My 99 trooper 3.5 leaks gasoline. 51000 miles. I've had about 10 new cars and trucks and probably 15 used over the last 45 years and that was a 20 year old Corvette. The tank with the fuel pump are both no good. Isuzu says tow it the 25 miles to the dealer and they will gladly repair it at my cost. This is probably the worst piece of garbage I've bought new yet. I'll be a happy guy when they finally go under. GM is doing the right thing by dumping as much as they can from these losers. Ron
Uh huh...so if a vehicle has a problem, you should post a message that doesn't make a whole lot of sense (where does the Corvette part come from anyway?) and proclaim that they are crap and you can't wait for them to go out of business...? If that's the case, we'd see such a message for EVERY car manufacturer...
My experience with Isuzu has been generally better than other makes of vehicles that I have owned or been around.
If you read the message completely you might figure out the crap about the Corvette fuel tank. I can understand why you have a better experience with a company that has sold a product that has become an orphan. Yugo? When you have owned a few more cars get back to me. Any manufacturer that sells an orphan and refuses to warranty a safety issue at this young mileage and age well deserves to go out of business
There is probably a good reason for your problem. Maybe you or a previous owner parked the car for a long time with an (almost) empty fuel tank. Hardly any metal tank will survive such a crime! Kind regards, Erik-Jan.
Ron, pls tell us more about the leak. Where is it leaking from? There's a drain on Isuzu's gas tanks - are you sure it's not leaking from there? Are you positive it's the tank? How do you know? If you can crawl under the truck and dry off the tank, you should see where it gets wet. I've never seen a nearly-new tank rust through (99 qualifies as nearly-new in my book), and I've seen and repaired (yes, repaired) lots of them. It CAN be done... you just have to flush it really, really well then fill it most of the way with water. Were you the original owner? Do you know the vehicle's history? Have you used fuel tank additives? If so, what did you use? If the tank leaks, it should have no affect on the fuel pump. The truck should run normally if it's just the tank leaking. Please post some more. r/ Steve
Steve, There was a stain from the leak coming fron the top of the tank. It does have a drain. When the tank was removed the top of the tank was rusted away at the fuel pump along with the metal lines. I had to buy the whole pump assy instead of just the pump which I could have bought for $100+ cheaper. The tank was unrepairable. $1600 repair at a local repair shop @ $65. per hour labor. Has anyone with a 3.5 gas not have to do manifold gaskets yet?
Could this possibly be an electrical problem? Because the tank appears to have begun rusting around the pump, could their have been an electrolysis issue? Perhaps the gasket was bad causing dissimilar metal corrosion? Just a thought.
Ron, thanks. That helps a lot. I've got a 98 that I've had a fuel smell coming from for awhile, but no leaking observed on the ground. Guess I'll have to pull the tank when it gets nearly empty and have a look. Sounds like you really got screwed by the shop... it doesn't take that long to drop a tank and install a new one - any idea of what the Flat Rate labor is on that repair? My guess is that the FR book would give around 2.5 hours for the job, excluding draining the tank. The $65/hour rate is about the going rate.... did that include the tow and if so, from how far? I can see that being pretty high, esp if they had to tow it a long ways, but not $1600! Then again, at $500 for two catalytic converters (which I haven't bought yet, but need to) - I can imagine the fuel tank and pump was not cheap. But I'm with you - Isuzu should have stood behind that one - that's just crazy to rust out that soon there. Is there anything holding moisture in that area so it couldn't dry out? Normally, gas tanks will rust out on the bottom, where the water sits, esp if the tank is partially or nearly empty. Rusting on the top usually comes from the outside, going in... due to moisture being trapped up there somewhere.
I have not yet had to do manifold gaskets. I'm pretty sure that my excessive oil consumption has finally plugged my catalytic converters, or perhaps the cats being plugged have contributed to my excessive oil use, thereby exacerbating the situation by plugging them further... so I need to get this fixed. But no manifold gasket issues yet, that I know of. I will put a vacuum gauge on the truck and see what it does. r/ Steve
The odor came first with no signs of a leak. After a while I spotted the leak in a parking lot. The shop charged three hours labor, 1/2 tank of fuel in it. Fuel tank $670 Sending unit $82 Fuel pump $384 Tried an aftermarket pump but it didn't work out. I drove it the 1 1/2 miles to the shop. Ron
Ouch. Those parts prices are unreal. I don't think the shop screwed you on the labor, but I wonder what the parts would have cost if you'd bought them at St Charles Isuzu.... we used to mark up parts to "list" price, which was nearly double the cost of "jobber", the mechanic's price. The tow would have been a minimum of $80, but you didn't need it.... Hope this fixes your wagon for a long time.... r/ Steve
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