Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

2003 Chevy Trailblazer

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • 2003 Chevy Trailblazer

    Does anyone know why these are prone to catch fire? I came by a deal I could not pass up on one that had a "little" fire. Yes, the plastic air box was toast as well as the plastic cover on the intake (?) with some melted wire, basically something I would have not even tried to go after. But KBB still has these at 3-6 grand and I got a pretty clean one for 700.

    Spent the morning at a salvage yard getting the plastic, most of the wiring harness and a PCM just in case. Boy would it have been nice to have a connector before the engine part of the harness went thru the firewall, but all I could see were alot of recalls due to door switches starting on fire.

    It seems kind of common since two of the ones in the yard had a melted top end too and wondered if anyone heard of a reason why.

  • #2
    I’ve never heard of that. I knew a few people who had them and they never maintained them but somehow were putting 200,000 on them

    Comment


    • #3
      they have a 275 horsepower straight six, that has always been a great motor.

      Seems like the fires start at the wire case at the front of the motor. there is a fuel pressure regulator there but the fire was not big enough to have been caused by fuel spray, at least not this one.

      Comment


      • #4
        Pretty sure the fed sort of made ethanol a mandatory thing in gas around the time those came out so it could Ben that the fuel system wasn’t capable of handling the alcohol and it ate a fuel hose inside out. Hot engine+fuel=fire

        Comment


        • #5
          the fuel system looks in tact. There is an aluminum crossover tube for the air conditioning across the front of the motor and where the hose to the drier attaches is clearly burnt. I have lit up freon before, in a crawlspace in my house that singed my eyebrows, so I would think that might be part of it, just figure out the spark part. The #1 coil is burnt so that could maybe be the source. If the freon was leaking and the coil sparked at the proper time.

          Funny thing is, I went to the junk yard to try to get a harness for it and there was a real pretty air conditioner hose assembly on the donor. Now it might be the one part I would not want to trust from a yard. Two hours later I cut all the wires going into the cab, I am guessing I will graft the bad wires together to replace the harness to the coils.
          Last edited by anotheridiot; March 25, 2019, 07:00 AM.

          Comment


          • #6
            Cars that met their end because of a fire are hard to bring back. I’m replacing all fuel hoses because of this thread btw so if nothing else, I pray you just prevented a fire in my garage

            Comment


            • #7
              the point I was trying to make is to find freon leaks. This was a quick fire that went out when the freon burned away.

              When I used to work on big industrial equipment, you would use a propane torch and have a tube you ran around looking for freon leaks and the flame would turn to green. That was the color of the flame I remember when I popped the line at the house.

              Comment


              • #8
                Never knew that. Learn something new everyday

                Comment


                • #9
                  Back to this beast. I thought I did a thread after this, but my son drove it 2 winters, then we finished an avalanche and he decided to keep that one, as soon as I started driving this again, it dies whenever it wants to. Left me stranded twice. So, we just fixed a 2013 equinox for my other son, so decided to get an upgraded scanner. Found an Ethos Edge that takes us to 2016 for 400. Anyway, after parking the Trailblazer for the past most of the year since it left me stranded the last time, we hook up the ethos and it shows key in ignition fault. To me this makes perfect sense since security will sometimes think it is being stolen and shut down. Well, it makes sense when it dies, but it does not make sense when it starts over and over with the code. Click image for larger version

Name:	tbkeyinschematic.gif
Views:	160
Size:	151.2 KB
ID:	1331795
                  Either way, found this schematic over the weekend. Click image for larger version

Name:	tbkeyinschematic.gif
Views:	108
Size:	151.2 KB
ID:	1331794 from an 05, shows the tan and gray wire at the key on step. This is not a resister key, so we are going to change the lock cylinder, since you wiggle it around, the key in goes on and off, so there could be wear. But this is not a resister deal with a key, do you just put a toggle between the l green and tan if the cylinder does not work?

                  We had a 98 Malibu with the passlock that would just die when you were driving it, most times you could just bump it to neutral and start it again. I see a bunch of youtubers adding resisters to these wires, but I believe all they are doing is waiting the necessary 10 minutes before the thing starts again.

                  Apologies for the uploads in advance, its lower left corner, same tone as if you leave the headlights on.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    not 100% certain, but 98% sure that once the car has 'passed' the security of initial start up, it cannot shut the car back down. With that said, you may have a break that causes the car to think it's shut down.... but it won't shut the car off after it's initially allowed it to keep running.
                    Doing it all wrong since 1966

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      We had one for a while I was so glad to see it leave. It had the worst seats of any vehicle l have ever owned.
                      I think they got a bad rap because of people not changing the oil. A big part of that is the oil life meter. It's crazy long.
                      http://www.bangshift.com/forum/forum...-consolidation
                      1.54, 7.31 @ 94.14, 11.43 @ 118.95

                      PB 60' 1.49
                      ​​​​​​

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Originally posted by SuperBuickGuy View Post
                        not 100% certain, but 98% sure that once the car has 'passed' the security of initial start up, it cannot shut the car back down. With that said, you may have a break that causes the car to think it's shut down.... but it won't shut the car off after it's initially allowed it to keep running.
                        just saying, no blown fuses, no service engine light, sometimes the ground goes away on the shift indicator light that would point me to the stupid neutral safety switch on the transmission.We will get the new cylinder in today to see if the old one is worn out or possibly a cheap replacement out of tolerance that does not have the little scope on the scanner to show it remains made when the key is in. If it doesnt I guess I just try to connect the two wires and see what happens. I wanted to put a bigger fuse in the PCM and hoped whatever the fault was would smoke, but it never did.

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          New lock cylinder in, car started, started 20 times, I can pretty much guarantee I take this out in this 0 degree weather and I will get stranded. When I plug in scanner, key in ignition still says NO. Passlock inactive, passlock voltage 5 all the time, key is turned, the lime green wire is supposed to send a signal to the BCM with a different voltage that the BCM recognizes. 0. I mean, if the starting point of the data is having a key in the damned ignition and it cannot see it, nothing that follows is going to work, right?

                          The only replacement lock housings they sell say no security.

                          Worst part is, I drove the forklift thru the condensor and broke the drain on the radiator, so now have another 200 in this stupid thing.

                          Comment

                          Working...
                          X