Sharky's Musterious Isuzu! May have broken it again :(

[Sharky.]

Please excuse the dreadful pun in the thread title. There's another one at the very end of this post. I apologise in advance.

Sup.

I bought a car. Well, sort of. It's technically a truck. 4WD. SUV. Off-roader. Choose your poison.

Bought it through TradeMe - New Zealand's eBay - for what was in my opinion a good value (given its condition) $3990. Using the pics the seller uploaded to TradeMe because I'm lazy and can't be bothered taking my own photos just yet, and my phone's camera is pretty pants:

It's a 1992 Isuzu Mu 2.8L diesel (4JB1-T) automatic with 179,000km on the odo - 111,000 miles in inferior imperial units. Known as the Vauxhall Frontera Sport (lol Vauxhall and 'Sport') in the UK and the Isuzu Amigo in the States. 4-speed auto, 4WD with high/low range, manual locking front hubs, 31x10x15in Bridgestone Desert Duelers on the front, 31x10.5x15in Hankook somethings on the rear, all near new with 8-9mm of tread. Power steering, power windows, fires up literally first crank of the starter, doesn't blow any smoke, nice aftermarket sound system with a VDO Dayton 2703 head unit and speakers, front-mounted fogs, heavy-duty anti-rock plate thingymajig on the front and has a faint and vaguely ricer whistle from the turbocharger when on boost

Fuel needle was on E when I collected it, and I had to put in 63L at the pump to fill it - that was a rather painful $95 at $1.51 per litre - which means with the 83L tank the truck has, E actually means a quarter of a tank A full tank should be good for 600+ km, pretty sure I'll be able to comfortably average better than 14L/100km (17mpg) with the engine running as well as it does; 12L/100km - 20mpg - would be a nice 700 which should last for at least three weeks just commuting to work and back (15 or so km round trip).

Exterior is mostly tidy, the only real blemishes are faded paint in the middle of the bonnet and front edge of the roof, flaking chrome paint on the grille surround and a small vertical dent in the extreme right-rear corner of the car (on the rear, beside the edge of the bumper) and a bit of cracked and peeling plastic at the base of the windshield. Interior is tidy, the central vanity lamp is missing its casing but the bulb can be pushed back into the hole in the roof lining so that's a minor fault, seats are all in excellent condition bar a small tear on a corner of the backrest on the near-side (left) rear seat.

It's my first car and I'm very happy with it Public holiday in Canterbury this Friday so my first weekend with it is a long one, my hope at this stage is to go on a 4WD excursion with a couple of mates and put my cow (Mu, moo, cows go moo... I'm so funny) through its paces.

To the observant: it's not an MR2, no.

 

[Mike Rotch]

Nice one Sharky - definitely a better choice then the Daihatsu. It looks in ok condition on the surface, for its age and mileage.

I hope you have many happy miles in it (and fun parking it in tight spaces ).

 

[Cano]

The thing looks very well preserved! An interesting first car for sure.

 

[GDII]

Nice pick. Very tidy. Need all the ground clearance you can get with Christchurch roads being messed up. I haven't been down there yet but I hear they are pretty bumpy.

 

[Sharky.]

Nice one Sharky - definitely a better choice then the Daihatsu.

A Rocky was always a comedy option at its core, no matter how capable they may be as an offroader!

It looks in ok condition on the surface, for its age and mileage.

Sure does. I'm going to want to get the bonnet and roof resprayed at some point as the clearcoat is peeling, but seeing as I'm now almost broke that's going to be a very long way off. It's the good "almost broke" though, not the bad "almost broke"... at least until I have to pay my insurance, that's $500 :\

I hope you have many happy miles in it (and fun parking it in tight spaces ).

It's not actually too bad to park, seeing as it's not really any wider nor longer (thanks to being the 3-dr Mu and not the 5-dr Wizard) than a normal car

The thing looks very well preserved! An interesting first car for sure.

It has very recently been groomed/detailed which helps make it look good

Nice pick. Very tidy. Need all the ground clearance you can get with Christchurch roads being messed up. I haven't been down there yet but I hear they are pretty bumpy.

Naw, the roads aren't the mythical landmine testing facility people claim, the roads I drive on are the same as they've always been, even with the earthquakes

Might be (more like almost definitely) going on a road trip with a mate or two that looks something like this this long weekend, should be awesome

 

[David]

Neat little truck you've got there. Congrats!

My parents had an '88 Trooper 2 when I was a kid. I was always a bit sad that they didn't keep it until I was old enough to drive. I'll always have a soft spot for an old Isuzu!

 

[daan]

Looks good, for a Vauxhall. There's always something good about a truck, with big, chunky tyres, and white lettering.

Might be (more like almost definitely) going on a road trip with a mate or two that looks something like this this long weekend, should be awesome

Twizel! Brilliant name.

 

[Sharky.]

