Isuzu Rodeo

armtdm · May 2001

I also have a 97 Rodeo 3.2 engine with 62,000 purchased used at 57,000 but this is two wheel drive. Note that at 60,000 it should have had all belts and plugs as well. So far okay but alternator went, OEM replacement huge dollars. Getting 19 highway ave about 17. Switched to synthetic rear end gear oil, tranny oil (auto) and engine oil. Slight oil seepage from valve cover and rear seal but very minor, appears to burn no oil. Basically good purchase but it rides and handles like a truck which the Isuzus basically are. Dealer service terrible, seems all Isuzu dealers are a side line, not their primary dealership from what I can see

tommcnabb · May 2001

I've got an 01' Rodeo with 1000 miles. Bought it new with 100 miles. When driving, the steering wheel is off center (to the left) in order to go in a straight line. Also, when you let go of the wheel, the vehicle veers right. I checked pressure in all of the tires (correct) and then called my dealer. He said Rodeos do this (drift right) as a safety feature. I don't believe him, so I'm posting here. Opinions? For giggles, I went to a different dealer and drove an 01' Rodeo the did NOT do what mine does. I called my service man back and told him that and he was a bit "stunned" (I suppose my troubleshooting methodology through him off). Anyone else experience this "drift". Thanks, Tom

paisan · May 2001

They need to re-align the car. There are shims they get from isuzu to do this properly. I had the same problem with my Trooper and my '97 rodeo. My original dealer was not able to re-align it properly/wouldn't do it. Tried a different dealer and they fixed it right up.

-mike

juliagill · May 2001

Tom- more specifically your steering wheel column needs to be aligned. This happened to me before (not on my Rodeo, but my Honda Accord). Should take about 15 minutes and very little $$. Good luck. BTW - my Rodeo does not "drift to the right" I agree with other posts to take it to another dealer.

paisan · May 2001

under the initial 12/12K warranty (covers the wear and tear items like brakes, wipers, alignments, etc)

-mike

tommcnabb · May 2001

Thanks for the quick responses. I got a call back from the manager and was informed to bring it in so they could take care of it. For 20-odd grand, my car better cruise right. On another note, have any of you had major problems with aftermarket accessories (lifts, etc.) causing problems? If so, did the dealers give you a hassle over fixing under warranty because of the mods?

bstreet · May 2001

Does anyone have any experience with, or advice for, ending a lease early? do I have any options besides the obvious of paying up on the remaining payments (which I do not want to do!)?

Thanks!!

paisan · May 2001

If you end the lease early you need to pay for the rest of the lease. For example if you have 4 months left of lease payments on X car that is $200/mo lease, you need to pay 4x$200 or $800 before you can proceed with a new car or new lease. A lot of dealers will roll that $800 into the price of a new car and essentially you'll pay $800 more for your new car.

-mike

paisan · May 2001

Some dealers are "mod" friendly, other dealers will hammer you whenever they can. No dealer can flat out void your warranty, but if there is the remotest way they can link your mod to the warranty issue you are trying to get resolved, you can bet they'll try to weasle out of it, in general.

-mike

stever · May 2001

link

Steve
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bstreet · May 2001

mike,thanks. you're always so helpful. appreciate it.

dchopp · May 2001

I have a 96 Rodeo with ceiling mounted rear speakers. Can anyone steer me in the right direction as to replace theme with a better quality speaker using the same mounts.
Thanks

gpm5 · May 2001

Your steering wheel may be mis-aligned (i had that on a van after they worked on it a few years back) or your alignment may be so far off that you need to drive left to prevent from drifting right. In any case, I can't believe some of the moronic comments these dealer repair shops will make.

eddie1337 · May 2001

Hello people. Here's the deal that they gave me is $22,121 out the door that tags, title and everything. Here are the options... Power Locks, Power Windows, Tilt, Key less Entry, Alarm, V6, Tape Deck with 8 speakers, Tint Windows, AS and Alloy Wheels. So tell me is that a good deal. Now hats an out the door price so it includes taxes and everything else. Thanks for the help.

akfont · May 2001

Tom,

I had a similar problem with my 2000 LS. After three trips to the dealer where he rotated the tires and did an alignment twice, the mechanics realized the problem came from a misinstalled mud flap. The flap was hitting the front right tire, and causing a drastic pull to the right. It only took them a minute to fix the flap, and i've been good ever since. You might waht to look at your mud flap just to check - the wear was very noticable.

akfont · May 2001

I've had my 2000 LS automatic for 6 months now, and I've put on 6000 miles. The best mileage I've ever gotten was 16 mpg on a long haul highway trip. The dealer keeps telling me the engine just needs to 'break in'. I think he's full of it. Anyone out there getting better mileage than me?

paisan · May 2001

akfont

I found that driving style will dramatically impact your milage. Here are the milage stats for my Trooper. All were taken after 10K miles.

