Although my stepdad, my grandfather, and most of my friends work or have worked for GM ( I grew up in Flint, MI. ) I have never been a big fan of GM. Tax time came around this year and the wife and I shopped around for an affordable suv. We found a '98 blazer 2 wheel drive fully loaded. This thing has only 113,000 miles on it, and other than a few cracks in the drivers seat ( its leather ) this thing is literally almost FLAWLESS inside and out!! Brand new tires I mean beautiful! So I haggled the guy down to $1850.00 for it. I should have known it was too good to be true! Drove it home, about 30 miles or so. When I got home I found a small drip coming from the radiator which turns out is cracked ( the plastic tank, WHY did they make them plastic? ). No big deal bought a brand new radiator on E-Bay for $60.00 shipping and all so that did not bother me too much. Three days after buying it, my wife, 8 year old son, and myself all load up to go shopping. We made it about 15 miles or so down the expressway and out of now where the tranny completely goes out! It whent from working 100% perfectly to toast! So needless to say so far Chevy is living up to my very low expectations. I just sold a '99 Ford Escort with 338,000 miles on it and it had virtually NO issues. This Blazer ate a transmission with only 113,000 on it?!! WTF? So, is there anything else I need to know to watch out for? I now know that these are notorious for bad transmissions, but I still feel like I got a fair deal, after buying it, replacing the radiator, and paying a grand to fix the tranny I only have right at $3000 in it!

 

welcome from NY

I hate to say it but it Sounds like you bought an lemon

have you checked the fluids ? before you bought it and after the rad change

 

I am certainly not a pro, but I have quite a bit of knowledge about vehicles and motors. I checked all fluids and other than the fact that the oil was apparently overfilled a little bit it all looked A-OK. The transmission fluid was a nice red color, looked good. I have read probably 300 reviews online just today on these blazers, and at least 75% of them said this blazer has tons of transmission trouble! I have owned alot of vehicles in my life, and I have NEVER had a tranny go out like that, ESPECIALLY not at only 113000 miles. Hundreds of people wrote that theirs went out at under 125,000 miles in these blazers! HUNDREDS I actually like the Blazer, but if it is going to need a new transmission every couple of years, I dont want to deal with that!!!!!!

 

ive never heard of trannys going that early on these trucks

theres many members running original motors and trannys over 200k 300k miles

Like i said it might of been a lemon or a coincidence

 

edmonds.com is VERY reputable, and they have 8 pages of reviews on their site. I'd say half of them had to replace transmissions under 150000! Heck even a few at under 100,000!! Like I said, I am a die hard Ford man, but I am DESPERATELY hoping this blazer is not a complete turd!! Heck, at that low of mileage it shouldnt need a new radiator either! I will never understand why they use a plastic tank radiator in an SUV V-6!!??

 

Yeahh.. im not so sure about edmonds.com.. it seems like only people with problems go on there and report.

From knowing a lot of people who have had Blazers all their lives, and being a part of this forum for a long time i VERY rarely see actual transmission problems (usually its easy electrical stuff) so you are one of the very few that i have heard with real transmission problems. The person who had it last must have been rough on it, the 4.3L and the 4L60E transmission in these things are the very least of my worries, they are are both very strong. Unless you happen to be very unlucky like yourself i guess.

So dont hate on the blazer yet, it will impress you i promise! lol

But if there is one thing i would say to watch out for it would be the spider fuel injection system thats in these up till 2001 i believe. They like to leak and go bad, but luckily its only about 150 for the upgraded one, but many people also never have problems with them.

So in short, more often than not nothing serious goes wrong with these trucks, its usually something stupid. So if you are ever having trouble with the truck come here first and let us help you fix it! well accept for the transmission completely going bad, theres not a lot you can do there unless you know how to work on transmissions.

Oh but welcome from Washington!

 

Welcome.
Lol... I'm a Dayton boy.. It's like Flint south and same dynamic. My Bro in Law even worked at Flint engine plant And I'm a Ford guy too
I bought my brava Last May under the same circumstances as you, but did my due diligence research here instead of edmunds or CR.. but I think you got a slightly better deal.. and I can tell you the trans was the last thing I was concerned about.

It's possible that people experiencing tranny problems dont even come here to find what to do but I dont think it's THAT skewed. Not only that.. 4wd problems, most of them fairly easy to fix, count as tranny. There's about 5 of those for every trans.
You've got a rwd you'll have about 25% fewer headaches.
Added: so of course, now we get a spate of tranny complaints!

There's a lot of good advice on here... but please dont buck concensus on repair advice.. it's not a good thing to see people come back in a few months and say "Gee I wish I'd listened to you guys.."


You touched on the tradeoff though. Why didnt you buy a loaded Explorer XLT instead? Same as me, I bet.

You'll do alright.. just read around and dont be afraid to watch for the problems. Stay ahead of it. Watch your fluids closely.

 

Welcome and good luck with your little monster.

 

I recently bought a blazer myself, and it came with a rebuilt transmission at around 104K, so I understand the concern, but from everything that I have seen on here, that is the exception, not the rule.

Anyways, welcome from Minnesota

 

welcome from New Orleans, and good luck with your ride