New Member - any advice???

Hey my name is Mike,
Im new to these forums as well as s10forum.com.
I am considering buying a 1994 GMC Jimmy 4WD from a friend of mine and i was wondering what some common problems are with this vehicle platform.
i searched a while but i dont know what i am looking for.
i know for sure that the heater core needs replaced, and he and i are going to do that. but what else should i be aware of?

if you know anything off the top of your head, that would be much appreciated, or just link me to where i need to go to find out.


Thanks for your help.

IAC motor/pintle getting carboned up is common and causing messed up idle, remove it and clean it,

EGR getting carbon in it is common and causing hard ot start and crappy running/dying, remove it and clean it

fuel pump failure is common depending on mileage

cat converter failure is common at higher mileage, if plugged up then it can run so bad it dies at idle and has no power at all

upper balljoints failing and separating is pretty common

interior falling apart is very common, broken parts, handles, plastic stuff

door glasses falling down the doors is common due to those stupid broken plastic glass track guides at top corner of glass

rusted brake lines along frame rail very common

thats about it

most of these S-series truck accumulate well over 200k miles on them

especially the 4.3L TBI vin code Z ones

exhaust rusting falling off them is common too

a u joint drying up and failing is pretty common too

all of the above usually happens once or twice by around 200k miles, especially on ones driven year round and driven a bit hard and locally instead of on the highway mainly


the 4.3L can be bad about carboned up distributor cap and causes hard to start and crappy idling as well





good luck