By accessing this website, you acknowledge that Edmunds and its third party business partners may use cookies, pixels, and similar technologies to collect information about you and your interactions with the website as described in our
Privacy Statement, and you agree that your use of the website is subject to our
Visitor Agreement.
Comments
I tried but did not like the Red Line Oil wheel bearing grease, it is red and slippery but seems to be thin and tends to come out.
www.redlineoil.com
Boxtrooper, thanks for the confirmation of the extra-large part #. I wonder what's different between the PL24457 I saw and the PL24458 that you use. I'll take a look at the Purolator book the next time I'm at the store.
We wanted to keep things simple and use the stock size (245/70/16).
Final choice: Michelin LTX M/S. Discount Tire beat the Costco Wholesale/Sam's Club price of about $465 (including balancing/lifetime rotation/road hazard protection and MI 6% sales tax) by 6 bucks. $459 for a set of 4 is a pretty good price. I hope this provides a good reference point for others shopping for 245/70/16 tires. You can usually do better than the price first quoted by a tire shop-- the quote I originally received was $540.
My advice:
1. Decide which tire(s) you're interested in
2. Decide which shop you want to buy the tires from
3. Get your preferred shop to match the lowest price you can find on the tires you want.
Others we strongly considered: Pirelli Scorpion AS, Dunlop Radial Rover A/T, and BF Goodrich Long Trail T/A. The Pirelli was not available with black sidewall/lettering (a must for the missus). The Dunlop seems to be noisier and, according to Consumer Reports, below average in snow. BFG bested the Michelin in the most recent Consumer Reports SUV tire test, particularly in braking, but I haven't heard any testimonials about the tire.
The new Michelin Cross Terrain offers nothing to justify the $20-30 per-tire price premium vs. the LTX M/S. I was tempted by the General XP2000 ($68 at tirerack.com)-- H speed rated, good treadlife warranty, etc.
What sold me on the Michelins was the Michelin name, the wide availability of this brand & model of tire, and several positive recommendations from Trooper owners here and at ITOG.com. If we get a flat somewhere and need a replacement, chances are the local shop will have them in stock. The same can't be said for the others we considered.
While I'm asking questions, has anybody ever used the factory jack? Is it easy to use? Are the recommended jack points easy to find? Does the jack feel sturdy? Can an aftermarket floor jack be used at the recommended jack points? Once I get new tires this weekend, I will probably be rotating them myself. However, I've had tire rotations on my Trooper done at the shop until now.
So far I've added 1 quart of Mobil1 5W30 during those 2300 miles to keep the dipstick at the Full mark.
On my 3 previous oil change intervals with synthetic blend, the consumption rate ranged between 2000 and 2800 miles for each 1 quart of consumption (5W30 Castrol Syntec Blend or Valvoline Durablend).
Jim
-mike
-mike
Well at least when they re built my engine it is covered under warranty. I am not concerned about any immediate danger, but long term it needs to be fixed, I hope it isn't a week long repair.
Around here, a 4-wheel alignment at most shops is $60-70, so the $100 dealer price is way too high, but not totally outrageous. I'm not so sure about the bearing repack, though-- seems awfully high. Service guy said it takes 3 hours labor to do that job. Also seems a little high.
David
Thanks for the info and response.
I changed my 1984 Trooper's original tires at 24K miles becuase of off roading and a drive to Alaska ate them up to the point that big flaps of rubber were hanging loose. They still held air because original 1984 Trooper tires came with innertubes. I went with heavy duty truck tires and 90K and then 80K (the tread on the 80K tires looked good, but the sidewalls were giving out and causing strange wobbly alignment problems) out of them. What I was not aware of is that the harder rubber of the heavy duty tires was giving me less traction on the road than the correct duty tires.
..
On my 1995 Trooper after only 113K miles I am on my third set of tires. The originals were the GoodYear AP and were OK tires that lasted about 60K. I wanted more traction and there was a buy three get one free sale plus free installation on GoodYear RFAs. Those were good tires initially. A bit noisier than the APs but relatively agressive tread and I was happy. After 40K miles the RFAs still looked pretty good, but I had an emergency stop where I slid a couple feet too far. It felt like I was on ice but it was dry pavement. The RFAs had what I thought were significant burn marks, marks you could feel without looking at them. I went from 45 mph to zero and to me the stopping performance was not good enough. Now I have the Bridgestone Dueler H/Ls and the reason is that they are made with the hardest rubber on the outside and softer rubber is exposed as the tires wear. I am hoping they are correct that the softer rubber will hold better in emergency stops. I had one quick stop with a 4000# trailer attached and the H/Ls seemed to do very well, some smoke from the front tires but no nasty burn marks.