It's not a Vauxhall

Tyres with white sidewall lettering always look good!

 

[SVX]

Congrats man. Looks great! 👍

 

[Sharky.]

So I'm back from my long weekend with mates down at Twizel.

The good news: the truck coped amazingly well, even with three people (on Saturday, four) in it. Fuel economy is better than expected (11.7L/100km or 20mpg after a 52.7 litre fill at 450km, this included some light 4WDing. Current tank is at 580km and just above E, which should mean a bit over 20 litres left)

The bad news: there's a slow coolant leak somewhere, because on the way down to Twizel the temp gauge climbed to H and sat there unless we were on the open road doing the 100kmh speed limit and when we reached Twizel we had to put over 2.5 litres into the radiator to fill the system. Almost cooked it! With a freshly-topped cooling system and no airlock in it, it ran fine on Saturday which included a steep 70km 4WD track. Before we left for Christchurch this morning we topped it up with 600ml, but within 5km of the Christchurch outskirts the temp gauge again welt through the roof. Put two litres in the radiator (which was all the spare water we had in bottles in the truck, it probably would've taken ~2.2l) on the side of a main road near the airport, ten minutes from home. Hopefully it's just a leaky water pump and not a stuffed head gasket.

So far, it's been a somewhat mixed bag - coolant issues notwithstanding the truck is running amazingly well. Had zero troubles with the 4WDing I did in it, bashed the bumpstops a good handful of times and it took it like an absolute champ. But there's the leaky cooling system, which =

I did also discover that my aerial wasn't actually functioning as an aerial as the bottom of it was just a wooden stick taped to it... the aerial fell out when it clipped a bush, at which point we discovered the woodenness to it. Currently using a coathanger as an aerial. Windscreen washer pump was seized, before we left Christchurch on Friday morning my friend solved that problem, during this repair we also discovered that the washer reservoir has a leaky o-ring seal (we think), meaning my washer bottle empties itself if it has more than a certain amount (not much) of water in it.

Apart from that though, it's going great!

 

[JER_CREST]

Here in America those were marketed as the Isuzu Amigo.

 

[Mike Rotch]

If you plan on doing proper offroading, you probably want to get rid of the running boards; all its doing is limiting your ground clearance.

Hope the overheating is just due to a split pipe and not a leaky radiator 👍

 

[Sharky.]

Only planning on doing 4WD tracks and the occasional blat down the Waimakariri riverbed so the running boards shouldn't be a hindrance - even though I don't actually need them I do like the look they give the vehicle, as they fill in the space between the wheels quite nicely

Getting the water pump and cambelt done tonight, hopefully a new water pump fixes things!

 

[nealcropper]

Here in America those were marketed as the Isuzu Amigo.

Well here in the UK they are a vauxhall frontera.

 

[Sharky.]

Some pics from the weekend (low-quality direct from Facebook, but oh well):

Both around midday Friday, crossing a rather wide river on a rather not-wide "bridge"

Midday Friday, wondering why the temp gauge had gone through the roof... note the tyres now white with dust from a long gravel road

About to go for a photo shot driving on the Lake Ohau weir/siphon

Lake Ohau, the Isuzu and me

Around two-thirds of the way up the Black Forest 4WD road that overlooks Lake Benmore - the largest earth dam in NZ, second-largest hydro station in the country and one of the largest in the southern hemisphere(!). 540MW capacity, 2200GWh generated annually. Also in shot: friend's 1991 Terrano 2.7TD and his GF

At the summit! Driving up was frightening enough (I hate heights), driving down was just as bad as we then had the power of gravity. I did discover just how much engine braking my truck has in the process though... which was a lot. 4L + trans locked in first + no throttle and it would roll to a stop. Even on what must've been at least a 1:8 grade decline!

Friend's Terrano, my Isuzu. The one on the left is on its second engine, the one on the right is a bit leaky

From Wikipedia: the dam at Benmore. She's a biggun!

 

[GDII]

Here in New Zealand they are called Honda Jazz. Hold on, that can't be right....

Maybe this is the right one.

 

[Sharky.]

Badge engineering is a wondrous thing amirite

 

[GDII]

I'm not sure would owns Honda but GM sure are lazy/clever when it comes to selling the 'same' car in different countries under other names with slight body changes. I'm pretty sure the the MU is a genuine Isuzu product bought by GM.

 

[Terronium-12]

Even though we've already been over this, awesome. 👍

And, dat bridge. Where is it?

 

[Sharky.]

Not sure, will check and find out for you!

Okay. So I now know why the Isuzu nearly overheated, and where the problem is physically located, but I'm only 95% sure on what the actual cause is.

This is a 4JB1-T (more or less, my piping's different but the innards are in the same place):

This is where mine is leaking:

(underneath the drive belt, behind the fan - concealed by the belt in that example photo)

Head gasket is it not?

