Greetings. New member here. I'm not yet an owner, but I'm looking to buy a Jimmy/Blazer. I went and looked at a 1996 Jimmy SLE today with about 167,000 miles on it. It seems to run well and all of the electrics (windows, seat, etc) work. The only thing currently not working is the AC and the HVAC controls only work through defrost (I'm assuming a vacuum issue). Zero rust on the frame and only one small spot on the driver's side rocker where it looks like something hit it and bent it under slightly. I like the dash and a few other things (like heated outside mirrors) better on the 98 and up version, but I can get this one for $700, which seems like a steal to me. Many of the other ones I've looked at are also rust buckets. Are there any quirks to the 96 that I should be aware of? Was it generally a good year for the Blazer/Jimmy? Thanks in advance for any info.

 

There is a thread of common Blazer issues you might look at.

https://blazerforum.com/forum/2nd-ge...n-fixes-36318/

For me, most things that go wrong on the Blazers are pretty fixable by the home mechanics but there are a few things I would not want to work on. These would include the following:

• heater core
• transmission
• anything deeper into the engine than the lower intake manifold (LIM) gasket (The late 90s Blazers had LIM gaskets that could fail catastrophically)
• Electrical issues with ECM or BCM, or their wiring harnesses. These would be just too much hassle to try to get correct.
• fuel pump (perhaps)
• Rust

Things I have done or I figure I can do myself:

• any front end component
• brakes
• suspension
• oil cooler lines
• cooling system (except heater core)
• LIM gaskets
• fuel system (except pump)

 

Thanks for the info. One thing I forgot to mention is that the driver side front hard brake line is leaking. It looks like Inline Tube sells a complete kit, pre-bent, for 195. Does anyone know of another source for them? Also, Inline lists a kit for late 96-97 and one for 94 to early 97. Is there an easy way to determine the build date on a 96?