I am going to be spending about $3,500 cash on a used truck/suv and was wondering what I should stay away from? It may seem like this is not a lot of money but as long as it's clean and going to run strong and not give me flack I am ok with higher mileage in this range and would like to know which ones to stay away from... I need to count on this thing with regular maintenance.

The 3.2L 5 Speed 4x4 Rodeo has no major flaws. The only "problem" these trucks have with the V6 is noisy lifters, but that does not affect reliability.

The Frame is fully boxed, the Rear axles are stout for a vehicle its size and there an no inherent flaws with the IFS as a daily driver.

If you get a 1995 and older the Interior is very simple but reliable.

Honestly, they are very good trucks. Way better than anything ford and chevy made during the same times.

Agree completely with leeleatherwood. I bought a 97 with 20k miles and sold it with 228k - no issues at all, and I was impressed with the quality of the build. Not so much with the wind noise/design, but the build quality was excellent. No rattles, squeaks, etc.

I'm actually considering another one right now for a daily driver.

How good are they off road? What years are best?

How good are they off road? What years are best?

Depends. As a trail rig they are fine, you could easily fit 31's on a 1 or 2 inch lift and make it through most places on scenic trails.

For rockcrawling... Not so good, but comparable to other IFS vehicles like Chevys and Toyotas they are comparable. IFS sucks period, doesn't matter the make.

I will start off with the bad points first:

The first downfall is the Tierod adjuster, they are extremely weak and I have broken one every time I have done anything serious. Luckily they are cheap and easy to change. Independent 4x makes some Heavy Duty tie rod assemblies that will fix this problem though.

The 2nd major problem is the front wheel centerline is too close to the firewall to allow for full stuff with 33's without rubbing. A fix to this would be Diff Drop brackets, which you can make yourself for free as long as you have a welder.

The third major problem is the IFS... this is self explanatory, its IFS. IFS just cant compare with the travel of a SAS, so for anything serious you are looking at doing a SAS. This is really a non issue because you are in the same position as any other vehicle with IFS.

The Good:

I wont write out everything good about an Isuzu because IMO they are simply very good trucks, its a shame the 4WD community has not embraced them more than they have.

FULLY BOXED FRAME, Isuzu frams are fully boxed from front to rear. Look around in the Chevy, Ford and Jeep forums about all the work people must go through to fix their Shitty C-Channel frames. Its ALOT of work and it should have been something done from the factory.

You can do a 3-4" suspension lift FOR FREE. The front is torsion beam, and unlike Chevy/Ford, you dont need no stupid torsion keys to lift it. To lift the front all you need is a socket or a wrench of the appropriate size. To lift the rear you have 2 choices, the easiest choice is the longer shackles. Again, unlike Chevy/Ford there is no need to fuck around with some stupid shackle flip brackets, just put on longer shackles are you are good to go. Alternatively (and the preferred method) is to convert the rear to Spring over axle, you can reuse all existing parts like UBolts and Shackle perches, all you need to do is grind cut off the existing shackle perch flip it to the top of the axle and weld it back on. its a cakewalk. For more lift in the front you can also do a diff drop, this is free also as long and you have a welder and basic tools.

The drivetrain is STOUT, the 3.2L V6 makes like 170hp, the MUA5 manual transmission is solid and the Transfer case is gear driven, not chain driven. I have never seen or read about a failure of the Transmission or TCase. The rear axle is a Dana 44 and the front is a GM 10 Bolt. Both are plenty strong enough for 35" tires. I have also never read about or seen a failure of the stock front CV shafts.

Realistically 35" tires are about the largest you are going to be able to fit without going SAS anyways, so for all intentions the stock drivetrain is reliable if you intend to keep IFS.

As in what years are the best. I am partial the the older body style and interior. Steer clear of the GM Made 2.8 and 3.1L V6's, they are garbage and underpowered. Again, steer clear of the Automatics because they use the GM 4L30 transmissions, which are junk also. You want one with either the 3.2L SOHC or the 3.5L SOHC/DOHC engine, again these are made by Isuzu, they are powerful and reliable.

EDIT: This post may sound like I am bashing GM/Ford, but honestly I am not, I am simply stating things that make an Isuzu a bettery vehicle than the domestics which is what most people choose as wheelers. I am a Chevy person myself and infact I have put a SBC, TH400 and NP241 from a Chevy into my Rodeo.

