PontiacBonnevilleClub.com

My daughter decided she needed a truck, so we started searching the local online ads. She lives 50 miles from me and came down to go look at a couple that were about 30 miles farther south. Just before we walked out the door, I decided to check the e-ads one more time and found one that fit her requirements (mainly looking for a small truck) and it was about 3 miles from my house. So we busted a move.

She wound up buying this 99 S-10 with about 154k miles. 4.3l V-6, auto (she wanted a stick…but not a show-stopper), 2wd, A/C, extended cab, shell, bed liner, new tires. This thing is nearly immaculate for a ’99. No rust, 1 or 2 small dings, no tears in upholstery, no cracks in dash, no fading in paint. It was a freakin’ find for $1900 and she paid cash for it on the spot. It books between $3500 and $4600. Why so cheap? It had a problem with the brakes. While braking, at about 5mph or so, the antilock system would kick in. The owner thought maybe the antilock module(s) were toast and that could be costly. I figured even if she had to dump another $1000 into it, she’d be below book and with the condition it was in buying was a no-brainer.

While talking with the owner we discovered that about a month prior someone had wanted to buy it and gave him a $100 retainer. He hadn’t heard back at all, so he listed it again about 15 minutes before I saw the ad and called him. He also had someone else coming to look at it, and someone else that offered him $1000 over the phone (loser), so I told Hannah to plop down the $1900 asking price, get the title signed over, and let’s get the hell outta here. Which is exactly what we did.

Wonder what was wrong with the brakes? The left front wheel speed sensor was bad. It also had a bad upstream O2 sensor (unrelated to brakes, obviously). There were a couple other nit things it needed, but about $300 later, she’s got a bitchin’ little truck. Runs and drives like a dream. If I didn't already have a truck, I'd have kept this one myself.

Feast your eyes:

I approve. I loves me S-10's.

Nice score! That was one heck of a deal.

CMNTMXR57 wrote:I approve...

That makes it official.

Wes wrote:Nice score! That was one heck of a deal.

You have no idea how true that statement is, Wes. If you were to see it and drive it you would soil your knickers - pictures and description don't do it justice. She was under $2500 for the price of the truck, the repair it needed, tax, and licensing. Could possibly be a better deal than I got on my GXP.

Oh, and I forgot to mention, the driver's door handle (outside) was very loose. The guy told my daughter she should probably JB Weld it to hold it in place. When we got it home I took the door panel off, and found the screw that fell out of the handle in the bottom of the door and screwed it back in. Just like new, and no JB Weld.

You know it

Man that's a clean truck for the price. With the new house and moving, I've been looking for a cheap used truck down here, but even rusted turds are going for like $4 grand still. S10's with a stick are fun little beaters though, too bad she's stuck with the auto, but I'm sure she isn't complaining too much considering the deal she got.

Good find... Just like the 3800 the 4.3 has those plastic gasket issues, and sometimes the Fuel injector spider likes to go bad.. I know the system was updated, they ditched the poppet valves and went with an actual injector spider where the poppets were.. One of the problems I saw with the ABS was those sensors, sometimes they just got really caked over the years and couldn't read pulses from the ring.. The other problem I saw which seemed common was failure of the EBCM its self..

Really good find, and in beautiful shape... That 4.3 is rock solid.. Please make sure it has a Wix, Puralator or AC Delco oil filter on it, keep it happy.. And for 1900 bucks I would have bought it too...lol

NICE!

The Mazda B3000 we bought last November is not that nice, is a standard cab, and has a bed cover instead of the cap. But we needed 4WD.

Great buy, glad you got it, love the story.

Jrs3800 wrote:Good find... Just like the 3800 the 4.3 has those plastic gasket issues, and sometimes the Fuel injector spider likes to go bad.. I know the system was updated, they ditched the poppet valves and went with an actual injector spider where the poppets were.. One of the problems I saw with the ABS was those sensors, sometimes they just got really caked over the years and couldn't read pulses from the ring.. The other problem I saw which seemed common was failure of the EBCM its self..

Really good find, and in beautiful shape... That 4.3 is rock solid.. Please make sure it has a Wix, Puralator or AC Delco oil filter on it, keep it happy.. And for 1900 bucks I would have bought it too...lol

Thanks Don. I saw the issue with dirty WSSs, downloaded the service bulletin, and told the guys at the stop (I took it to her Grandpa's service shop 'cause I didn't have time to dink around with it myself) to check the WSSs before getting too deep into it. Sure enough they found the LF WSS was actually bad.