1) Highway steady 76-77mph, cruise control, hilly northeast terrain, +4-5psi in tires above stock 15-16mpg

2) Highway steady 60-63mph, cruise control, hilly northeast terrain +4-5psi over stock 19-20mpg

3) City jackrabbit starts, gas-break-gas-break, bumper to bumper traffic, etc, 10-13mpg

4) City gentle driving, no bumper to bumper traffic 12-15mpg

5) Highway steady 75-77mph, cruise control, hilly northeast terrain, 3500lb boat trailer, 11-13mpg

The Trooper is 4500lbs, always has the TOD 4wd system engaged, and has the 3.5l 215hp engine.

-mike

eddie1337 · May 2001

Hello people. Here's the deal that they gave me is $22,121 out the door that tags, title and everything. Here are the options... Power Locks, Power Windows, Tilt, Key less Entry, Alarm, V6, Tape Deck with 8 speakers, Tint Windows, AS and Alloy Wheels. So tell me is that a good deal. Now hats an out the door price so it includes taxes and everything else. Thanks for the help.

drmp · May 2001

Does it come with automatic tranny, 4WD, and A/C? I'd say do a test drive but make sure that the tire pressures are set to normal (26 psi all around on 16' wheel, 28 on 15'). Take special attention to the ride quality and high speed vibrations/shimmy. If there are no problems then you have a great bargain.

jbkennedy · May 2001

I have a 2001 LS with 1800 miles on it so far, and the best that I have done is 16 mpg on the highway as well! The worst was 12 mpg in the city, stop and go with A/C on all of the time. I hope it improves as it breaks in.

A local dealer is advertising 24 mpg on the Rodeo V-6! I think they can get away with that because that is the Max. MPG on your window sticker (in fine print).

bama_luke · May 2001

I've got a 2000 LS that's about 9 months old with just over 10,000 miles. Most of my driving is 5 miles in bumper to bumper traffic to and from work. I probably only get about 12-13 mpg, but due to the short trips I can still go 2 weeks between fill ups. On longer trips (Atlanta to Mobile) I am getting about 20+/- mpg. I typically drive between 70 - 75 mph, and the more constant I can hold my speed, the better mileage I get. Also, the more my wife sleeps in the car the better my mileage is because I don't have to while she's zonked out.

dchopp · May 2001

I noticed that to bama luke. When my wife drives my milage goes to pot. She will use the cruse control on her car but not the Rodeo.

carolinawahoo · June 2001

Has anyone else had problems with their speedometer? 10 miles into my drive home after JUST picking up my new 2001 Rodeo LS 4x4, the speedometer bounced around, then died. The odometer stopped adding mileage as well. After a while, the check engine light came on.

I'm not concerned with the check engine light because I expected it to come on when the speedo stopped.

I'm assuming something is messed up with the electrical system connected to the speedo. Everything else is in excellent working order.

We took it in to the dealer and were told it has been happening with some of the 2001 Rodeo's and that simply changing the speedo does not work. Apparently they are looking for some type of short. I was told "engineers at Isuzu are looking into it right now and that I should hear from them in a couple days." I'm just trying to find out if ANYONE else had had this problem, or has heard of anyone having this problem....

Thanks for any responses....

paisan · June 2001

on my '97 there was a fuse that killed the whole dash (fuel guage, speedo, odo, tach) so there may be a problem with that circuit.

-mike

carolinawahoo · June 2001

I thought fuse also, but the isuzu service guy said that he had seen a few of the 2001 rodeos come back with that problem and that a fuse was not the source. He also said that simply changing the speedometer wasn't woirking either. Apparently ther error message they we picking up on their computer was one they had never seen before so they were contacting engineers at Isuzu headquarters. I've contacted a few other dealers and no one acknoledges they have expericed the same problem, however, even if they have, would they tell me?

fmjva · June 2001

I just bought a new Rodeo Sport (2001) and have the option of purchasing an extended bumper-to-bumper warrantee. What do you all think? I need to let them know today if i'm going to take it. HELP!!!

paisan · June 2001

I'd love to get that in my trooper.

Seriously though at around 60-65 you will get significantly better milage.

