Edmunds dealer partner, Bayway Leasing, is now offering transparent lease deals via these forums. Click here to see May lease deals!
Options
Popular New Cars
Popular Used Sedans
Popular Used SUVs
Popular Used Pickup Trucks
Popular Used Hatchbacks
Popular Used Minivans
Popular Used Coupes
Popular Used Wagons
Comments
I have drained gear oil at slightly below freezing with no real problem. If you are in an extremely cold environment I suppose warming the oil may be necessary. For example driving around with TOD on should work and certainly not harm the 4wd components. One way to check would be to place your new oil in the same environment as the car. If the new oil gets too thick to flow you have found your problem. Of course this also would highlight the subsequent need to keep the new oil in a warm environment just prior to adding.
Alternatively maybe you have some junk blocking the drain hole. If so, try carefully breaking it up with for example a piece of tubing. If this is your situation I strongly suggest you flush through a few extra ounces of new gear oil (i.e. add the first few ounces with the drain still unplugged). This should help rinse out any remaining junk. FWIW I do this when replacing almost all fluids.
As to when to grease the front bearings, 30k and probably 4+ years on your 99 tells me you are due. If you have driven through a lot of water then you are likely way overdue.
I wonder if part of this equation is that front wheel bearings aren't that expensive if they do have to replace them... dunno.
The drain hole is too big and I doubt the junk could block it.
I gave up and sold my Trooper yesterday in a private sale..since the trade on them is dismal. I'll say hello to my new Lexus SUV on Saturday. A mint of money, given the Trooper, but reliable and not likely to go out of business anytime shortly. Plus depreciation is much less than other vehicles in it's class. Plus, I love all the gadgets that "come standard" that I'm really paying for in the steep price. My Trooper has up to this time been my favorite of all vehicles though. IMHO, for the money, one of the best ever made!
IIRC a non-OEM bearing set is $50+. Therefore if you let them go long enough you could spend an extra $100+ in parts, or maybe more in the extreme depending how long you let them go and what else gets damaged.
As to doing the brakes at the same time as greasing the front bearings, that can be a good idea. For example, adding brake pads and/or new rotors to a grease job adds only a small amount of labor. However if you do a pad only brake job you haven't saved that much of the work necessary to do the regrease. Also, just because there is a labor savings doesn't mean the shop will always pass it on to the consumer. Granted a good shop will, but shop and good are not always synonymous.
What's up with Trooper brakes? How is it that mine have 67K miles and are measuring almost new? Are they made for larger Isuzu trucks, or what?
That GX your taking delivery on is one sweet truck, the president of our company has one (Gold w/tan Leather). Very nice upgrade.....good luck!
I don't know about the rest of you but Isuzu dealers are dead around here and drying up fast elsewhere I suspect. What a shame. As I said before in an earlier post..for the money the best truck ever made in my opinion.
tidester, host
tidester, host
Yes, people definitely remember this stuff for a long time.
I decided not to get the Samurai - even before the tests and reports. Sometimes you just know! :-)
tidester, host
What is warranted is to stop buying a product from a publisher you believe has lost credibility.
tidester, host
..
Have you seen the Mitsubishi Montero Consumer Reports publicity stunt on the news a year or so ago? That was also obvious that they were swinging the steering wheel back and forth rythmically to build up the tipping and get on two wheels. They could have got a Corvette on two wheels the same way. I was amazed they showed the video on the news because it demonstrated that Consumer Reports was not testing anything, just sensationalizing for the attentions, like a kid on a bike poping wheeleys because he can get a reaction from his peers.
..
Trooper was driven to the outside pylons while the others merely needed to clear the inside pylons. Isuzu estmated the G forces from each run. The Trooper was put through 1.2G lateral force, the others about .4G lateral force. The Trooper is rated and tested to .67G lateral force (better than some of the others), therefore it would have easily passed the test.
..
