-September 2024 Special Lease Deals-
2024 Chevy Blazer EV lease from Bayway Auto Group Click here
2024 Jeep Grand Cherokee lease from Mark Dodge Click here
2025 Ram 1500 Factory Order Discounts from Mark Dodge Click here
2024 Chevy Blazer EV lease from Bayway Auto Group Click here
2024 Jeep Grand Cherokee lease from Mark Dodge Click here
2025 Ram 1500 Factory Order Discounts from Mark Dodge Click here
Comments
Mike - what is your email address please, I need to email you - Thanks! - Dave
And in answer to the original question about rust on the brake drums, yes, they do accummulate some exterior surface rust but I wouldn't worry about it.
Rgds, Marty
95 Trooper LS (Just passed 180K!)
Do a lot of you have rust there? Are there drum breaks inside?
It's mike@iace.com
-mike
About wipers - when I went to the dealer with my problem they do suggested solution. I don't know how it is called, but it is a thing with long handle, like a rake, and 2 or 3 feet wide with soft rubber edge. It is used to remove snow from the roofs of cars in fleets, or dealerships, and some owners use it too. It is not easy to come by in stores like Pep boys or Home depot, but I've got one on garage sale later that year. I have to admit that it is very handy in compare with usual devices for snow removal, much less snow in the sleeves after that. Only trouble, if snowstorm will hit at night, you have to stay up and go clean it from time to time to prevent snow accumulation on the roof of the trooper. So I do the vipers up trick in winter. And sure, you can take the junk out of the garage and store trooper inside, like it was intended to. But if you think that digging out the garage door is fun...
About wiper fuse and obstructed or frozen wipers. Ok, I did not do it. I did not turn on the wipers when they were frozen. My silly wife come home couple of days before in a drizzling rain, and forgot to turn off wipers from interminent position. I got into trooper several days after that, and after the cold snowy night, and proceeded to start it to make it warm up while cleaning the snow and icing. I never drive cars without warm up in the winter. While cleaning the ice, I've heard a sound like a gunshot - link in the wiper assembly snapped, and I had another headache to deal with that day. Resetable fuse for wipers suppose to protect me in situation like this from expensive repairs and inconveniences. Should it work properly all my problem would be to wait 5 min for the fuse to cool down and reset, making wipers operable again.
About foreign - domestic: I really don't care. Functionality, likes, and cost of vehicle and cost of ownership - that what counts. I currently owned Olds Intrigue, Mercury Grand Marquis, Trooper and venerable Chevy Corsica, which nobody wants to take as trade in, so it is just sitting without tugs, waits to become collectible (Ha - Ha). I bought trooper as a daily driver, but quickly abandoned that idea, as cost of ownership in this case is sky high. So now it serves poorly few other purposes:
a) Spare car - sounds fussy, but I needed one at some point of life.
b) Winter driver - besides of above-mentioned problems there some more. One icy road my Mercury with electronic traction control feels safer then trooper. Thing is, TOD like to shut of 4wd on a speeds under 5-7 mph, and limited sleep differential is not very useful if you have to move backwards in reverse.
c) Utility hauler - don't ask don't tell. I cannot count how many times I had to unbolt rear row or the seats.
This fall I had to unbolt the front seat too to accommodate boxes of hardwood flooring. If utility matters for you, never ever buy truck with rear swing doors. It's only good for groceries shopping or for dog owners. My vote is going to lift gate, and the one that can be left open while driving, and hold some load too.
I have a small utility trailer, but there couple of thoughts about it. You cannot take it on highway - safe speed of trailer is only like 45 mph. And you cannot see the small trailer even with large trooper mirrors, so it is not really comfortable to use on a long distances. I had to go for the flooring to the store 70 miles away, so using trailer for this was not an option. Also flimsy rooftop is a bad place for any kind of serious utility load.
-mike
Any ideas??
Also very hard to start - dealer says depress pedal 20% to allow more air - seems to work - do others have to do this?
What is the correct oil pressure reading supposed to be? Mine seems to bounce all over but settle at around 50 when at 2500rpm.
THANKS
-mike
Any ideas??
Also very hard to start - dealer says depress pedal 20% to allow more air - seems to work - do others have to do this?
What is the correct oil pressure reading supposed to be? Mine seems to bounce all over but settle at around 50 when at 2500rpm.
THANKS
As for the utility of the Trooper - I have hauled 12 foot long boards in mine. If you had the sunroof (the main reason I bought the Trooper over the Rodeo) you can use the sunroof to hang things out of. Just tie them up and secure to the "Oh sh*t handle" in the back seat area. If I need anything bigger than the Trooper can accomodate I just borrow one of the relatives trucks.
The wife taking the Trooper can kill a home improvement project. Try fitting 8 foot long 2 x 4's in a Diamante with a 3 month old in a car seat. Good thing Lowe's is close.
Has anybody came up with a work-around for keeping power to the lighter at all times?
This is the only vehicle that I have ever owned, where power to the cig lighter wasn't always on. The irony is that this is the first time I have ever needed to use the lighter in any vehicle.
David
However I could be way off base here, our friend might really be trying to clear frozen vipers off his windshield. You never know...
gchernya - i am truly sorry you feel the way about your trooper, but honestly, i feel mine is the best vehicle ive ever owned to date - no the trooper is not perfect - what vehicle is? - but i owned five new toyotas (pretty much universally accepted as one of the automotive benchmarks) in a row before owning the trooper and i think ive got a pretty good frame of reference - re: your grand marquis, a rear driver /w/ traction control feeling safer than the trooper with TOD engaged? -exactly how is that possible? - as far as removing the front seat to accomodate boxes of firewood, how much were you trying to carry and would you not have had to do this in other similarly sized vehicles as well? - sorry, i guess im just clueless and have not realized that ive been driving a piece of crap for the last year and a half - Dave
You probably always had american cars! Almost all foreign cars turn off the cig lighter when the ignition is off. It's not a problem, it's a feature. You could probably run a jumper to it from the fuse box which would defeat the off when ign is off.
