Hello everyone. I stumbled across this site and Bravada forums just the other day. It's cool that there is a support community out there for these cars too. My other car is a Honda Civic (does that get me booed on GM forums?)..

Anyways, I'm a new 2000 Bravada owner. I picked one up very very cheap with the intent of working on it and driving it for a year or two to get through a couple of winters before trading it in for something new.

You'll be seeing a post or two from me very soon as I start to dig into this thing and find out how bad the previous owner abused it.

I hope you all don't mind me posting Bravada questions here? I thought everyone might have some really good advice because our cars are so similar. I look forward to digging into the forums with everyone.

Thanks

 

We welcome new Bravadas as well as new members. Nice choice of rides, these SUVs are awesome in winter. Post some pics of the new ride!

 

I have a cousin with a 1999 Bravada and I have seen how well they do in the winter, I'm looking forward to playing slalom with cars this winter.

A guy at work had this Bravada. He said that he was finally done with it and wanted to sell. He had an extended warranty which covered many new parts all in the last 4 years including Fuel Pump, Heater Core, Upper and Lower ball joints, oil pan gasket, a motor mount, lower intake gasket, idler arm, rear pinion and rear side bearings, and a right front wheel bearing,

He said after all of that it was still making a groaning or rubbing noise up front and his warranty is all used up. He was planning on fixing this until his radiator plug started leaking and he overheated the engine pretty bad. He said it got to where it stalled once and was knocking/pinging pretty badly.

So he let it cool off, replaced the drain **** plug, filled it with antifreeze, changed the oil, fired it up and it was idling very rough with a SES light. A scanner showed a cylinder 4 misfire. Fed up with it after all of the repairs, he took it to CarMax and got a lovely $500 offer for it. I told him I'd give him $700 and he accepted. .

So I drove it home, it actually doesn't run that bad, it just gives you a nice shake when you are idling at a stop light. It isn't knocking, or smoking, or anything that would signal a total engine failure, but it has a bit of a ping, or something in the muffler, maybe a slight backfire. When I pulled it into my garage it seems to be leaking something, either oil or tranny fluid, I haven't figured out which yet. It's coming from somewhere around the oil/tranny pan area.

Hopefully I can bring this back to tip top shape and have a good car for a couple grand.

I'm curious to know what everyone thinks.

Considering the the misfire code and the rough idle after an overheat condition and taking into account the engine doesn't seem to be severely damaged, no knocking and the oil doesn't smell burnt. What do you think I might be looking at? I'm was already planning on having the heads redone, but that is no biggie for me. Is there a way to check the rest of engine for further damage after I have the heads off?

What are your thoughts about the oil leak?

Should I just run away from this project?