At what point do you say "Enough is enough"?
#1
03-19-2010, 05:28 PM
At what point do you say "Enough is enough"?
I have a '99 Blazer, 2door 4wd (4 buttons), 138K miles on it, and over the last year or so it's just started to fall apart on me.
The truck was in an accident a couple years ago (someone took a left in front of me without looking, I T-boned her at 50mph, rolled the other car on its side). What I should have done was let the insurance company total it and buy me another Blazer, but I didn't know they did that until after I already took the money and had the bodywork started. Unfortunately the body shop I went to is not the greatest; they're fast and cheap, but they do cruddy work. All the cabdrivers in Brooklyn go to them because they get you in and out quickly.
Thing is, most of this is unrelated to the accident:
1. Brakes. Car had been sitting for a while, and when I went to drive it I found I had no brakes. I think he had to put in a master cylinder. Front brakes replaced, rotors, pads, etc., also emergency brakes weren't releasing and needed adjustment, I forgot what all else he did but it totalled up to $910.04. That was in 9/09.
2. Left front wheel hub and bearing, also something else which I forget. Parts $94 (less $40 discount for opening a spamazon credit card), labor $130. This was December.
3. Right rear brake caliper sticking. $339.72. December.
4. Right front wheel hub and bearing. See #2. January.
5. Car started mis-firing with check engine light. He changed out the plugs (bastard charged me $15.20 each for Delco Platinums, I could get those in the store for $7 each), cap ($55.58) & rotor ($17.37), new plug wires ($79.88) and 3 hours labor ($195) plus diagnostic fee (29.95 for injector balance test). That was the last time I let him buy the parts for me, ever since then I buy the parts myself and let him install them. F'in ripoff, I didn't even look at the parts column when I paid this or I'd've had some words for him which I couldn't reproduce here without getting thrown off the board. It turns out the actual cause was an arcing coil wire. Total came out $501.80 with the tax. That was January.
6. No power going up hills or accelerating from a stop light. He found excessive backpressure, so replaced the cat ($175.33 from Amazon), which didn't fix the problem. He scratched his head for two weeks testing this and that and couldn't figure it out, so he called in his buddy the diagnostic specialist ($180) who also scratched his head for a few hours and finally found a second cat they weren't expecting (they thought it was a resonator) which was melted solid inside, probably from the misfire in point #4 above. Ordered a new Y-pipe without cat, ($97.81) and had him install that. He couldn't get the O2 sensors out in one piece, so he sold me 2 new ones by Bosch ($194), and a total of 4.5 hours labor to install the pipes. ($292.50; he didn't charge me for the head-scratching time.) That whole adventure cost me $761.30 including misc. gaskets & hardware, plus $273.14 for customer supplied parts. This was February.
(I also see something from November for $202.17, but that might have been for the '88. I haven't checked all my c/c bills so I might even be missing something.)
Besides all that, I had the frame straightened last summer ($600) because the idiots in the body shop in Brooklyn didn't bother.
Edit to add: I forgot about the few hundred dollars I spent on rental cars while both my trucks were undriveable.
Now more things have started going wrong. It needs motor mounts (dealer quoted me $622, which is a sky-high markup as the part is $12 each!) and my mechanic won't do those because he has no hoist and he doesn't want to jack on an aluminum oil pan.
Then it's got that warm no-start that someone in another thread says is fuel leaking under the plenum. Probably needs new spider. $286.27 from Amazon.
Now the intake manifold gasket gave way this afternoon (fortunately right in front of my house) and pished antifreeze all over the road. That'll be another $500 easy.
I haven't added up all the above numbers because it's just too damn depressing to look at.
What I should have done was never rebuild it after the accident; I found out afterwards that I could have let the insurance company total it and buy me another Blazer of similar age, but by then I'd already started work on rebuilding this one. Hindsight is 20/20 they say. (Although who's to say that the one they'd have bought wouldn't also have been a money pit?) Had the airbags gone off like they should have done, the decision would have been out of my hands, but they didn't.
I couldn't even sell the truck now for a fraction of what I paid in just in the past two years; if I could just break even I'd be ecstatic, but that ain't gonna happen either.
So the question is, at what point do you just cut your losses and say F this noise, I'm getting rid of this POS before it bankrupts me?
The truck was in an accident a couple years ago (someone took a left in front of me without looking, I T-boned her at 50mph, rolled the other car on its side). What I should have done was let the insurance company total it and buy me another Blazer, but I didn't know they did that until after I already took the money and had the bodywork started. Unfortunately the body shop I went to is not the greatest; they're fast and cheap, but they do cruddy work. All the cabdrivers in Brooklyn go to them because they get you in and out quickly.
Thing is, most of this is unrelated to the accident:
1. Brakes. Car had been sitting for a while, and when I went to drive it I found I had no brakes. I think he had to put in a master cylinder. Front brakes replaced, rotors, pads, etc., also emergency brakes weren't releasing and needed adjustment, I forgot what all else he did but it totalled up to $910.04. That was in 9/09.
2. Left front wheel hub and bearing, also something else which I forget. Parts $94 (less $40 discount for opening a spamazon credit card), labor $130. This was December.
3. Right rear brake caliper sticking. $339.72. December.
4. Right front wheel hub and bearing. See #2. January.
5. Car started mis-firing with check engine light. He changed out the plugs (bastard charged me $15.20 each for Delco Platinums, I could get those in the store for $7 each), cap ($55.58) & rotor ($17.37), new plug wires ($79.88) and 3 hours labor ($195) plus diagnostic fee (29.95 for injector balance test). That was the last time I let him buy the parts for me, ever since then I buy the parts myself and let him install them. F'in ripoff, I didn't even look at the parts column when I paid this or I'd've had some words for him which I couldn't reproduce here without getting thrown off the board. It turns out the actual cause was an arcing coil wire. Total came out $501.80 with the tax. That was January.
