Chris G

I have a 1997 Chevy Blazer with around 110k miles on it. Recently (within the past year or so) the SES light has been lighting up. Strangely, any time it does, it's always at the same location away from my home where I come to a stop after coasting down a medium-sized hill.

In order to get rid of it, I disconnect the battery terminal and reconnect it about 10 minutes later.

I've been noticing some irregularities in the way the vehicle works all of a sudden. First off, the driver's side window stopped functioning and the passenger window worked fine. The switch was replaced for it, and now the driver's window works but the passenger window will only go down on my command. In order to get it to go up, I have to reach to the passenger door panel and put the window up.

Second, when I notice there's a few bug splatters on the window I'll activate the washer to spray the window. Sometimes no fluid will come out of either sprayer, but the wipers will stay on, however, much longer than the usual 3-4 wipes. In a related manner, when it's raining the wipers will sometimes randomly speed up by themselves for about a minute and then return to normal. When this happens and the weather clears up and I deactivate them, sometimes they take a while to shut off as well.

Third, when I apply the brakes and I'm waiting for a red light, the engine will make a slight roaring sound and the fuel & battery gauges will quiver where they're at. At this point I also notice that the battery gauge is at the 11 o'clock position, but when I accelerate again and travel for a bit it will return to its usual 12 o'clock position. My instrument panel doesn't include a tachometer to read the RPMs but I'm pretty sure they drop down for a few seconds when this happens.

Finally, when I get into the vehicle after getting out of work, the inside smells lightly of gasoline, but there are no puddles underneath the vehicle whatsoever. I've also been noticing that I don't get too great of gas mileage like I used to when I first got the vehicle about 7 years ago.

I'm not sure if this applies to my current problem or not but I'm listing it anyway. About 2 years ago the horn suddenly went off without me pressing it, and it would not shut off even after pulling over and shutting the engine off. I resorted to opening the fuse panel and pulling out what the manual said was a main power fuse. It definitely shut the horn off. Ever since then, and due to the prolonged time that it happened (around 4 minutes) the horn's tone has been forever changed.

The master cylinder and brake booster were both replaced in September, so I don't believe it could stem from either of those.

What's wrong with this vehicle? I tried looking around on Google and these forums for older topics but nobody seems to have a problem similar to mine. Any advice on things to try before resorting to going to a garage?

My own personal thoughts are that it could be a combination of any of the following, plus any other factors:
* Old/weakened battery
* Alternator going bad
* Spark plugs need replaced
* Short in the electrical system/computer?

Thanks