I could really use some good advice as well as a minute to vent..I bought a 99 4dr 4wd blazer off craigslist 8 months ago with about 160,000 miles on it. The day I brought it home the VSS censor went bad, which is an inexpensive fix but only one of many to come, I paid 3100 for the blazer and have so far have another 2000 into it..both hub assemblys went bad and had to be replaced which is pricey but i could live with it. Then the mainfold intake gasket.then a few months later, going 70 on the freeway I lost power, was hoping it was my alternator, had it towed to my mechanic. When he jumped it and got it started he said the motor had a loud squeaking and my main bearing went out. I was on my way to my last day of work in which i was laid off by the new company that took over, so needless to say I about lost it. I spend two months saving for a motor swap and find a 4.3l vortec with 80,000 miles on it for $350 out of a full size truck, bought 200 worth of supplies for the swap including new motor mounts and oil pan gaskets and paid my mechanic $500. Heres the kicker, 3 weeks later I get my Blazer back, in which the mechanics right hand man informs me that hadnt even test drove it, just in the lot. I leave and realized as im going down the road that when it shifts into third and 4th theres nothing acts like its in neutral, even manually. I turn around back to the mechanics, he looks at it, takes it for a ride, comes back and tells me the same thing. He then checks the tranny fluid and its empty!!They never even checked the fluids and now hes telling me my trannys blown because i must have been driving with no or low fluid(because not alot was on his floor after the swap), but i think i would have felt some slipping or something if it was about to go out, and my engine and tranny going at the same time? Besides this the exhaust was extremely loud and the motor sounded like ****. He tells me he doesnt work on trannys, good luck basically. I take it to a buddy who went to wyotech, he says the trannys toast i should just scrap it, it was drove back from his garage at 30mphs at about 2500rpms only a few miles and going downhill it lost power and had to be towed, also the battery seems to going bad needs to be jumped every time, never like that before.Am i delusional or did my motor just blow up again? Does this same mechanic doing my intake manifold gaskets a few months before all this went down have anything to do with it? Theres no way that there is something electrical or not hooked up right ? I know enough about vehicles to do simple repairs and matience but this is way beyond my knowledge.

 

sry to here about your blazer that sucks. id be pissed if i payed a mechanic to do a swap and they didn't check all fluids and telling you after there wasn't a lot of fluid on his floor shouldn't that have been a hint for him to add or check it after everything was done pretty crappy mechanic if you ask me!

 

Judging by the sound of this mechanic i wouldn't be at all surprised if the engine was just fine and didn't have anything wrong with it, or did you listen to it to see if what he was saying was true? i mean a main bearing just doesn't go out, that's something you would hear happening before it shut off. but if the same thing is happening again i would guess its electrical. i would start with the fuel pump, test the pressure.

And for the tranny, you didn't touch it after it died on the freeway and it was going just fine right? If it didn't have any fluid in it there's no way you would have made it to 70 in the first place even going down hill with a tail wind. They drained the fluid, no doubt.

From the sounds of it these f**king idiots bent you over bad. Im really sorry about all this. If it was my blazer i would be in that shop rearranging this guys face...

 

if its fully insured.....burn it!......lol jk jk sucks man. sounds like the douche took u thinking u were dumb. id be beatin him too. good luck in the rest of ur adventures.

 

Unfortunately im out 5k now which is perfect timing seeing how I just lost my job for not having a masters degree and I just graduated from college and have a **** ton of student loans and cant even afford another vehicle on my ****ty unemployment, so trying to find another job in michigan without a reliable vehicle, i might as well get a cup and start asking for change. The worst part is this mechanic was a friend of my dads who passed away a couple of years ago, my dad always took care of everything of this nature for me. I thought about trying to take him to small claims court but I know he doesnt have the money in the first place and itd be a waste of time. When my motor went out and had to be jumped after towed there was a loud squeaking sound..sounded like a belt or something, but the mechanic took a stethescope to the motor and said it was internal. Either way itd have better luck buying a beater then trying to replace the tranny and figure out what alls wrong with the motor after these guys put it in, sounds like no donut in the exhaust and really chuggy. Ive been looking on these forums for months hoping it was something electrical but looks like I just gotta suck it up and take the hit.

 

Was this a backyard shop or an actual professional shop? If its the second one i would take them to small claims..

 

Nothing so catastrophic should be happening at that mileage, it must not have been very well taken care of most of it's life. Bought my 2000 almost new, 225,000 miles now and still great compression, shifts strong. Sorry to hear about all of this. I'm no expert on transmissions but in my experience it doesn't damage them much to be driven low on fluid. They just kind of...stop shifting. Guess I've never seen one driven totally empty though. Seems like when the fluid level gets below a certain point, it just stays in neutral and therefore can't really kill itself...

 

With no fluid it will over heat and burn its self up.

 

Yes it makes sense that that could happen, if it has enough fluid to drive but is still really low. If it's completely empty, it's just going to sit there in neutral and not even try to get in gear (and I wouldn't think that would hurt it). I still say it shouldn't have had a big transmission leak at that mileage and that it was poorly maintained, but then I suppose 98% of them a similar story. That's why most of the S10's are gone now. For whatever it's worth, "Lucas transmission fix" is amazing stuff. I have an old Diesel Benz that wouldn't get into reverse and was slipping in all other gears, 2 bottles of that stuff and 20,000 miles later and it's still going (forward and back). By the way the hub assemblies are like $50 each on Amazon. I did both of mine that way. Not trying to make you feel bad, just saying that things don't have to be so expensive.

 

Dude apply for cellular. I make between 50 k n 60 k a year. Deffinately enough to pay for my blazer which , and ur gonna call me a dumbass, after my apr and roolover from trade in has cost me 26 k for the truck.... but yeah i agree with the rearrange of face reply... :-)