-mike

conman2000 · June 2001

Is it the Isuzu/GM Extended factory(I think it is called Major Guard) or from an aftermarket company?
The 00 and 01's come with 3year/50k "bumper to bumper" and a 10year/120k "power train" war BTW.
The Major Guard will almost be a bumper to bumper war. as it covers things like powerwindows and sunroof motors, and some major brake parts which might make it worth it if one goes after 5 years.

My buddy did use his on his Pathfinder(Fidelity was the company I think) tranny right at the end of the extended warr. he did get his money back and some but still had to come out of pocket for some non-covered parts.

If it is the Fidelity one, don't get it as it has alot of stuff that is not covered. If you have Geico Ins, they cover the same amount of stuff but only cost 30 bucks a year. Between the factory, extended, and Geico, you should have it all covered.

hope that helps,
Con

paisan · June 2001

You can purchase the factory Isuzu warranty at any point while the car is still under the std. bumper to bumper warranty. It should cost about $1000 to go for it to cover B to B up to about 100K miles. The factory one is the only way to go cause you don't have to front any $ on the repairs.

-mike

ratbreath · June 2001

I just bought a 93 Rodeo off of a used-car dealer, and I love it and so does my wife. I have only a couple of questions.

1. The o^2 light stays on on the dashboard all the time, what does that mean, what does it do, and how do I repair it?

2. While driving, we hit the 55mph range and it runs like a dream, but then while slowing down(around the 45mph range) it begins to pull back, no stalling or anything bad just pulls back. Any ideas or solutions?

Thanks for reading this

-RatBreath

keepontroopin · June 2001

The reason your O2 Sensor is on is because the Qxygen sensor needs replacing. It seems that the light usually comes on somewhere between 75k and 125k miles.

tstntn · June 2001

I purchased an Isuzu Rodeo about two months ago and I am on my third in dash cd player. When I try to either change songs or change disk I get an error message and then I cant get the disk out. Has anybody else had the same problem? I dont know what else to do, I dont want to keep taking it back to the repair shop for a new stereo.
Please help.....

Todd

ilikeisuzus · June 2001

i'm interested in isuzu's (trooper, rodeo), but i'm concerened with the safety of them. could someone email me their opinion's on the safety of these vehicles?

paisan · June 2001

The rollover stories are complete bogus. I drive my truck about 90% as hard as I drive my subaru awd sports car and have never come close to rolling my Trooper. Of course you can't go out and push it like a vette, but if you know you are driving a truck, then it will be safe. Someone in the owners area T-boned a caddy that blew a light @ 45mph. He walked away from the truck w/o a problem and went back and bought another one. He had no intrusion into the passenger compartment.

-mike

conman2000 · June 2001

Well,
Depends on what you think is safe? If you were looking at a Ford F-150, The Rodeo and Trooper did much better than it in the 40mph test. But no truck is as safe as a car in the same test(except for the car based Utes like the BMW X5) but for lower speed crashes(which IMHO is more common) a bigger heavier truck will do much better to protect(but cause more damage to the other vehicles as well). So if you are looking for the safest SUV, it is the BMW X5(but it is over $50k) which is car based. Or you could get the Aztek or Escape which are car based as well. But none of them is a Isuzu Product which IMHO is a great value(plus 0% fin too!), cheap on Insurance, and safe enought for most fender benders which is why I just got a 01 Trooper myself.

Good Luck,
Con

93saturnsl1 · June 2001

Does anyone have any experience with the lug nuts on Rodeos supposedly breaking all the time? I took our '97 in for an alignment a few months ago to a place I trust, and they had to replace 8 of them, which came to $80 for just 8 lug nuts! They told me it's a common problem on Rodeos, which another mechanic told me he thought that was true. Shoudln't there be a recall on something like that? I need to get a rotation and an alignment soon; I just don't want to have to spend $80 or up each time to replace some bolts. Also, are Rodeos notorious for becoming misaligned? Ours has become toed in about 3x now, and I've already had to replace one front tire with the spare because it balled the innermost tread on it. Thanks for any info.

paisan · June 2001

Nope you are the first I've seen/come across with lug nut problems. Could be that the shops are over-torquing the bolts which is a common occurence at shops that don't use torque wrenches to tighten up the lug-nuts. My '97 Rodeo went 120K and never was aligned. I'd probably go to a shop that sells a life-time alignment and buy that for it if it seems to become un-aligned often.