She is elated with the truck and, while she would have preferred a stick, I think the automatic will work out better since it's a daily driver. I can't get over how nice it drives - smooth, quiet, and not a single rattle. She really scored.

One thing I did discover is that the seat recline levers on both sides are snapped off at the shaft. How the heck...? I'll have to take a look and see if there's something I can do about that.

Sirius wrote:One thing I did discover is that the seat recline levers on both sides are snapped off at the shaft. How the heck...? I'll have to take a look and see if there's something I can do about that.

Common issue. Both sides are broken on my Sonoma too. Being a redneck, I just bought some small vise grips to replace the handle.

I think the help section for Dorman should have replacement levers..

Sirius wrote:One thing I did discover is that the seat recline levers on both sides are snapped off at the shaft. How the heck...? I'll have to take a look and see if there's something I can do about that.

Sorta funny story here, although I believe it was a 95/96 S-Blazer came in for warranty... A couple times anyway for the same exact problem. It wasn't a broken lever like here, rather the actual mechanism in the seat that would keep breaking and causing the seat to recline. Well, we kept replacing it. Finally, my SM (a friend), began to question it. So when the truck came in again for another broken one (and by now the customer was extremely pissed that it kept breaking too), he requested that he meet with the customer. Well no wonder it kept breaking... The guy weighed 600 pounds!!! Literally he was the size of Jabba the Hutt. He opened the door and his belly flopped out before his feet ever stepped on the ground!

So he got into it with my SM, because the SM said that he was sorry, enough is enough and that he can't continue to replace them under warranty. This CLEARLY ISN'T a manufacturer defect as I'm sure Lear (the seat manufacturer if I recall), didn't intend for the seat to be used with 600 pound people!


The customer asked... "Well, what are my options then?"

My SM replied;
1) YOU pay for it each time
2) LOSE WEIGHT!!!

As you can imagine #2 didn't exactly score us a 100% customer satisfaction index review...

Jrs3800 wrote:I think the help section for Dorman should have replacement levers..

I forgot to mention that I had 2 Dorman replacements break before my vise grip fix.

Would an old H body handle fit?

Unfortunately it's not the lever (which is missing on both sides) that's broken, it's the shaft on the seat that is damaged. If it were just the handles I'd dig those up somewhere. I'd have to do the Wes-fix (vise grips) because there's no way to mount any kind of handle on there now. Or come up with something cleaner and more permanent. There's not a lot of space in there for vice grips to get a bite either.

CMNTMXR57 wrote:

Sirius wrote:One thing I did discover is that the seat recline levers on both sides are snapped off at the shaft. How the heck...? I'll have to take a look and see if there's something I can do about that.

Sorta funny story here, although I believe it was a 95/96 S-Blazer came in for warranty... A couple times anyway for the same exact problem. It wasn't a broken lever like here, rather the actual mechanism in the seat that would keep breaking and causing the seat to recline. Well, we kept replacing it. Finally, my SM (a friend), began to question it. So when the truck came in again for another broken one (and by now the customer was extremely pissed that it kept breaking too), he requested that he meet with the customer. Well no wonder it kept breaking... The guy weighed 600 pounds!!! Literally he was the size of Jabba the Hutt. He opened the door and his belly flopped out before his feet ever stepped on the ground!

So he got into it with my SM, because the SM said that he was sorry, enough is enough and that he can't continue to replace them under warranty. This CLEARLY ISN'T a manufacturer defect as I'm sure Lear (the seat manufacturer if I recall), didn't intend for the seat to be used with 600 pound people!


The customer asked... "Well, what are my options then?"

My SM replied;
1) YOU pay for it each time
2) LOSE WEIGHT!!!

As you can imagine #2 didn't exactly score us a 100% customer satisfaction index review...

Hey, us fatasses have rights too!

Speaking of which, I had to buy a new toilet seat the other day...

Hey, I'm right there with ya.

00Beast wrote:
Speaking of which, I had to buy a new toilet seat the other day...

Bordering on "Too Much Information"

Hahahaha, I figured it was. Hence why it's funny. Or something....