 

[Rotary Junkie]

Looks like the water pump gasket to me.

 

[Sharky.]

Separating the pump from the side of the engine? That would make sense I guess as the leak follows the contour of the water pump bracket, which a head gasket wouldn't do. I took the car to the guy I bought it from and he had a look at it with his mechanic who said it's a crack on the outside of the head gasket and not a water pump leak (which is what I thought initially, water pump leak), but thinking about where the water is physically seeping out and where the head gasket would be located would suggest it could be something to do with the water pump bracket.

I have no idea if the entire strip is leaking or if it's just coming out in one tiny hole and running across the top of the bracket - it doesn't lose any water when the engine's off and when it's on it only loses it slowly, so I guess it could just be leaking from a small crack in the water pump gasket and running down the engine, hitting something hot (headers?) and instantly evaporating. That line of brown is the only water/coolant I've seen and there's no water pooling underneath the engine. Will see if I can determine if water is running around the corner of the engine and down the side and if it is, if it's making contact with something hot.

 

[daan]

That is a cool, and slightly scary, bridge.

 

[Mike Rotch]

Sorry to hear about the leak Sharky, that's the risk you take on a high mileage used car, and it sounds to me the previous owner could have done more to disclose it before. Chalk it up to experience .

If I were you, I'd take it to a mechanic to get it properly diagnosed to know exactly what you are dealing with, and them make a decision from there.

 

[Sharky.]

Bought it through a private trader, no idea what he already knew and what he didn't know about the car. YMMV, caveat emptor etc... Will probably drop the thing off at a mechanic that's just around the corner from where I work on Monday and see what they come up with.

On a different note, I can afford my insurance now so that'll be getting paid after pay day next week

 

[Sharky.]

Fill up time! 76.11 litres of diesel, 707.6km and $114.85 (ouch!) of Kiwi green - 10.8L/100km or 21.8mpg. Not bad for a 20-year-old 2.8, and it's worth bearing in mind that tank included a 70km 4WD track (the one in the last few photos I posted).

Considering my commute to work is around 10km each direction, I could go almost two months between fills

 

[gt4rulez]

Nice 4wd you got there!

they were sold as Opel Frontera's over here. but i've never seen one looking as good as this one. Nice find!

Here's Opels version of it

Looks like they tried to wrap a Astra/Vectra front on it hehe

the old ones are actually quite rare, the later 5 door version was more popular here.

 

[Sharky.]

Excellent news! [/Farnsworth]

Paid my insurance tonight, feels good to get that done Next scheduled expenditure is registration in February.

 

[Sharky.]

Been seeing so many Mus around since I bought mine it's ridiculous! Even saw the badge-engineered Honda Jazz version at one point Still got nothing on the sheer amount of Hilux Surfs floating around though, I saw three on the road in the space of 30 seconds a couple of days ago - it seems that Christchurch sure does love its Surfs... and to think I considered buying one!

Anyway, an update on the car itself:
Still going strong as ever, although it has a knackered gasket somewhere around the water pump (I don't think it even is a gasket, just silicone sealant...) it's not actually losing any water at the moment as all I've used it for since my weekend down south is my commute to and from work, during which the engine doesn't come close to being worked hard enough to raise temps, which in turn means the water isn't hot nor under enough pressure to escape through the hole in that 'gasket'.

Fuel gauge is annoyingly inaccurate - sits at or near full for around 150km after a fill, then drops to half within 100km and reaches 1/4 around the 400km mark, hitting E with around 20 litres left in the tank and a further 150+km of range. Then again, mechanical fuel gauges usually do things like that.

Shopping for a new head unit now, while my current one works fine (almost), it falls over in a big way: I can't play my iPod through it I bought an FM transmitter to use the radio for my iPod, but it was a pile of, well, you know what, and all it was capable of transmitting was static with a little bit of music in the background. Absolutely worthless device. I tried opening it up to find a way to boost its signal strength by connecting a wire or something to it and using that as an extended aerial, but the only thing that happened is I broke it. Best $60 I ever spent! /sarcasm

Looking for something decent but cheap(ish) with aux in and optionally iPod-compatible USB input. Been recommended a Blaupunkt Cupertino 220 and Alpine units, but the main thing here is finding a retailer that sells them - as far as I can tell, I'd only be able to buy a Blaupunkt unit online and have it sent down from Auckland. Probably going to go take a gander at the selection in a computer/electrical specialist store tomorrow and see what tickles my fancy, as I have no idea about car audio I'm not terribly keen on buying something blind. Do you guys prefer front aux/USB (easy access, dangly cables) or rear (hides most of the cabling, but limits where you can place the connected device without prior planning)?

 

[TheBook]

I prefer front-mount aux stuff. You can usually tuck cables out of your way well enough for it to not be a problem, and you don't have to start cutting up your interior to feed wires through. Just my two cents.