If you look up real world crash data you will find fewer Trooper rollovers per Trooper accident than other SUVs. In particular, the Ford Explorer which has a record of killing people when it rolls. I know of a person that did manage to roll a Trooper by taking to the ditch at high speed (55mph) to avoid a head on collision with a pickup truck which crossed the line. The Trooper was a mess, but the occupant walked away with just minor cuts and bruses. CR did not pick on Ford because the sales volume of the Explorer was enough to buy lawyers that would put the magazine in bankrupcy, while small in the USA Isuzu had a small budget and maybe GM (owning 40% of Isuzu) even went along with the publicity stunt to make sure the Trooper did not compete to much with the S-10 Blazer.
..
Do not buy the Consumer Reports magazine. If you cannot help but look at it, do so in the store and leave the magazine un-purchased.
AS for Consumer Reports I won't even pick one up to look at. They're a publication with no credibility as far as I'm concerned. The only power we have to punish them for the low blow they dealt to Isuzu, and the Trooper in particular, is not acknowledge their existence. Doesn't hurt them much but gives me a little satisfaction.
By the way, speaking if the GX, you can get the same basic vehicle, minus the Lexus name and a lot less "standard stuff" in the new 4-Runner. But you know..I owed it to myself ! I'm gettin up in my years and might as well spend it now. Live for the momemt! Hahahahaha.
Good luck and take care..I'll always be a Trooper lover and advocate!!!!
Any suggestions. Thanx in advance and thanx to all on the previous differential/wheel bearing question.
Different kinds of people buy different kinds of vehicles, and use them in different enviornments. What is a safe combination in one instance may not be so in another. To judge a vehicle in isolation irrespective of the driver type and how it is used is to do a disservice to the vehicle and what it was designed to accomplish. The upshot of all this is that testing of dangerousness is much more complicated than it appears on the surface. (last post on this topic)
http://isuzu-suvs.com/images/99trooperwarranty.PDF
Hopefully SDC2 is close to his computer this week and reads your post. I believe he's had it replaced twice. sdc2 "Isuzu Owners: Maintenance & Repairs" Dec 29, 2001 10:34pm!
Something is shorting/burning the resistors, and my guess is that without any resistance, the fan works unimpeded at the highest speed.
Any thoughts?
I wish your Troopers will run without any problems even after their odometers have shown 200K miles. This is the best automotive site I've ever seen (I mean its graphics, info ability, host support) and nice people are over here. God bless your country and all the peace-loving world. Merry Christmas. Cheers!
It is a shame that is all people remember about the truck. I have had relatives tell me that I "need to get my family in something safe". I always joke back saying "I only had it up on 2 wheels once so far".
At the time of the Consumer Report Trooper test, the Trooper was only middle of the pack in rollovers per 100,000 miles driven. This says to me their test method is either A) Not reflective of real world driving (so what use is it?); or the test was intentionally manipulated.
Either way, their credibility is suspect, either through incompetence or deceit.
The highest rollover rate by far was the Ford Bronco II. Is it a coincidence they didn't go after the huge American manufacturer, and instead went after little Isuzu and Suzuki? This speaks of corporate cowardice.
And anybody who thinks CR is unbiased because they don't have advertising is fooling themselves. Their money comes from somewhere, and newstand sales or subscriptions only are a small part of any magazine's revenue.
"I dug back into my stack of old paper emails and found a message from the Planet Isuzoo egroups in January 2001. This message was from Sam Jelinek, who many of you know from ZuZoo and elsewhere. He is an Isuzu Master Mechanic I believe, and in this message he described how to replace an intake manifold gasket on the 3.2/3.5 engine.
Please note that I have not tried this procedure, and cannot say if and how well it works. Also, if Sam or anybody else in-the-know wants to add, clarify, or contradict this information, they are welcome to do so. I offer it simply because many of us with Isuzu V6 engines are getting out of warranty now, and may need DIY instructions.
