Isuzu Trooper Owners Club UK™

[jetobar]

I own a 1998 3-door trooper, and unfortunately ( it's an excellent car) I recently had a very serious accident on the road, the tail of the car suddenly slided to one side making the car unstable and uncontrolable.
the situation in which the car slided doesn't justify the behavior of the car after the turn.
After analizing the accident and with previous episodes where the car repeat this unsual movement I reach the conclusion that the rear suspension didn't work correctly under certain conditions like a bumpy or irregular surface. The major design flaw is the torsion bar which is the same used in the 5-door trooper in which car works fine because it's design for the lenght and weight of this model on the contrary with the 3 door model that is shorter and weights less.

Thanks for reading this message, I would appreciate if you have any comment or suggestion to the subject you want to share.

bye

[Google]

[KevinF]

Dear Jet assisted -

Try driving slower. The Trooper is an off-road vehicle. Not a sports car.

KevinF.
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2002 3.0 DT Commercial.

[jetobar]

HI

Dear Kevin, the reason I wrote this message is because there are safety issues, my purpose was that someone could share some useful comments or a similar experiences to avoid this kind of accidents to other people, establish a design failure to warn other users. As I explain in the previous message speed was a factor, and of course I know this is not racing car. I suggest you take this kind of messages with more seriousness and not replying them with the first thing that cross your mind. My advice is that in the future you save your comments if you have nothing to say specially some stupid answer like you gave.

Bye

[alwin]

Hi Jetobar
You say in your post that " The car suddenly slided to one side" . Were you cornering at the time?, in which case limitations of the vehicles design, and tyre equipment would have a major bearing. If the incident happened in any other situation did a breakage of any steering or suspension component contribute to the accident ?.

I currently run a 1999 SWB trooper, and find it one of the most stable off road vehicles I have owned, (and there have been a few).

What type of tyres did you have ? Chunky mud terrain type tyres obviously whilst giving much better performance off road, are much less stable on road.

It would be interesting if you were to give us some more details of the Accident, and its outcome.

[unclealbert]

Hi

You said in your post "after the turn" so assuming that this happened when going round a bend, may I offer some opinions

Firstly, you say "torsion bar" - this is the front suspension, and given that short or long wheelbase share the same engine and front of car weights and dimensions, I would say that they are largely irrelevant.

Let us look at the back of the vehicle. The radius arms ( the large bars that run forward from the axle to the chassis) purely locate the axle and allow it to swing and articulate. The panhard rod ( the bar that runs across the vehicle and joins the axle to the chassis) allows the axle to articulate but keeps it from swinging around on the end of the radius arms. the whole lot bounces around on two coil springs.

This is a very common way of locating a back axle and as an engineer, I would say that the difference between short and long wheelbase models is largely irrelevant, except that the shorter the wheelbase, the quicker and more suddenly oversteer will develop.

My thoughts are that as all the ends of the suspension components are linked to either the axle or chassis by rubber bushes, if these are worn, the vehicle will tend to steer from the rear, check them, particularly the panhard rod - Could it be broken?? Rear steer can give very peculiar handling

Check the shock absorbers - Are they shot, allowing the back end to tramp on a corner ?

Hope this helps

David

[alwin]

David

I agree with your comments, particularly about Shock absorbers. Troopers seem to be quite heavy on shockers if you do a lot of off roading. I use my Trooper for work, and replaced mine recently at 34,000 miles as the fronts had started leaking. The driving characteristics became to say the least "Interesting"! while the shockers were bad.

[Paul Rainbow]

Nope. I think you are barking up the wrong tree. I think you have a faulty limited slip disc that is actually stopping a wheel from turning as you are going around a corner, thus putting you into a slide.

The vehicle design & performance parameters will have been well considered before launching it onto the public, and this type of vehicle behaviour is a fault of something not a design charictaristic. I know, I can't spell charictaristic.

Check your LSD.

[shaungriff]

i changed my 2.8 lwb for a 3.1 swb commercial about 6 weeka ago. when i drove it home (160 miles !) it was all over the road at speed, it would sway around as if the rear tyres were flat when cornering at speed (my old trooper didn't). when i got home i checked suspension etc, found nothing worn. it turned out to be the new mud terrain tyres that the previous owner had fitted to the rear. i fitted some all terrains & it drives like a different car.
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www.sgcarcare.co.uk

[unclealbert]

Hi Jetobar

I agree with Paul about the LSD. I had forgotten about the LSD in my diatribe as my Troop does not have one. Check the vehicle id plate under the bonnet and if LSD is fitted the legend G80 will be printed on it.

Regards

David