Another thing, dont look for lift kits online for an Isuzu. The only ones made are useless. Calmini makes Extended A-Arms and Torsion bars for lifting your Isuzu BUT YOU DONT NEED THEM. The stock peices work fine and the only thing you would be doing by buying a lift kit for your Isuzu is wasting money. The only usefull things those lift kits come with is longer shocks, which you can buy yourself.

Another thing, dont look for lift kits online for an Isuzu. The only ones made are useless. Calmini makes Extended A-Arms and Torsion bars for lifting your Isuzu BUT YOU DONT NEED THEM. The stock peices work fine and the only thing you would be doing by buying a lift kit for your Isuzu is wasting money. The only usefull things those lift kits come with is longer shocks, which you can buy yourself.

So I want a 5 speed, but how do I make sure I have the right engine in it? Is there a code on the door or firewall that can tell me or are certain years the key?

The lift is free, but are those parts going to hold up? I would basically be doing a 3 inch lift or so and whatever tires fit the best, this will be a daily driver that I want to expect to do some decent things off road I am not going hardcore with anything but I also don't want it to be some weak sauce useless piece against other stuff. I am on the fence about buying another XJ or one of these.

So I want a 5 speed, but how do I make sure I have the right engine in it? Is there a code on the door or firewall that can tell me or are certain years the key?

The lift is free, but are those parts going to hold up? I would basically be doing a 3 inch lift or so and whatever tires fit the best, this will be a daily driver that I want to expect to do some decent things off road I am not going hardcore with anything but I also don't want it to be some weak sauce useless piece against other stuff. I am on the fence about buying another XJ or one of these.

You want a 3.2L or a 3.5L, Dont gets a 2.8 or 3.1 and you dont want a 4 Banger either.

The lift is free and the parts hold up fine, as long as you can weld good. The only thing you are doing in the rear it putting the springs on top of the axle, it is no weaker or stronger than the factory setup. The only thing you are doing in the front is cranking the torsion bars, again its no stronger or weaker than the factory setup but your front springs will be stiffer than factory.

I would get the Heavy Duty Tierods from Independent 4x if you plan on doing an wheeling at all.

So I want a 5 speed, but how do I make sure I have the right engine in it? Is there a code on the door or firewall that can tell me or are certain years the key?

The lift is free, but are those parts going to hold up? I would basically be doing a 3 inch lift or so and whatever tires fit the best, this will be a daily driver that I want to expect to do some decent things off road I am not going hardcore with anything but I also don't want it to be some weak sauce useless piece against other stuff. I am on the fence about buying another XJ or one of these.

I'm going to add a few clarifications to leeleatherwoods posts. The front axle is not a GM 10bolt, but an Isuzu 10bolt. You can get ARB lockers for it, and I believe there has now been an Aussie locker brought over for it as well...although, I've never read those thread on other forums, so I'm not 100%.

As for which one to get...if you get a V6 from 93-04 it will be the Isuzu engine that he refers to. The 3.1L was only used in 91-92. Personally I like the 96-97 model years. It's got the nicer interior (more car like dash) it's got a little more horsepower, and uses coil packs. They redesigned the interior in 95.5, but I am not 100% they did the engine changes until the 96 model actually came out. These will also be OBDII.

the 93-95 will be the same exteriorwise (well minor differences in mirrors for 93-early 94's) Otherwise, the exterior for 93-97 is basically the same. In 98, they completely reworked the truck, and gave it the rounder looks. It also got a redesigned suspension. The front stayed the same (with the change of R&P steering) but the rear went to coil springs.

I personally would be looking for a 96-97 V6(which would be a 3.2L) 5speed. As long as the maintence was done on the truck, you can expect a decent life out of it.

As for offroading. Don't let leeleatherwood scare you. IFS is limited in rockcrawling...however, these trucks, can do just as much, and in many cases more then some of the other IFS trucks. You just need to know what is likely to break. On these, it's the tie-rods, and CV's (and yes, there are plenty of people that have broken CV's) You can upgrade these, and put manual hubs on, and you will be fairly strong. I've wheeled my 97 for 10 years now....I've only ever broke 1 tierod (that was a stock one) and now I have the Independent4x HD ones on. I have done plenty of "hard trails in Moab. The wheeling back east is different however, less traction, more spinning usually = more breakage. SO, these trucks can do just fine offroad. I just recently bought a 96 that was already SAS'd from a friend. I debated doing it to my truck, but never really saw the need. I have yet to be held back due to IFS.(I got too good a deal to pass up on the SAS)

I hope that helps.

