer will be taking me to cash my retirement checks (ugh ! ). So I'm in it for the long haul.
To me, there's nothing like a Chevy, all that foreign ______ , can stay overseas. USA forever & a day.

 

Welcome! glad you like the Blazer!

Oh and the AC pump will make a noise when it turns on and it will cause a drop in RPM also. You can probably feel it when you're driving down the road. So if thats the hum you are talking about then its no big deal.

Oh and yes the gas gauges on these things are a bit weird. mine falls past the red mark and almost to the bottom of the "E" when its getting really empty. But with these trucks you NEVER want to run them out of gas because the fuel pump is inside the tank, so if there is no gas in there then the pump will not be cooled and you will burn up your pump and thats a lot of $$ to replace.

 

Welcome. Your A/C Compressor will make a noise as stated. The stuff in your radiator my guess is someone mixed green anti freeze with Dexcool orange. Dexcool is the correct anti freeze for your Blazer. GM started using it in 1996 in most all their vehicles.
With the gas gauge We have owned a 97 & now a 98 & neither gas gauge worked very accurate. My wife & I were driving our 98 the other day & the low fuel light came on & gauge was close to empty. I checked the computer & we had only used 12.5 gallons of gas. I believe these hold 20 gallons. So the wife & I drove into the gas station & filled it up & sure enough 12.5 gallons was all it would take. Our 97 would hit empty & run for a 100+miles, we never saw a low fuel light. But we find it cheaper to fill the top half of the tank rather than the bottom half.
I'm retired when you retire you will have plenty of time to enjoy your Blazer. We liked ours so well that after we sold our 97 with 180,000 miles. (It is still running) My wife sent me out to buy another. So I found a nice 1998 LT 4x4 with just over 100,000 miles.
As a women you should be able to find a reputable shop to do your work. Ask people at work, ask at the grocery store. Ask other women where they take their vehicles or where their husbands go. As an old mechanic I know there are good fair mechanics out there it just takes talking to people & then talking to the shop. I interview them. One way is to start with a simple job like a service. I give them a list of what I want done.
Use the same shop for oil changes & minor & major repairs once you find a good fair shop.
If you get involved with this forum the people here are very knowledgeable & helpful. They help me be a better consumer, by making aware aware of what my issue could be. I can't do most of the work on my vehicles anymore. We live in two different places. To stay warm. I have shops in both that treat me fair & do good work. But this forum helps me keep up with what the problems are & what is required to fix issues.
I hope this long post is some help to you.

 

Blazers fuel tanks are 18 gal if I'm not correct, teach me..Look at your owners manual, mine says 18 gal for a 2000 4x4 LT blazer, 106k. My fuel pump is dying as we speak and I have NEVER ran it to a 1/4 of a tank or less..its just one of those things I guess. I was going to do the work myself and replace it but being 64 working on 65 I think for big jobs like this I'll let the mech do it...

 

Good for you.. but I have news. It's not that you pamper your girls-with-wheels, it's that you like and APPRECIATE them.
Of course when they start complaining even in a small way, then pay attention and resolve the gripe quick.

When you start resenting your car you might as well get rid of it, or it will make your life hell.
Different than human females.. or is it?
I've owned / driven over 25 cars in 53 years of driving and finally realized that about 30 years ago.
Been married 44 years and realized the same thing about 20 years ago.

but here's a small quibble:
WD 40 is not a lube. Nor is it a good penetrating oil for rust and corrosion. It displaces stuff and unsticks sticky things. But not good as ...
PB Blaster!!! Which also is not a lube but it cleans and loosens even better.

A couple weeks ago I had to rebuild a couple 2 stroke carbs to get yard tools running. I saw they were gummed up and lot of 'varnish' from dried up 40:1 gas.
Guess what I used /.. PB Blaster. Good or better than carb cleaner.

 

That's right, WD-40 stands for Water Displacement - 40th Attempt. Great for drying ignitions, freeing up fasteners etc, but not as a lube.
One I really like using as a penetrant is Seafoam Creep & Fluid Film for keeping fasteners from seizing up. Fluid Film also is good for slowing oxidation with the film it leaves, it actually darkens rust & seals it off from more air... to a point.

 

dman you are correct. I don't know where I got 20. I'm with you guys on WD40. It has two things it does good clean plastic & flame throw. I read an article once that stated in a test the very best penetrating oil was a 50-50 mix of acetone & ATF. Even better than PB Blaster which was next.
I agree with liking your vehicle & taking care of issues as they come up. dman, make sure who ever does the work agrees that DELPHI PUMPS are the only pumps to use. Delphi is the manufacture of most OEM pumps even our 90 Honda came with a Delphi from the factory. I have had an Airtex installed not knowing & it lasted 10,000 miles. Carters I'm told by the old parts guys I know that they aren't any better. Non of the shops that do work for me will use anything else but Delphi. They don't like to have to do warranty work over bad pumps. Figure it this way the pump only when 106K but it worked for 12 years, in which you could of driven twice that mileage had you chose to.
One thing I do is run Lucas Injector cleaner through my fuel system every so often. Lucas is the only one I have found that lubes the fuel pumps. The use of Seafoam is very questionable in my opinion. I tried it once & ended up melting the guts of my converter. When I took it to the muffler shop they cut it apart. They asked me what I had run through the fuel system? I told them about the Seafoam & I was told that I wasn't the first they saw from possible use of Seafoam. So it is only my experience I stick with Lucas.

 

i have the same fuel gauge problem. i have a 2002 4X4 4 door blazer, it has a 18 gallon tank, but when it says empty and i go to fill it up, it only takes 14 gallons. not to good at math but seems like i got 4 gallons missin on the gauge.