..
I will change my tires when I feel that the old ones are not performing as they should, even if they still look pretty good.
Overall, I was quite happy with them-- fairly quiet, seemed to provide good grip - although I don't expect "good" cornering abilities out of our Trooper, so my expectations there are pretty low.
Installed price from my local Discount Tire, including 6% Mich. sales tax, was $460. Pretty good price.
I plan to do the simple method of draining the fluid via the drain plug and adding back enough to top it off. I'll be using Mobil1 ATF.
Some questions:
How warm/cold should the engine/trans be when I change the fluid?
Should I run through the gears while the fluid is draining? What is the benefit of doing that?
I assume only about half of the fluid will drain the first time. How soon should I change the fluid again - after a few minutes, a few days, a couple thousand miles, etc.
I really like the layout of Edmund's discussion boards, but old posts with great information become almost worthless because you can't find what you're looking for unless you are willing to scroll back and read 20 posts at a time.
-mike
I guess I'll probably take my Mobil 1 ATF to the Jiffy Lube and pay them to remove the old ATF and add the new Mobil1 via that fancy fluid exchange machine of theirs.
Drain and fill is fine, gets about half of fluid but if you wish change again after a few hundred miles or wait until next schedule, especially if using synthetic
armtdm - my 98 Trooper has no dipstick, so checking the level and adding fluid are both done underneath the truck. I was more optimistic than 2 quarts, though - was hoping for at least 4-5.
-mike
If you go the Jiffy Lube route make sure they fill the tranny to the proper level and not just drain out the remaining x quarts then add back x plus the 2qts you drained out. If they did that you could still be left with a low ATF level. Alternatively, it is possible for them to overfill the unit. I think I would readd the ATF myself just to know how much fluid it did take. Just remember that the fill level is correct (at least on my 99) with the engine runnning on a warm vehicle and that being under a warm running vehicle is not without some risk. Make sure the vehicle is very safely secured from moving.
-mike
breakor, I'm pretty sure it was the drain plug that I drained. First, I opened the overfill plug to check the level, which seemed "ok." It might have been low but I really don't know for sure. I put my finger in the hole and had to poke down to get any fluid - there wasn't any fluid just by putting my finger straight in there (horizontally).
I'll check the level again when my wife brings the Trooper home from work.
Adding the new fluid was easier than adding the TOD fluid. The front diffy fill plug is horizontal, vs. vertical on the TOD unit. Much easier to squeeze the fluid in that way.
I also failed to note that the correct refill level is for the fluid to just drip out of the refill plug on a warm RUNNING in park vehicle.
Therefore, it sounds like you did all the right steps for a 1/2 drain and refill, but that your tranny was about 2 qts low on ATF when you started.
I can't understand how the fluid level could have been that low-- the transmission has not had any service, or even a checkup, since I got the truck from Isuzu at 7,000 miles. I doubt that 2 quarts have leaked out, and I don't see how 2 quarts could have been "consumed" (similar to how the engine consumes/burns oil). I'm left to conclude that the truck was 2 quarts low when it left the factory. This seems hard to believe, but yet it seems the most likely explanation.
Regardless of that, I feel badly about the possibility that we've driven our truck many miles while it was low on fluid.
-mike
Hopefully, if this happens again, all we will suffer is just a minor scratch. This morning, the garage door panel just bowed out when the vehicle backed into it and the door motor continued dragging the door up against the vehicle. Because the door is strengthen because of the 2x4's, the door motor should now stop rather then just continue moving which it did this morning.
Here is a photo ...
http://www.isuzu.8k.com/GarageDoorFix.htm
-mike
-mike
I am interest in the door, but how about the Trooper? No pics of it? FWIW, I think I've seen individual door panels at the local Home Despot. Maybe you can pick up a replacement panel - but it still might be a good idea to pad it ;-)
Charlie
Does this seem logical?
If she hit the Garage Door with my Trooper, then that is grounds for a divorce!!!
If she wants to drive the Trooper, I'm gonna back it out of the garage for her.
DCH
Lucky it was only the sienna.
-mike