-mike

keepontroopin · June 2001

The safty level of the Trooper is extremely high. I know first hand because I was rearended by a guy doing nearly 50 miles an hour. The troop had $5k in damage and the Blazer that hit me was obliterated. The driver of the Blazer (who fell asleep from taking too much cold medicine) was in really bad shape and I was fine! That is all I needed to see to make me buy another one! By the way I am on Trooper Number three!!!!

paisan · June 2001

I have some pics that someone sent me of a trooper headon collision recently. No intrusion into the cabin at all. I'll be posting them up on http://isuzu-suvs.com tonight.

-mike

armtdm · June 2001

Sorry, I had tires rotated and one of mine broke off and same deal, mechanic said a common problem on Isuzus

keepontroopin · June 2001

Yep it is a common problem for the studs to break when removing or tightening the lug nuts. I cannot believe that Isuzu hasn't changed studs over all these years. You are almost guaranteed to loose one when you take it to the mechanic.

paisan · June 2001

Guess I'm lucky. Never lost one in close to 150K miles between my Rodeo and Trooper.

-mike

keepontroopin · June 2001

Happens way too often. Hasn't happened on my '00 Trooper yet though!

paisan · June 2001

10-11pm EST. Come chat with other Isuzu Owners. If you are an owner, or prospective owner, you don't want to miss this opportunity to get in touch live with other's who have real world experience.

http://www.edmunds.com/chat/isuzuchat.html

-mike

bobg13 · June 2001

I had that same problem on a 98 Rodeo (#138). The dealer replaced the Speed head and the wheel transponder it still did not fix the problem. Give the harness a good yank, I know its unconventional but it works, it will fix it or finally pinpoint the pinch in the wire.

marshal1 · June 2001

I rented a V-6 4WD 2001 Rodeo for a week while in the Reno/Lake Tahoe area. Overall, the car seemed to be well built, roomy and comfortable. However, I was very dissappointed with the V-6 engine. It seemed to lack power and the transmission was constantly hunting for the proper gear. I expected much more from a 205 hp engine. My friend also drove the car and agreed that the engine was the worst V-6 we've ever experienced. For anyone contemplating purchasing a Rodeo, make sure you take a long test drive in various driving conditions. Before renting the Rodeo, it was high on my list of future purchases. Now, I would never consider buying one unless Isuzu increases the horsepower/torque. Do any Rodeo owners have similar complaints? I recently rented a Jeep Grand Cherokee V-6 and was impressed with its engine. Unfortunately, after checking Consumer Reports and finding out that the Jeep is the worst rated vehicle for reliability I will not be buying the Jeep either.

paisan · June 2001

Interesting. It could have been a result of it being a rental. I had a '97 Rodeo and towed close to 5Klbs and never felt a lack of power. And that only had a SOHC 190hp engine.

-mike

dchopp · June 2001

I have a 96 with 190 hp engine V6. I tow about 3800 lbs in the hills of Western Pa. and do not have a problem. Maybe you are trying to tow in overdrive. I usually use third gear even on the straight aways which where I live are far and few between. In the flat sections of Ohio I sometimes use overdrive but generally the towing instructions tell you to stay away from it.
DCH

conman2000 · June 2001

It depends on what you are use to IMHO. If you drive a V8, sure, you are going to think it is underpowered. Now if you drive say a Yugo, you are going to think this is an animal. Now with my SoP(Seat of Pants) testing with my 01 Trooper 3.5(215HP), 97 4dr Explorer 4.0(160HP?), and 99 2dr Explorer 4.0(180HP?), the Trooper felt the same as the 4dr. The 2dr was almost 1,000 pounds lighter(4x2) so it felt really quick compared to both the other ones. Even though the Rodeo has less HP, it is much lighter than the Trooper so the Mags rate 0-60 the Rodeo faster. To each its own.

Regards,
Con

bama_luke · June 2001

Like others have said, claiming the Rodeo V6 is underpowered depends on what you are used to. I traded in a '90 Plymouth Sundance with a 4 cylinder 85hp engine. The Rodeo is anything but underpowered IMO. I also test drove a number of similar vehicles at the Edmonds Live Road show last summer, and the only vehicle I drove that seemed significantly faster/powerful was the 240hp Pathfinder. After 9 +/- months with the 2000 LS, my only complaint has to do with accelleration. If you are driving and need a sudden burst of speed (passing etc.) you have to be ready for about a 1 second delay from the time you hit the gas until the engine kicks in. This was apparent at the road show and with the 2 test drives taken at the dealership also. However, once it kicks in, it seems to me that there is more than enough oompf. For the first time in 11 years, I'm able to pull out into traffic and get up to speed without worrying about someone running over me because I'm still trying to accelerate to traffic speed.

Luke

Isuzu Rodeo

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