My brother in law bought a 2004 Rodeo with the 3.5 liter direct inject with less than 40k miles on the car. He now has 54k miles when my sister in law said the check engine light came on.

To make a long story short, the cam shaft on the drivers side broke. He took it to a dealer hear in town, the dealer looked at it and said he would contact Isuzu for a new engine. The dealer also said it was the second "white" 04 DI Rodeo to come in the past two months with a broken cam shaft, drivers side. The previous Rodeo was also in the 50k mile range.

Just thought it was strange, two with about the same mileage snapping a cam.

Would hate to think how much it would cost if it were not still under the 60k mile mechanical warranty.

Anyone else heard of this problem?

First I've heard of it. I'd think the white was more of a coincidence.

I've got 11k now, it's going to be a long time before I hit that problem. I'll be out of the 10 year part of the wrrantee at this rate (I bought an extre 3 years, iirc, b/c it was a new engine)

My 3.5DI Axiom is red, so, hopefully, this problem is not applicable to my vehicle <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Although, I have something to complain about the engine. First, the gas mileage is barely better than ordinary 3.2 engine, just a tad better, contrary to the advertising. Second, the low end torque seems like to be even lower than the torque of the 3.2 engine.

But the freeway power is excellent, and it works great on 87 gas (my older 3.2 wanted 91 gas for no-pinging operation). And my 3.5DI Axiom engine consumes noticably less oil than my 2002 Rodeo 3.2 consumed.

I have 10K miles on it, and I use it only for the weekends, so I suppose that by 54K miles I'll be able to afford the engine rebuild <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

I reported a ticking, tapping, noise on startup. At 1 year, and 15000 miles, I took it in, becasue it was bad enought for me to think it was damaging. I hit 2 years and 30000 this week, and it's worse then ever. We're taking it into the shop for the same problem. Last time they claimed it was carbon buildup, causing pinging. I had to raise a red flag cause I couldn't understand how a DI engine could have fuel in the intake manifold, as the service manager stated.

You know... it could easily be in the valve train. They have veriable valves as I recall. I wonder if I'm due for a new engine soon.

I can't believe I'm the only one with this issue.

mine has no problems, so far. Only 10K miles.

I drove a 3.5 DI rodeo back in 2004 and I couldn't tell much diffrence over the dohc 3.2 but at least you don't get the 4l30e with the 3.5.

I was thinking maybe the "White" Rodeos were all close to the same production date.

The dealer called. They are doing nothing for my engine.

The Short version is that the 3.5L DI is designed to put oil from teh crankcase (throuh the emissions system) in the intake maniflold. This causes 'carbon build-up' that is not covered under warrentee.

THing is, it's a known issue, I'm told. Although, cleaning out carbon, or a procedure for cleaning carbon, is not mentioned anywhere in the Isuzu manual under preventitive maintinance.

I need to call Isuzu engineering. They need to tell me something I don't already know.

Questions:
- Exactly, what is causing the carbon build-up?
- How does one prevent it from happening?

Sounds like a miss-functioning system designed to burn oily crank case vapors.


What a pain. I'm the only one on this forum wtih this problem, and yet it's a common issue? I'd think that someone else here would know. It could be something as simple as my choise of oil.

This is the bad news, if this is true. But it sounds so weird that I doubt that it is true.

The only way you can get the oil from the crankcase is through the vapors. I must say that ANY modern engine takes the oil vapors from the crankcase into the intake, through the PCV system. Why 3.5DI is different ?

What would be definitely helpful is to use the oils with the least vaporisation. I am using Mobil1 0W-40 europian formula (advised by rubo <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> ) and I am fine by now, but I have only 10K miles on my Axiom.

Fair question.

Look at it this way - Other then the air we breath, and moisture caused by the Venuri and J.T. affect, what's there? Oil vapors, that would normally get flushed away by fuel, could stay becasue it's a 'dry' intake manifold. It's the oil vapors that can the build-up, on the other side of the throttle butterfly.

It appears that under some driving conditions, carbon and oil stuff build-up during hiway driving. I'm told that city driving is best for the DI carbon issue.

That's their story, and they are sticking to it.