Topic: 2006 Chevy Trailblazer 69K miles --- Update

[Bill K]

 I just bought this less than 2 weeks ago and I'm already having issues with it. If anyone has any input about these cars, good or bad I'd love to hear it.
  
   Had it 2 days check engine light came on. Scan says lean in bank one. Great !
   Cold start makes a little noise in the top end till it warms up. Great !  
   Rear wiper hangs up and doesn't work properly. Great !  
 
 Yea I test drove it and checked it out, yea I feel like dumb a$$ right now.  

[Inigo Montoya]

Well check with the place you bought it from, some will remedy some issues. As for the lean issue, probably the wide band o2 sensor. They usually only last around 70,000 miles it seems. I would not worry about that much as unless it is VERY lean, you will probably be ok. My mazda is like that and I just leave it and enjoy 35 mpg. It never overheats or has any other issues. But it is up to you.

Rear wiper is probably something electrical but hard to say without more description.

The top end noise could just be cause of the type of oil. Try a quality oil like castrol or mobil1 first.
My father in law has a trailblazer and from what I know, has never had any major issues and it has something like 140,000 on it.

[tramp]

scarry thing about the oil
might be thick oil to hide valvetrain noise

[Steve F]

I drive an '03 Silverado with the 5.3L V8, and just last week the check engine came on (81K miles).  Turns out that there is a possible intake leak causing a lean condition.  My mechanic says $60 to $90 to fix it with new intake gaskets.  He said that it's most likely to occur in extreme cold, and would not reappear if it's warm.  He cleared the code, and I will see what happens in the next week or so.
As far as the top end noise you describe, I have noticed that the injectors will click a bit when the engine is cold.  See if you can get a stethoscope in there to probe around and pinpoint the source of the noise.
Steve F

[82CB650SC]

We used the trailblazer as fleet vehicles at work so you get to see a lot of common problems. I listed the top 3.
My work vehicle is a 2006 trailblazer with 138,000 miles and I hit all three of these problems already.
1) Sending unit in gas tank
2) Transmissions
3) Transmission cooling lines

[Bill K]

   Thanks for the replies so far. You are not going to believe this !! I would love to use alot of cuss words right now to express the living hell my life has been the past two days. With that said, I'll try to keep it clean. Since my inital post I talked to the dealer who agreed to have "his mechanic" take a look at the car, suv what the f ever. Before I ever get this giant POS to him BANG ! the trans. goes out !!
    The trans. went out of this thing 15 days after driving off his lot. I had and still have other issues, now this has just trumped all of those. I drove off the lot with a 50/50 30 day warranty. VA only has lemon laws on new cars. Needless to say I WENT OFF on this used car dealer and tried to get him to take this car back. Guess what, no deal.
    After two days off VERY heated arguing with this guy he has agreed to pay to have the trans. fixed. So wish me luck. Thanks, I really needed to vent.

                                                                       Bill K

[mikedialect]

   Thanks for the replies so far. You are not going to believe this !! I would love to use alot of cuss words right now to express the living hell my life has been the past two days. With that said, I'll try to keep it clean. Since my inital post I talked to the dealer who agreed to have "his mechanic" take a look at the car, suv what the f ever. Before I ever get this giant POS to him BANG ! the trans. goes out !!
    The trans. went out of this thing 15 days after driving off his lot. I had and still have other issues, now this has just trumped all of those. I drove off the lot with a 50/50 30 day warranty. VA only has lemon laws on new cars. Needless to say I WENT OFF on this used car dealer and tried to get him to take this car back. Guess what, no deal.
    After two days off VERY heated arguing with this guy he has agreed to pay to have the trans. fixed. So wish me luck. Thanks, I really needed to vent.

                                                                       Bill K

Yikes! I've helped put in a few of those transmissions. If I were near by I would certainly offer up some help. At least he offered to put the transmission. Some silver lining at least. The rear wiper can be snagged cheap from somewhere, junkyard or something.

[Inigo Montoya]

I know dealers like that. Where I used to live, there was a dealer named gerald wetzel. He earned the name gerald weasel.
I am note sure how long he has managed to stay in business. I think most states do not really write any laws on used cars. It IS used after all but it would still be nice to have a 30 day full guarantee. You do not though and instead it is "as is" meaning the dealer has no responsibility to even check the car out in some places.

This dealer had supposedly put sawdust in trannys and oil treatments in the cars to sell them. Hard to say simce the car is sold "as is", there is no way to prove the previous owner did not do that. Used car sales are big time rackets. Why do you think there are so many of them!

You get some capital, go buy some cars off an auction for cheap. Mark them up and sell them as is. If I was able to be dishonest enough, I might have tried my hand at it!

[mgbgt89]

69K on a transmission is rediculous.

As far as your lean issue, It's a good possiblity of being an intake manifold gasket. Spray carb cleaner around where the heads and intake meet and listen for any changes in the idle. It could also be a bad O2 sensor but those usually throw a different code than lean bank (x) When O2 sensors go bad i usually see O2 sensor (x) no activity, or heating circuit no activity or something like that.

I would also drain the trans fluid and look for any saw dust. I've heard of used car dealers dumping that in to lessen noises. Might be able to take his ass to court.

That's why i never by cars from dealers. Private owners are usually a much better bet. Of course, I always by my cars with something broken on them in the first place to get them cheap.

[Inigo Montoya]

In my mazda, the o2 sensor is bad and the it just throws a lean code. You just never know how the computer is set up sometimes.

[mgbgt89]

In my mazda, the o2 sensor is bad and the it just throws a lean code. You just never know how the computer is set up sometimes.

Ah, never worked on a mazda. You're probably right. Only thing i've had O2 related codes were on an S10, and a VW jetta. O2 sensors are cheap, and cause lots of problems when they go bad.

If you have coolant getting into the engine, which you may with an intake leak, That will ruin an O2 sensor quickly. GM coolant is the usual cause of intake leaks, it eats the gasket. Switch to Prestone or other name brand coolant. Dexcool is garbage.

[Inigo Montoya]

Nice to know failures get engineered in huh.

[mgbgt89]

Tipical GM bean counters at work.

At least they are easy to work on. That's the only thing that keeps me a die hard GM man.

[Bill K]

  I got confirmation today, in writing that this guy would pay to have this trans. fixed. The car is at a good shop. The place is owned and ran by one guy. He's a good stand up guy with a great reputation around town. Looks like this whole mess won't dig into my winter rebuild / 836 project after all !!!!

[Inigo Montoya]

Well hopefully you get to keep your bright side to this!