Isuzu Trooper Owners Club UK™

[muddles]

Hi All
Wish I had found this forum before buying 1999 3.0 Duty. Have been scared half to death by the stories of blown up engines. Anyway, onto my sutuation - the turbo was noisy - sort of a rattling/scraping sound above 2000rpm. Contacted I.M who told me that the turbo was replaced 11000 miles ago ( and also the oil strainer mod, but NOT the injector sleeves as these were not subject to recall on my vehicle ?? )

I took the air inlet pipe and intercooler off to see the turbo impeller - loads of play in the bearing. Now the engine refuses to start. I noticed a wire ( colour green with orange stripe ) not connected, coming from just under the thermostat housing.

Can somebody tell me where this wire should be connected and could this be the reason why it wont start ( I did a 100 mile journey just before this, and apart from the turbo rattle it seemed to run ok )

Any suggestions please

[Google]

[muddles]

Sorry, yesterday in my haste/panic at having a non starting Trooper I forgot to introduce myself. Two weeks ago I became the proud owner of an Isuzu Trooper Duty 3.0 TD 1999. My first impressions of said vehicle were quite good, but being new to 4x4s I haven't really much to compare it with. I had a quick drive of a Daihatsu Fourtrack and a Mitsubishi Pajero before choosing the Trooper. The only detraction was I cannot easily see over the bonnet without really stretching ( I am just over 5 ft tall ), so I was a bit concerned about driving it. Part of my decision to buy the Trooper was the almost legendary reliability of Isuzu - how wrong can a person be?

I am hoping that when the present problems are sorted my experiences can only improve, but after reading some of the posts on this forum I think it will take some time to build my confidence.

Anyway, when an owner of this model next lifts the hood to check their oil level, which I'm sure they will do very frequently, can I please ask that they look for the green/orange wire just under the air intake pipe near the thermostat housing and let me know what it should be connected to.

Also, anything else I should be checking that would stop my engine from firing up, I would appreciate being told what to look for.

Hoping to be a happy Isuzu owner,

Helen

[steveforster9]

Hi Helen & welcome to the forum.

I'll try & remember to have a look at mine tonight when I get home and let you know what I find. No immediate ideas what it could be I'm afraid.

As far as the turbo is concerned, did you get any warranty when you bought the vehicle?

Hope you can get things sorted out soon, because the Trooper is a superb vehicle. I think you will have to learn to live with the niggling worry about that engine though, like the rest of us 3.0 owners!!
_________________
Steve F

1999 3.0DT LWB

[KevinF]

Helen -

Just had a poke about under the bonnet on mine, looking for the wire you describe, and I'm afraid I can't see one. All the wires on mine (2002 model) are contained in black plastic flexible sheathing.

Sorry to hear of the problem and even sadder that I can't help.

KevinF.
_________________
2002 3.0 DT Commercial.

[suzu]

that wire should be the wire for the aircon compressor i take it you don't have aircon, but this wire won't be the cause of it not starting.
you really need to get it to a dealer to check it out it could be a number of things

[muddles]

Thanks for the replies and the warm welcome to the forum. I was rather hoping it was just a loose wire that was disturbed when removing the air intake pipe to take a look into the turbo, but no such luck. The engine was running before this was done.

I purchased the vehicle privately, so therefore there is no warranty. It seemed to drive ok, but not being used to driving a 2 tonne vehicle I was taking things easy and don't really know how well it should accelerate etc. but I was happy with it. It was only after taking a look at the turbo last weekend that it refused to start.

Suzu, your correct there is no aircon. What should I be looking for initially as I'm in a bit of a fix - I want to take it in to have the turbo looked at, and get it serviced (it was serviced 3000 miles back, but that was over a year ago) but the nearest Isuzu dealer is 60 miles away, so making it difficult to get it to them as a non runner.

I suspect the problem may be electrical, as there was a blown fuse ( 10A fuse C4, marked as ELEC IG ? - Think this means Electronic Ignition - thought diesels didn't have that! Strange thing was with this fuse blown the electric windows wouldn't work ). Replaced the fuse, then windows worked and the fuse did not blow again. One thing I notice now though is that when I lock the doors the alarm led does not flash on the dashboard, even though the indicators flash, which I think indicates that the imobiliser is set. If my memory serves me, the alarm led used to flash continuously when the doors were locked.

When I was checking the fuses, I pulled them one at a time to see if they had blown, both in the cabin and in the engine compartment. Would this upset the imobiliser or anything else? ( I remember with a Rover car, after changing the battery the car would not start until something was reset by the dealers ).

If I am slow to reply to posts, please accept my appologies as at the moment I have to travel to work by train adding a couple of hours to my working day and keeping me away from the computer.

Best wishes

Helen

[NickP]

Helen,
yes the 3.0 has got electronic igition (sort of )!!Just a thought;check that the plugs on top of the E C U haven't been disturbed! I did some work on my 3.0 which involved removing the air inlet pipe and then it wouldn't start it turned out that I'd partially disconnected one of these plugs hence the non-start ! Most embarrassing When you're a mechanic !!!!
The Ecus are on the left (right as you look from the front)hand side of the engine bay behind the air filter.
What lights are on when you turn the engine over?

[muddles]

Hi NickP

Thanks for the info. The 3 plugs on top of the ECU seem to be in place - I have not unplugged them because I did not know if they required power connected at all times to maintain settings in its memory. Can I unplug them to see if the contacts are all clean?

When I turn the ignition key, I have the handbrake, airbag, check engine, battery, green 4wd light and glow heater lights on. After a couple of seconds the airbag and glow heater lights go out. The 4wd green light seems to be flashing slightly brighter at a rate of about once a second ( it does not flash on and off, just changes brightness slightly ).

When I crank over the engine, after a second or two the green 4wd light and the battery light go out, leaving the handbrake and check engine lights on.

One other thing, over the last few days the red alarm light on the dash has not been coming on when I lock the doors, only the indicators flash once. But today when I locked it the alarm light is now flashing again, even though I have not done anything. I suspect a bad electrical connection somewhere, particularly as I had a fuse blow while driving it ( which stopped the electric windows working, even though it was not the windows fuse).

Reading other posts, I see mention of crank position sensors and oil sensors etc. Do you know where these are located? I assume a loose wire on any of these could prevent it starting, but I cannot find any sensors other than the one on the front of the engine which seems to have its plug firmly connected.

I have also read posts saying that low oil pressure will prevent the engine starting, but I am not sure if they mean lubricating oil or diesel rail pressure.

Any ideas please?

Helen

[shaungriff]

not familiar with this engine but when you removed the air intake did you unplug the air flow sensor ? or have you not connected one of the intake pipes causing the air flow sensor not to measure the air ? i would take the intake off again & have a look.
_________________
www.sgcarcare.co.uk

[suzu]

no airflow meter on the 3.0l you can take the inlet pipes right off and watch the turbo spin and they still start and run.

[muddles]

Looking into the air intake ( where the intercooler pipe connects ) the butterfly flap is wide open. Is this the correct position for this, surely that is full throttle position?

[mp]

thats correct it flips over on fire up and is controlled by a motor thereafter
_________________
life will find a way!

[muddles]

o.k. thats something else ruled out then.

Anyway I am still in the dark about this ( literally, the Trooper is outdoors and its getting cold out now ) so I think I will leave it for tonight and take another look Saturday afternoon.

Thanks to all for the suggestions and help.

Helen

[tony]

hi
i had somthing like this about a year ago my 3 ltr would not start it turned out to be the engine oil presure switch it was falty so the switch was not giving the ecu the right presure readings so it would not start