-mike
PS: I think he's just a troll. with the viper/wiper stuff
Every Thursday, 7:00-8:00pmPT/10:00-11:00pm ET
Your Community Leaders are paisan and arktrooper1
-mike
I'll check the ground again as you suggested as well as check the ECU. Appreciate the thoughts. Trying new dealer next week to see if he has any ideas. I have warranty to cover repairs ($100 deductable)just wish we could figure out what needs to be fixed! I was hoping someone else had experienced the same problem.
-mike
-mike
So, did the ECU in my Trooper have the equivalent of the dreaded Windows "General Protection Fault" and when I recranked the Trooper the ECU rebooted?
When this happened, being a computer consultant, the reference posted here some time ago about someone reprogramming the ECU was the first thing I thought of.
-mike
TOD does work at less than 5 mph, if wheel spin is encountered. This is not an issue.
I use a highway utility trailer. You can go 60-65 mph. Get a utility trailer with 12" highway tires. I've been recently doing home renovation and have hauled a lot a stuff.
-mike
I can actually envision a situation where I'd accidentally run the wipers. In the winter here in Wisconsin, the first thing I do is get the door open to grab the scraper, and I usually turn on the engine to let the truck start to warm up right then. If the wipers were still "on" from the night before, I wouldn't have had time to free up the wipers before the wiper motor runs. Can it be avoided? Sure, and I feel pretty confident that it won't happen to me, but if it did I wouldn't consider it a negligent act.
I just got my 30k maintenance, Wilde Isuzu in Waukesha, WI, $420. I forgot to ask if they reprogrammed the ECU. Trooper's running great...
-Dave
David
In which case, all of us that can speak just one language fluently should admire his willingness to mix it up in English.
So vipe those smiles off your faces, you wiperous, vicked willians.
And don't forget to turn your wipers off.
-mike
-mike
What about that deleted photo again?
The trip looked like a lot of fun!!!
What's the reliability of the Trooper? I'll put on about 10,000 miles per year, and not much of that will be heavy lifting. I'm envisioning 7 to 8 years of ownership to enhance a pretty active lifestyle and to overcome Upper Midwest winter driving conditions.
What price should I be looking for? Saw here or elsewhere someone picked up 01 Limited for less than $25K. Is that realistic? (Yeah, I know, that's a third question.)
Appreciate any thoughts/recommendations you all might have.
The deleted phote was cause my buddy with an ARB bumper knoced down a dead tree. We didn't want any of the tree-huggers to get all bent out of shape.
Doug dragged around the burnt out car for fun at the end of the day. it was in a pit that the GL wanted to go play in.
We definitely had a ball
-mike
The Trooper just won 2nd place in JD Power and Associates reliability ratings right behind the 4-runner. They are quite reliably, even Consumer Reports which hates the Trooper has to rate it high because of so few repairs.
-mike
I assume that you are still impressed w/ the Scorpion's performance in all conditions?
-mike
With the Trooper you get much more usable interior room, a real off road suspension, torque on demand to keep you glued to the road or trail, excellent fit and finish, legendary reliabilty, a 10 year 120,000 mile powertrain warranty, upright captains chairs, excellent visibility in all directions, great highway and off road ride, more rear seat leg room, great head room, an amazingly generous standard equipment package (Trooper base model "S" is comparable to the Explorer XLT) The list goes on and on.
Most of the folks in this forum are real Trooper fans. The only drawbacks I see are (1) fewer dealers, and many are marketing Isuzu as a second brand - makes it a little tougher to get parts and service for some, and (2) This is the last year (2002) for the current Trooper. In 2003 GM is remaking the Trooper as a combined GM / Isuzu vehicle.
And yes it's true you can buy these things well equipped for 24 K or less. I bought a brand new 2000S Auto, with 6CD changer, bug guard and hood protector for 24K in a market where SUV prices are pretty high. Mine stickered at 31K. Others have done better.
Good luck in your search. Get out and drive the Trooper. I think you'll find it tough to beat - especially for the money.
Thanks, Chris L.
* The consumer has the ability to accurately assess their payment given the entered deal parameters.
* Based on the given input, the decision tool will clearly indicate which option is most advantageous when given the choice between a customer rebate and a subsidized interest rate (a la 0% APR).
* The True Market Value (TMV) tools are integrated into the calculators to assist the consumer in accurately assessing the deal parameters prior to walking on a dealer's lot.
Give it a test drive at: Loan Calculator
This is just the first step in developing towards a comprehensive consumer decision tool that will be include an integrated "Leasing Calculator" and a "Buy Versus Lease" application. They will be truly industry leading. Yes, there are cheap "want to be" versions out there in the marketplace that, in my opinion, do more harm than good based on their over simplicity in logic and lack of integration (and some are downright wrong). The Edmunds version will not only be highly accurate, but it will be the first in the industry to make transparent the better way for a consumer to finance the vehicle (traditional financing versus leasing) as well as highlight the most advantageous term (48 month buy versus 36 month lease) based on sound present value financial analysis. And as one comes to expect from Edmunds, the user interface will be, well user friendly, with the complexity existing behind the scenes. Edmunds.com once again leading the way to making information and the consumer decision making process even more transparent.
Lots more on the way.
tidester
Host
SUVs