02 Trailblazer LTZ

First of all, Hello!

A little introduction, even though my screen name is for a DSM, I kept it for simplicity and so I can remember it. I am also a member over at the 2GNT forums which is for my 95 Talon ESi, and one of the members mentioned this forum, hence why I am here.

Alright, I have an 02 Trailblazer LTZ and have a couple of questions about it.

Recently I noticed that my brakes are creaking when almost to a stop, or when releasing the brakes (front only). Now it is sounding like a school bus when it is stopping, but only in short bursts (like when you get a bad spot on a rotor), but the rotors look like they are fine. I will check the pads tomorrow.

The other thing is why do I have that nasty ticking sound like an old Ford pickup? Is there a problem with any gaskets on the exhaust side that I should be aware of?

Yes, I have done some reading on here before I registered and posted, othewise I would have asked about the sound coming from the dashboard (apparently the Tach makes noise), and the diesel sound that the truck makes. My main concern here is the brakes.

You may have a brake pad that is not floating within the caliper. If the pads and rotors are in good shape, I'd dissasemble, clean and re-silicone grease the caliper pins, piston edges and boots and pad slides. A steady, consistant tick on the rt/pass side of the engine could be a cracked exhaust manifold. A constant diesel clatter could be a more serious engine concern. GM does have a TSB on certain VIN# 2002 4.2's where the engines are warranted for somehting like 7yrs/100Kmi due to bad cylinder sleeves. Check trailvoy.com for the TSB.

G/luck
Joel

Thankyou!

Unfortunately I have 103,xxx miles on the car.

But, this vehicle used to belong to my parents, and they brought it to a dealership before giving it to me, I'd hope that the dealership would have caught something while it was in there and it had around 97k on it then.

I don't know, maybe the GM dealerships are as bad as the Chrysler and Mitsubishi ones when it comes to TSB's (issues with the Talon).

We also have a 2002 LTZ. It has always had a real bad rap, especially when cold. I would swear it's a lifter but dealer refuses to do anything and I'm now sure it's a bad cylinder sleeve. We're only at 40,000. Otherwise we like it a lot.

Yes, I love this thing, and I love it even more because this is the first vehicle I've owned with WORKING a/c!!!

Our 2005 sounds dieselish for about a minute or two after a cold start. That's with a $5 wix oil filter and a sump full of kendall (conoco-phillips synth blend) 5w-30. No way it's oil starvation related, no way it's a collapsed hyd. lash adjuster, no way it's carbon build up. People say it's piston slap. I've had several pushrod GM's with piston slap that led long happy lives + that sounded totally different. I know this topic is posted endlessly, but I wonder if the 4 and 5cyl versions of this engine are equally as noisey on a cold start?!? If a cylinder sleeve fails on you, it will be all at once and be a complete catastrophic failure. KABLAMMO!

Joel