i am new to this site and i have a major issue with my rear brakes. how to disengage rear brakes? can i bypass the proportion valve and just go from the master cylinder to the front brakes? or can i plug the rear brake lines in the proportion valve?"

 

Picked up my now passed father in-laws 98 Chevy blazer. 260000 miles. Gave mother in-law 1650.00 for it. So far brake pads and rotors. o2 sensor which is still giving me problems. Has a lot of minor issues that I hope don't become majors. starts hard. brakes act like on ice even on dry road. rear wiper doesn't work but it's got 260000 miles. It deserves to have a few issues. Just too bad I gotta pay for them.

 

Bought my Blazer new in July 1997. got about 155k miles on it. I've put about $4,000 into it over the years. Well over half of that was replacing the transmission. Overall, I don't think that's too bad...heck at least it's been long since paid off!

 

I got my 01 2dr 2wd ls blazer in dec of 04 with 34k on it. now she has 168k on it. I got my 98 s10 pickup 2dr 2wd in feb 2011 with 66k now 78k its now my daily driver/work truck.

Blazer has had only a few repairs to it that were not wear and tear:
brakes and rotors two calipers
door bushings
one u joint
fuel pump (seems to be time again 6 months later)
wiring repairs to the fuel pump evap vent valve
evap vent valve replaced
replaced the trans cooler
secondary air injector
rear bumper (original one needed replacement after being rear ended by a celica and an explorer both cars totaled celica chiped the license plate light housing explorer folded it)
rear bumper replacement again (backed into a tree d'oh)
mods:
k&n air filter (in stock box)
two tone paint job and bumper swap
air shocks
ceiling console (donated by a junk jard blazer)
interior paint job

needs:
water pump
fuel pressure sensor
ebrake cable

s10 repairs:
crankshaft sensor
alt
power steering cooler

mods:
tool box
trac racks
body mouldings (from junk yard blazer)
moved the door panel s10 badges to the fenders 80s style
front bumper swap with the blazer above
ditched the bench seat for power buckets
windshield visors replaced with lighted mirror visors with blinder extensions
blazer floor center console

 

do u have rear disc brakes or drums? if discs u have to disengage the ebrake to allow the inner pads to release and remove the rotor. if drums u it takes alot of wd40 and maul hammer to beat it of the drum. as far as the lines go u need to run the lines to the box first (lines go from master cyl to box to the wheels) if u dont the abs system will not work properly because the brakes are not getting proper pressure.

 

Was that meant to be a response to something else?

 

I bought a 2001 Jimmy brand new....now at 165,000km (~105,000 miles). Easily one of the most pathetic vehicles that I have ever had the displeasure of owning.

I've renamed it "Lucky 1000".....lucky if the next repair will cost less than $1000.

Fuel pump quit yesterday and it's now "dead in the water". Turns out that I wasted $24.00 on materials for an oil-change earlier in the morning.

The "list" is like most others:

Ball Joints
Wheel hubs - twice
Transmission
heater motor
Flushed heater core, eliminated DexCool
Recharged AC twice
Front pinion bearing in rear diff
Front Drive Shaft
Hinge pins in doors (of course)
Broken Driver seat recline handle
Rear Wiper Motor
ABS Brake Module
Secondary Air Injection Pump
Thermostat

ya know...the usual stuff...what a piece of crap

 

so..why have ya kept it for 10 years? Not trying to be funny, just curious

 

I'm in much the same boat. You begin to think that their not worth much to anyone else and you're what they call in the poker world "pot committed". You've got too much into it to let it go for $1500.

I bought mine for $4000 with 45k miles and have put well over that into maintenace repairs alone. Mods are about half that moreover. I'm so close to getting mine problem free right now that I can't let it go even though it is the biggest headache vehicle I've owned over the past 20 years.

Mine is a 2001 4dr lt 4wd. Loaded to the friggen hilt. I think the only luxury it doesn't have is leather. And all those luxuries are points of failure, I've found.

Next up is the ABS module if i can't diagnose otherwise. Then i dive back into the front suspension.

 

Sunliner,

It's like EXKid says....everyone else knows they're junk and won't give you more than $1500 for it. And you're "in" so far that you're stuck driving it until the next repair simply isn't cost effective.

It's pretty sad to say that a vehicle with <110,000 miles may not justify new tires and a fuel pump. So the next option is to park it in the bush and let it "go back to nature."

Or suck up another $1000 in parts plus DIY repairs and hope to extend its life for another 6 months at a time.

I know some folks really like their Jimmy/Blazers and I did to. But if someone would have told me 5 years ago that once you hit 50,000 miles you gotta pull the chute and bail out...I would have and probably would have been happy with my experience and maybe would have even purchased another GM product.

But now when I think back at the various repairs it makes me think "Really?...after building vehicles for a hundred years, the best that GM engineers could come up with for a wheel hub/bearing would only go 40,000 miles at a time". The essence of a vehicle is 4 wheels rolling on the ground and they failed at designing this simplest function....bizarre and truly shameful.

That should have been my first clue of what was to come...how could they possibly succeed with something more complex like a transmission or ABS electronics or even a tapered bearing in a differential? Door hinge pins/bushings...honestly? All to eventually fail after the wheel hubs. There are '57 chevy's with their 400 pound, 6 foot long doors still hanging on their factory installed hinges and this is what we ended up with on our 2nd Gen Jimmy's/Blazers? Sheesh...

No matter how hyped up their products are now....I will never give GM my business again. Doing so would simply continue supporting GM's contempt for their customers. And so it is that I explained to GM's Customer Service....it's my story to continue telling so long as I own the vehicle.

Instead of GM providing their employees discounts and incentives to drive new GM vehicles, they ought to require their employees to drive GM vehicles with over 100,000 miles and pay for repairs from their own pockets. I suspect the "hype" and pride would drop a couple notches...