BTW. I have a 3" suspension lift and a 3'' bodylift. with 33x10.5r15 BFT AT's on my 97

Bought out Adam did ya jonesy? I have wheeled my rodeo for about 11 years now. It is one tuff rig. I would recommend them to anyone.

'96-'97 rodeos were OBD2, and the power went up to 190 because of this. I have both obd1 and obd2 motors and I cant really tell the diference between them. Also, '96-'97 rodeos got the medium width front suspension. The same front end as the '92-'95ish troopers. This is nice because you can just bolt on the '95+ trooper parts and have the wide front end. It basically doubles the front travel and makes a huge difference in how they work.

OK, nows the part of the story where I tell you to buy a trooper and be done with it! Ha, Ha, I'm a trooper guy.

I don't really like the '98+ rodeos. I want to, but it just seems that they lost some of their isuzuness along the way.

The tie rods will bend with big tires and wheeling. Get spares, good thing is that the wrecking yards seem to be full of them right now. Also the idler arm pivot bolt bends, this won't end a wheeling trip, but it makes the steering a little weird. I made a bracket that put this pivot into double shear and it seemed to fix the problem.

Both of my troopers have been, well, troopers! '96 has 300kmiles, and the '95 has 230kmiles. The '96 is still on the factory clutch! at 300K. The '95 is still hauling me around on the 4l30e with no problems at all, I do change the tranny fluid and filter every 50k or so. I have put a starter in both of them, but thats about it. The '96 needed a egr valve at 180k or so.


Keep oil in them and they just keep going.

Bought out Adam did ya jonesy? I have wheeled my rodeo for about 11 years now. It is one tuff rig. I would recommend them to anyone.

Actually no, I bought Panzer from Jim. Surprising I know. I ran into him a few months ago, and he mentioned it...so I had to jump on it.

Kind of crazy.

Here are some pics if you are curious.
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-dYVBw655WUk/TnKIcoOpOPI/AAAAAAAAANs/xu4-fopsPFI/s400/2011-09-15%25252017.15.35.jpg

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-i_4YFXT4x2o/TnKe29D4lbI/AAAAAAAAAN4/mEx3QJkp6Q8/s400/2011-09-15%25252018.36.14.jpg

Need to do some work on it still, but for the price, I couldn't say no.

I had a 99 Rodeo and it was damn near bullet proof.

HOWEVER, if you find one with a 4 cylinder you probably want to stay away from it if is an older model. Isuzu used Australian (HEC) Holden Engine Company for their 4 cylinder engines. These things are crap. Most likely you won't find one since few made it more than 50k-60k miles.
I had one and the block cracked at around 75k, remotored it and kept going until the whole dumptruck thing happened.

Actually no, I bought Panzer from Jim. Surprising I know. I ran into him a few months ago, and he mentioned it...so I had to jump on it.

Kind of crazy.

Here are some pics if you are curious.
[IMG]https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-dYVBw655WUk/TnKIcoOpOPI/AAAAAAAAANs/xu4-fopsPFI/s400/2011-09-15%25252017.15.35.jpg[IMG]

[IMG]https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-i_4YFXT4x2o/TnKe29D4lbI/AAAAAAAAAN4/mEx3QJkp6Q8/s400/2011-09-15%25252018.36.14.jpg[IMG]

Need to do some work on it still, but for the price, I couldn't say no.

Can you post more pics of the front suspension?

I am getting ready to 3 link mine.

Not entirely sure about the 4-cyl motors being from Holden. I believe that the 4ZE1 2.6l motor is an Isuzu design.
Not especially powerful compared to the Isuzu 6-cyl motors but if you look at their competition from the same time, the Isuzu 4-cyl is among the best of the bunch. I would rank it right up with the Toyota 22RE and Nissan KA24E (albeit down on power to the Nissan). I would also call it a better motor than the AMC 2.5 that went into Jeeps of the era.

Can you post more pics of the front suspension?

I am getting ready to 3 link mine.

I don't have many...it's sitting right now, so I will try and get more pics later.

This is what I do have though.

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-x4_Fz2FJ7zE/TnJ4h3Cuu9I/AAAAAAAAANg/UX96dukC7cw/s400/2011-09-15%25252015.09.32.jpg

This one you can kind of see the triangulation in the lowers.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-VjK-ETIQDN4/TnKeNr7uzKI/AAAAAAAAAN0/PP7VKpOHVvs/s400/2011-09-15%25252018.37.31.jpg

Not the best shots...I will work on getting more.

