Trooper cold start problem - Please help

Don't know much about modern diesels, but I'd suspect failing glow plugs, or failing battery that can't provide the juice, or failing solenoid that increases resistance and drops voltage to glow plugs.

--Kamus

Check your glows... or check that the injectors have had their seals/sleeve replaced..see some of the topic posts on the 4JX1 injectors in this group on google groups...

I have exactly the same starting problems which began this winter, topping up the half-empty battery with distilled water helped a bit. As I have just discovered, I have one of those dreaded VIN numbers. But why did the problems only start after 4.5 years/55000 km, and why in winter, no problems when its warm? BTW the black and grey coloured smoke that comes out the exhaust when it finally starts stinks terribly! Could it be due to using 10W-40 oil? Opel keeps using it despite Isuzu recommending 5W-30 or 10W-30. I top up with the recommended stuff.

just a random guess off the top of my head.. since it's a seal problem with some seal materials and the solution is new seals of a different material. or new sleaves with entire new seals... so maybe when cold the seal rubber shrinks and doesn't seal... allowing oil into the fuel... or vice versa... but when warm it's expended and fills out into it's alloted slots and does the job... likewise it takes a few years for the seal to wear to the point the shrinkage affects it...

Sounds terrifyingly logical. Oh well off to the dealers with the problem, guess I shouldn't wait until the service is due in July. What sort of leverage do I have here, does Isuzu replace the sleeves free of charge? If not, I'll infer that they're to blame anyway because they used the wrong oil the last two years..

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AFAIK the sleeves are part of a recall campaign... so I'd ring the Isuzu head office for the country and ask them about recall and repairs...