Retired my '89 Trooper at 239,000 miles and purchased a '98 Rodeo. It seems to have a problem with the fuel gauge and possibly the tank or fill tube, and I wondered if it is a common problem with Rodeo's or indicative of a possible collision problem. While the fuel gauge seems to be quite erratic, I have been unable to get more than 10 gallons of gas in the 21 gallon tank. The tank will overflow even if I wait for a while and try to continue to fill. The gas gauge then reads FULL, but swings back and forth and all over the place. I track the mileage with the trip odometer and sure enough, about when I should run out of gas the gas light comes on. Gauge is now bouncing around between a 1/4 to 1/2 tank and dead empty. It's almost as if the gas fill tube is blocked somehow, and the fuel sensor has just gone haywire. Used to figuring mileage with the Trooper because the gas sensor had rusted out, so I don't mind the gauge being erratic as much as not being able to fill the tank. Any ideas?

 

Mine does the same thing. It is a 98 Rodeo. The only difference is i drive about 340 miles and am able to refill using about 16 gal. or more. I figure i am getting about 24 miles per gal. in a v6 engine. The first time i filled the tank it spilled on the ground. I still fill it to the top but it doesn't spill over. I figured if i ran it dry i could get 390 miles on a tank.

How many miles are u going before have to only be able to put in only 10 gal.? It took me weeks to get use to it and i find myself going days with out refilling and having to pull into a station just to make sure if i don't reset the trip gauge. I love my Rodeo though.

 

Finally ignored the fuel gauge, put a 2 gallon gas can in back, and am trying to run it until empty. Have put 278 miles on the truck since I put the last 8 gallons in, and the fuel gauge has read empty for three days. Getting great gas mileage out of that 8 gallons though! Worried about burning out the "low gas" light indicator on the dash! My thoughts: love the truck, who cares if the gas gauge doesn't work real well.

 

So where is your mileage now, or did u refuel because of the prices of gas going up.

 

Finally ran out of gas at 418 miles. Filled back up with 20.5 gallons at close enough to 20 mpg to call it even. That's pretty good mileage where I drive, the way I drive. The gauge read full right away, dropped to 1/2 tank, then went back up to 3/4 all in the first 50 miles of fill-up. Question is whether it's going to bother me enough to get it fixed. My guess is it's a fairly expensive fix involving pulling the tank. I've heard some folks say you might as well replace the fuel pump while your in there also. It's going to have to bother me more than it does to motivate me to spend the $'s on it.

 

Mind does the same thing, I don't think it is worth the money to fix and yes u have to pull the tank. I just refill after driving 100 - 300 miles and found that way i don't have to worry about when i will run out. I drive a lot of miles so i have to refill at least twice a week. What brand, weight and type of motor oil do u use? synthetic vs conventional. I blend my own at 60% synthetic. where i live it can get over 105 degrees during the day.

 

Just purchased the truck, so not even to my first oil change. The old Trooper 2.8L preffered Valvoline though. Odd, but I could tell the difference if I changed the oil with something else.

 

Same for me, but it is different depending on the car i have. My small car only takes 3.3 qt of motor oil, so I always use $8 a qt motor oil. My chevy takes 7 quarts but doesn't run much better with expensive oil so don't find it is worth the expense.

My small car does run better with the Royal Purple, but now that it is $9 a qt i don't use it in the isuzu. I have been using moble 1 5000 in it. I never used it before in my other cars before but it seems to run well. The last oil change i added three qts Lucas synthic too the moble 1 and it does seem to run just as good. I hope to get better performance from it. Over all the Isuzu is one of the best running engines i have ever enjoyed driving.

The Lucas was on sell. and motor oil is almost never on sell. I was using 5w 30 but switch to 10w 30 because of my mileage [197,000] It runs great but not really different for the 5w I will update later,I only have 500 mile on the 10w. I was wondering if anyone uses the 15w 40?

 

Our 2001 had the bouncing gage as well. Changed the fuel pump/sending unit and that took care of it. Less than $250 from Napa for the part. About a 3 hour job for a friend and I, but we took lots of breaks and changed some other parts while we were doing this. It wasn't too difficult, just took lots of penetrating oil on the bolts.

 

133k
just picked up this unit here in colorado for my 17 yr old son after looking at about 10 of them . this one is loaded with leather, sunroof, good tunes, ski rack, new windshield etc. and some new fancy fusion treads. no leaks for my driveway, which sold me, and in really good shape. the gas gauge does the same thing and two of the windows work independantly but not from the main window console. (saw 3 that did the same thing). I was also wondering if the properly working isuzu engine sounds a hair ticky, more of a fuel injection sound? got a fair price of $3400 ; not great but my son loved it.
also read that mixing oil weights reduces consuption in these oil buring engines? any truth to this?

thanks!