I don't have many...it's sitting right now, so I will try and get more pics later.

This is what I do have though.

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-x4_Fz2FJ7zE/TnJ4h3Cuu9I/AAAAAAAAANg/UX96dukC7cw/s400/2011-09-15%25252015.09.32.jpg

This one you can kind of see the triangulation in the lowers.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-VjK-ETIQDN4/TnKeNr7uzKI/AAAAAAAAAN0/PP7VKpOHVvs/s400/2011-09-15%25252018.37.31.jpg

Not the best shots...I will work on getting more.

Whats your upper and lower link separation at the axle? Whats the separation at the frame? Where do the links mount at the frame?

Just pics would be sweet, I can estimate. Your body roll doesn't look too bad.

I want to walk very softly. Don't want to ruffle any feathers, and this is in the best spirit. I feel Jim got screwed on his rodeo. The shop did not do a good job on this conversion. If it was a light weight buggy it may have worked, but never on a street truck. As I recall it basically self destructed soon after the initial build and a different shop had to do quite a bit of rework. It has the potential to be a cool truck, but I think it really needs to be built with a more conservative approach. When this truck was built it was all about rti numbers, and in the decade or so since it was built the off road comunity as a whole has learned a lot about vehicle dynamics and how to build streetable link suspensions. My favorite isuzus from that era were the Adem's rodeo and Fernandos amigo built by JR. Both were just leaf sprung, but worked really well and drove nice on the street too.
I'm glad Jonesy picked this rig up, and hopefully it will get some good use. I really miss the days of hitting moab with a buch of SAS isuzus.
Again I don't want this to seem like an attack, its just my two cents.

I want to walk very softly. Don't want to ruffle any feathers, and this is in the best spirit. I feel Jim got screwed on his rodeo. The shop did not do a good job on this conversion. If it was a light weight buggy it may have worked, but never on a street truck. As I recall it basically self destructed soon after the initial build and a different shop had to do quite a bit of rework. It has the potential to be a cool truck, but I think it really needs to be built with a more conservative approach. When this truck was built it was all about rti numbers, and in the decade or so since it was built the off road comunity as a whole has learned a lot about vehicle dynamics and how to build streetable link suspensions. My favorite isuzus from that era were the Adem's rodeo and Fernandos amigo built by JR. Both were just leaf sprung, but worked really well and drove nice on the street too.
I'm glad Jonesy picked this rig up, and hopefully it will get some good use. I really miss the days of hitting moab with a buch of SAS isuzus.
Again I don't want this to seem like an attack, its just my two cents.

no worries Chad, that didn't seem like an attack. I think Jim got a little taken as well...but knowing Jim, I think he helped that himself. Jim wanted to have the cool stuff at the time, and I don't think he gave it much thought to long term drivability. I agree with a lot of what you said. I was fortunate enough to get all the receipts for the SAS, and the work after. The shop did a good job in some respects. The guys at my shop were impressed with it overall. The biggest problem is the air shocks...that was a HUGE mistake. As you said, a light weight buggy, ok..but this truck is way too heavy. They had a few engineering problems (like using the stock crossmember to mount the links to) but those were repaired by Rocklogic. I also got a list of what Rocklogic suggested he do to make it better...and I don't think much, if any was "redoing" the setup.

I have driven this on the road, and it actually drives very well on the freeway. I was surprised, and a little nervous taking it down to AF canyon not too long ago, but it rode great. (other then the bumpiness from little to no up travel in the air shocks) I could use 1 finger to steer..no major bumpsteer, no death wobble, etc. Overall I think they did a good job, but you are right some things were not done that great.

Once the airshocks are replaced with coilovers I will have a better idea on how it is set up. Like I said, the guys at my work seemed happy, but we deal with mostly bolt on suspension stuff. Overall, it does pretty well...maybe I can get some figures and see how it works on the calculator sheets around this board.

Anyway, that's where it sits right now. I will try and get figures on the truck...and see how it goes. Overall, I'm happy with it...I do wish it didn't have the bodylift, but that will be very difficult to take out...and lose the airshocks, then hopefully it will be a solid truck.

Oh, and a sidenote...JR was actually the one that did this SAS also. After he shut his shop down, he went to Outer Limits and worked, and from what I understand was the lead fabricator on it.