Any Trooper owners on here?

DemonDave

Member
Joined
Mar 14, 2007
Location
Kinston, NC
Going tomorrow to look at a '98 Trooper to replace the Blazer my other half recently totaled out. Looks to be in good shape for a 12 year old truck, has high miles (180K) but has a full stack of maintanence recipts to go along with it. Any known major problems? I've read a little about oil consuption and the remdies (egr system, pcv system, and possible oil ring issues) and this one does use a little oil between changes. Is it worth $2100.00 being in good shape otherwise?
 
Check out the transmission if it's the 4L30E auto. They seem to be an issue with a lot of Trooper owners. I had an 02 that went out at 140K. This thing was maintained, never towed with and saw about 90% highway driving. $1900 for a rebuild. :eek:
 
My neighbor has a beautiful white Trooper, 94 model I think, 5-speed, He is getting ready to put it up for sale. If the 98 falls thru, let me know and I will get some pics for you.
 
My buddy has 2 troopers, the first one is honestly just scrap now, but had over 300k miles on it when shit went south. He has another one now with around 80k miles, and he loves it. I figure they are good and reliable, both of his are 5 speeds, so take that into account.
 
Thanks for the input, I'll give the trans a good once over on it, I've ran into a few over the years that the owners loved coming in for services at 200-300k so I don't think it'll be a bad 12 mile a day commuter rig. We'll know tomorrow for sure.
 
Well, this one didnt' quite work out, about 2 miles into the test drive (after figuring out how badly it needed an alignment, and that something was causing a disturbing vibration up front) I rolled the throttle to the floor running about 40 or so, the accelerator stuck like it was glued down for a good 30-45 seconds, wouldn't pull back up with my foot, was about to switch the key off and coat it off the road before the upcoming 30 mph curve. Could have been a decent truck, but I make it a point not to buy anything that immediately threatens my safety
 
The 3.5 is the oil burning engine. The problem stems from the oil returns in the pistons being too small and clogging up with sludge. They supposedly fixed the problem in the later 3.5s, but I am not sure. I know my wife's 2000 drinks oil. We have to ad half a quart every three days. The 4l30e automatic is a pain in the ass to maintain. No dip stick, so to check the level of fluid requires getting under it while its running. I use two sets of ramps to accomplish this. Also, like with any automatic, heat is the killer of these transmissions. Luckily when we bought my wife's it had just had a re-manufactured transmission installed with a heavy duty transmission cooler installed. Another issue that can drive you nuts with these things is the TOD system found in 1998-2002 models with the automatic. When it works, it works awesome, and frankly, it works most of the time. The only problem is when it does have a malfunction, the troubleshooting is a bit of a pain. If you decide to get a Trooper, or any Isuzu for that matter, you should join the forums at planetisuzoo.com. Lots of good information over there. Even with the problems I just mentioned, I still love the wife's 2000 Trooper as well as the 1989 Trooper I have as a daily driver.
 
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