So here it is, paraphrased and edited for clarity (Sam is a better mechanic than writer)quote:
***
Something that has been showing up even more lately on the new V6 engine, the intake gaskets are starting to leak and break. If the gasket is leaking real bad you can hear an air leak from the engine, almost like the airbox is not tight.
Using a can of brake cleaner you can check this very easy. Spray around the intake, most of the time on the drivers side, and you can find the leak.
To repair the leak, here is how it goes:
Remove the air intake hose from the throttle body.
Remove the 4 bolts that hold the throttle body to the intake. No need to remove any other hoses from the throttle body.
Unhook the injector wiring from each injector.
This is the hard part: on the passenger side of the intake you have to remove the EGR flow pipe nut. You will need a 7/8" or 22mm wrench, may even have to cut the wrench short to get it in there.
Remove the 2 long bolts on each side.
Remove the 2 short bolts from each side, I think they are on the front and rear of the intake.
On the Troopers the intake will lift up enough to get the old gaskets out. On the Rodeo use short bungy cords to hold the intake up so that the old gaskets can be removed.
When removing the old gaskets be careful, they may be broken. Do not let the pieces fall into the intake.
Use a clean rag to wipe off the intake surface on the cylinder head and reinstall the new gaskets.
Let the intake back down and start the EGR flow pipe before putting the other bolts in the intake.
Reinstall the other bolts and air intake hose.
***
Well that's it, pretty much as written. Actually sounds doable for even a marginal mechanic such as myself. Hope this helps somebody."
CR didn't go after the Bronco II because Ford dropped them and introduced the Explorer. The Jeep CJ was also on CR's list, but Jeep came out with the YJ which changed width and wheelbase.
Now, with that said, I WAS a complete CR supporter UNTIL the court ruling over the Trooper - now I view CR as just another source of information in most cases.
Happy '02 Trooper owner!
BUT, rolloverlawyer.com lists the Bronco II, Explorer, CJ, and Suzuki in their links but do not list the Trooper.
I believe that part of the Trooper design change for 95/6 was a slight widening of the track as well. That is where the over-fenders/flares came from.
Apparently, there isn't much legal action against the Trooper/Isuzu for rollover fatalities or injuries. Maybe low sales or shallow corporate pockets, but also just fewer rollovers in percentage.
Somewhat laughable rumor department. While buying oil filters I heard the GM and parts guy at the local GM/Isuzu dealership who said that a 'new' Trooper designed by Isuzu was scheduled for 2004 as a 05 model. Who knows?
"April 10, 2000 -- Verdict on Consumer Reports: false, but not damaging. After a two-month trial, a federal jury found Thursday that the magazine had made numerous false statements in its October 1996 cover story assailing the 1995-96 Isuzu Trooper sport utility vehicle as dangerously prone to roll over, but declined to award the Japanese carmaker any cash damages. The jury found that CR's "testing" had put the vehicle through unnatural steering maneuvers which, contrary to the magazine's claims, were not the same as those to which competitors' vehicles had been subjected. Jury foreman Don Sylvia said the trial had left many jurors feeling that the magazine had behaved arrogantly, and that eight of ten jurors wanted to award Isuzu as much as $25 million, but didn't because "we couldn't find clear and convincing evidence that Consumers Union intentionally set out to trash the Trooper". The jury found eight statements false but in only one of the eight did it determine CR to be knowingly or recklessly in error, which was when it said: "Isuzu ... should never have allowed these vehicles on the road." However, it ruled that statement not to have damaged the company, despite a sharp drop in Trooper sales from which the vehicle later recovered."
As to you current problem, I have not chased this problem myself. With that out of the way I did find this on the web http://www.nichols.nu/tip022.htm It discusses several potential fixes (e.g. bad fan, another sensor, connections) other than the resistor pack. Granted this is not Isuzu specific but it might help you nonetheless.
-mike