1998 Isuzu Rodeo: $350 of Japanese Greatness

Yep, I bought another dirt cheap car on Craigslist. Just picked it up last night, and I'm not sure what to do with it. But, hey, I figured you all would want to follow along.

The good:

1998 Isuzu Rodeo
190-horspower 3.2 liter V6
5-speed manual
four-wheel-drive with low range
ice-cold A/C
clean title
fresh tires absolutely no rust at all (Florida is awesome)

And... drumroll please... $350 purchase price!!!!!!!!

The bad:

Has a misfire
Leaky valve cover gaskets
One of the alternator mounting bolts is missing
Somebody removed the front axles (probably trying to get better mileage or avoid replacing CV joints, as the rest of the 4x4 stuff is still there)
Front speakers are missing, but the trim to put different ones back in is in the trunk
Paint is faded

Long story short: I had cash, I showed him what was wrong, and I removed it from his life two minutes after money changed hands.

Love the wrinkly tint and badge delete. How much does this have in common to the beast in your avatar? That is an Isuzu too, right?

Yeah, it's a real creampuff. But, hey, it made the two-hour-long drive home with ease, so I'm not complaining.

It shares many of the same design ideas/principles as the Trooper in my avatar, but very little actually swaps over. A few examples: the tie rods are identical, but longer. The torsion bars are identical, but longer. The transmission is identical, but has a different bell housing. The seats have the same feel and are made of the same fabric, but they're a different bolt pattern.

The only major departure from isuzu-isms is the rear axle, which is a Dana 44 IIRC.

Bonus points if you re-badge it with Honda Passport parts from the junkyard!

Great find. Let me know when you want to go ahead and spend the time and money to make it great and then immediately sell it at a huge loss. I'm in Central Florida. : )

I'd imagine there's something up with the front diff or transfer case since the axles are missing. Either way it's a good find. Hopefully the miss isn't anything major.

Hard to go wrong for that price. I loved my 91 but it doesnt have alot in common with that style.

Spoolpigeon wrote: I'd imagine there's something up with the front diff or transfer case since the axles are missing. Either way it's a good find. Hopefully the miss isn't anything major.

Yeah, that's what I'm afraid of. But it's a really simple system–one vacuum coupling on the front axle that I can hear lock and unlock when the 4WD is pushed, and a traditional high-low lever operated transfer case feeding it. The front differentials really aren't known for going bad, so I'm hopeful.

Plus, it's Florida. The average person will never, ever need 4WD. I think it ate a CV joint (no locking and unlocking hubs by '98), and the guy was too cheap to replace the axles.

My Wife had a rodeo sport is high school. Fun little car.

for $350 you can't go wrong...

Fun fact: The Rodeo Sport is actually not a Rodeo. Instead, it's an Isuzu Amigo. They didn't sell well, so Isuzu figured giving it the same name as the popular Rodeo would convince people to buy.

Tom Suddard wrote: Fun fact: The Rodeo Sport is actually not a Rodeo. Instead, it's an Isuzu Amigo. They didn't sell well, so Isuzu figured giving it the same name as the popular Rodeo would convince people to buy.

It's true, but the last gen, shared lots of body pieces. It was still fun....SWB made it go around in a hurry!

And suddenly the lab rat misses his Montero.

I say make it a "who cares it was $350" expedition machine. Complete with surprisingly well executed bad ideas all while keeping it under challenge budget. Of course documenting every step here.

At $350 you gotta. It's the straightest $350 vehicle in existence in the entire universe. Even if you throw two grand at it, it's still a deal and a half. Since you are now a spokesman for an entire generation of impressionable young adults all over the world, make it whole first before you go all millennial on it.

My first vehicle was a 99. Loved that thing. And its still serving my brother well with 175k miles on the clock.

Search Isuzu rodeo jump on youtube for inspiration, install 4 harness bar and harness, mount about 6 gopros and put on helmet.

That might be the cleanest $350 car I've ever seen. I feel like it should go out front of the Smithsonian with the new "Actual Deals On Craigslist" exhibit.

How's the burnout quality?

Make it run and drive nice, then sell it to me to road trip back up the east coast at the end of December?

Nice find!

Wow, that's really nice. How many miles on it?

I had a '99 Amigo, V6 5-speed, mechanically identical, truly great 4X4. Tough and trouble free, almost. Had to have the ABS reflashed (recall - too sensitive at first), had to change spark plugs at 100K (!), would go anywhere I wanted to take it - other than that, change oil regularly, timing belt at 75K. Also stupid easy to lift. I bought a set of Old Man Emu shocks (excellent), a pair of rear springs from Valley Spring Works in California (specified year and make of vehicle and how much lift), reset the front torsion bars, 2" lift in less than a day, working slowly and carefully. Dana 44, limited slip, great motor, regular 23 mpg highway, 20 overall. These are really great SUVs.

Well, I went to the junkyard yesterday and got all of the alternator mounting bolts, and a new driver's side inner door handle—the seller had torn the last one out in a fit of carelessness.

Turns out something like 10 bolts hold the alternator/tensioner/bracket onto the side of the block, and this thing had been driving around on... 1!!! Yes, one half-installed bolt held the whole assembly on. No wonder the pulleys were at an odd angle!

The last guy managed to break one bolt off in the block, and strip one other, but I put it all back together with locktite, and it's good as new. To celebrate, I picked some stuff at world headquarters:

Now that it wasn't slowly destroying the belt, I started diagnosing the misfire. ECU gave code P0300, which translates to "holy crap there are misfires everywhere!"

I pulled the coil packs off, and figured out why: the valve cover gaskets leak so much, they filled the spark plug holes with oil and shorted the spark from the coil. Cleaning the oil out helped, but I probably need to change the gaskets and replace a few coils.

Borked image links in your last post. Cool project.

All fixed (I think).

Images are there now. Joe Gibbs Driven branded brake cleaner is out there now? Seems a little shark jumpy to me...

Update: I haven't touched it!

It turns out I needed a shed more than I needed another 4x4, so I parked the Rodeo out back and filled it with crap.

Am I proud of this? No. But it is effective, and I don't think I could buy a shed this big for $350.

The plan is to sell this off in January, as I need to focus my attention on the MR2 and building my V8 M3.