6. No power going up hills or accelerating from a stop light. He found excessive backpressure, so replaced the cat ($175.33 from Amazon), which didn't fix the problem. He scratched his head for two weeks testing this and that and couldn't figure it out, so he called in his buddy the diagnostic specialist ($180) who also scratched his head for a few hours and finally found a second cat they weren't expecting (they thought it was a resonator) which was melted solid inside, probably from the misfire in point #4 above. Ordered a new Y-pipe without cat, ($97.81) and had him install that. He couldn't get the O2 sensors out in one piece, so he sold me 2 new ones by Bosch ($194), and a total of 4.5 hours labor to install the pipes. ($292.50; he didn't charge me for the head-scratching time.) That whole adventure cost me $761.30 including misc. gaskets & hardware, plus $273.14 for customer supplied parts. This was February.
(I also see something from November for $202.17, but that might have been for the '88. I haven't checked all my c/c bills so I might even be missing something.)
Besides all that, I had the frame straightened last summer ($600) because the idiots in the body shop in Brooklyn didn't bother.
Edit to add: I forgot about the few hundred dollars I spent on rental cars while both my trucks were undriveable.
Now more things have started going wrong. It needs motor mounts (dealer quoted me $622, which is a sky-high markup as the part is $12 each!) and my mechanic won't do those because he has no hoist and he doesn't want to jack on an aluminum oil pan.
Then it's got that warm no-start that someone in another thread says is fuel leaking under the plenum. Probably needs new spider. $286.27 from Amazon.
Now the intake manifold gasket gave way this afternoon (fortunately right in front of my house) and pished antifreeze all over the road. That'll be another $500 easy.
I haven't added up all the above numbers because it's just too damn depressing to look at.
What I should have done was never rebuild it after the accident; I found out afterwards that I could have let the insurance company total it and buy me another Blazer of similar age, but by then I'd already started work on rebuilding this one. Hindsight is 20/20 they say. (Although who's to say that the one they'd have bought wouldn't also have been a money pit?) Had the airbags gone off like they should have done, the decision would have been out of my hands, but they didn't.
I couldn't even sell the truck now for a fraction of what I paid in just in the past two years; if I could just break even I'd be ecstatic, but that ain't gonna happen either.
So the question is, at what point do you just cut your losses and say F this noise, I'm getting rid of this POS before it bankrupts me?
Last edited by Shalom; 03-19-2010 at 05:31 PM. Reason: added line
#3
03-19-2010, 07:39 PM
That was really hard to read. I usually say enough is enough when i have no money left. Good luck on getting the truck fixed/sold.
#5
03-20-2010, 12:12 AM
sounds like alot of bad luck.
also reminds me that im lucky that either I can usually do my own work or have friends (with tools and lifts) who can do it for free. cause you could have saved alot without labor but i fully understand that most people dont usually have the time or the equipment.
also reminds me that im lucky that either I can usually do my own work or have friends (with tools and lifts) who can do it for free. cause you could have saved alot without labor but i fully understand that most people dont usually have the time or the equipment.
#7
03-23-2010, 01:19 AM
I would find another shop with some ase certified technicians and get a second opinion from them. With all that $ invested that rig should be just about new! Depending on what the other shop says, maybe it's not worth investing more money and you would be better off replacing it.
#8
03-23-2010, 04:56 PM
at some point you have to decide when the value of parts and labor exceeds the total value of the truck.
#9
03-24-2010, 11:46 PM
dude i so feel your pain, i paid 2200 bucks for a bottom end rebuild and a little more, cheap *** didn't even do piston rings. I go threw about 3 quarts of oil every 200 miles not to mention clean the plugs about every 50 miles. Considering i have no ABS, 4WD, and Heat. I'm Throwing in the towel and saying no more. Looking for a full size Tahoe or Yukon.
If your anything like me I know how badly you don't wanna let it go but at some point you really need to say enough is enough. Look at it like a relationship, if all of the repairs done on your truck was something you had to put up with from a girl/boy I'm sure any one of us including me and you would have kicked that person to the curb and found somebody else. It is very hard but it has to be done just try to do what I'm doing, keep it going with as LITTLE as possible and start searching. Hope this helps man, good luck.
Drifter
If your anything like me I know how badly you don't wanna let it go but at some point you really need to say enough is enough. Look at it like a relationship, if all of the repairs done on your truck was something you had to put up with from a girl/boy I'm sure any one of us including me and you would have kicked that person to the curb and found somebody else. It is very hard but it has to be done just try to do what I'm doing, keep it going with as LITTLE as possible and start searching. Hope this helps man, good luck.
Drifter
#10
07-21-2010, 10:15 PM
me too
I have had horrible luck with my 98 4x4 4 door. two engine's a tranny, a heater core, wheel bearings both sides, a little cog on the end of the passenger side axle shaft that the slip yoke slides over to engage the passenger front wheel in four wheel. that thing cost 90 bucks alone... a radiator, alt, normal wear and tear stuff like breaks and rotors and a frozen caliper... yeah 2000 dollar blazer with a great body, may have been the worst idea yet. lol. i just in my head have about 6k into this truck. im lucky that i can do alot of the work myself, ive under taken the project of replacing the passenger axle shaft bearing and i found that cog eaten up. im in the process of putting it back together. im not even including the cost of the tools ive bought along the way... this thing is nickle and diming me to death... i hope my repair works or it just may push me over the edge into sending it down the road...