I have a '96 Isuzu Trooper w/3.2 V6. Bought w/107K and now has 127K on the clock. Maint unknown but there is hardened crud on the under side of the oil cap and some also visible at the neck. It has the well known "Isuzu tick", which on this Trooper has always come and gone. It may be a faint tick that goes away once it warms up - to a louder tick as the weather gets colder or seemingly, when it's time to change the oil again. I have run conventional 10w-30 dino, dino w/Rislone and Mobil 1 High Mileage 5w-30. The Mobil 1 efforts have been to try and clean the varnish that is mentioned in the TSB regarding the ticking.
In late December the ticking grew louder indicating the oil needed changing. I decided this time to go with the prescribed 0w-30 in the TSB to try and rid the ticking. About the same time I began reading about Auto-RX and emailed Frank about running Auto-RX with the Mobil 1 that I had just tossed in. He said it would be OK. I had maybe 100 miles on the fresh Mobil 1 when I tossed in a bottle of RX. During the cleaning cycle the ticking never went away. It still varied from faint to loud. Granted, it was during winter and running in 0 deg weather probably isn't the best. Drives are daily of usually 15 mi each way. A few long hauls tossed in. I changed filters mid-way of the 2,500 mi cleaning cycle.
I am now 700 miles into the rinse phase - Valvoline conventional 10w-30 and a Walmart ST filter. Clean PCV tube and new valve. Nothing to report change wise. The tick is constant, fuel mileage has been hard to guage due to the cold temps. We're getting more in the 50s now so that may help. But overall, no change that I can make note of. I was hoping that at least the ticking would go away temporarily as it has done in the past. I'm still optimistic that RX will rid the tick eventually. I do plan on running a 2nd cycle. This will happen during warm weather and maybe RX will be able to work its magic.
The problem I see here is that you bought a car with 107K on it so you do not know its maintenance history, you definetly need to do another cycle and your ticking will probably go away, have you cut open your oil filters, remember Auto-Rx works if you work it meaning these things take time, I did 2 cycles and can honestly say that the engine is running at its best into the 2nd Maintenance Dose. Also can you pop off your valve covers too see how things look, when I did the Auto-Rx thing I took the car out every night for a sustained 50 mile run, no stop and go stuff.
No, I didn't save or cut open any oil filters. I did just check the oil and it's still relatively clean. Definately did not go black like for some other folks. Still along way to go in the rinse phase. I do plan on running another cycle after this rinse phase is done. I really think running the next phase during warm weather will help RX get into more nooks and crannies.
I'm not a gear head but when I look in the Trooper's engine compartment, I don't see a "traditional" valve cover to pop off and take a look underneath.
Rinse phase complete. No preceptible changes, the ticking is still there, faint to loud depending on what I don't know. Mileage may be a bit better but that probably has more to do with the temperatures being above 50 rather than near zero.
I let the oil drain out until no more drips. A Walmart ST filter, bottle of Auto-RX and the appropriate amount of conventional Valvoline 10w-30 to bring the dipstick to the FULL mark. I am hopeful that this 2nd cleaning phase will do the trick. Instead of below freezing temps we're now in the summer months so maybe the flow/cleaning will be that much better.
You won,t see any results until you complete application and have finshed second cleaning & rinse. When your done and are running with host oil .Please post
First bottle of Auto-Rx has cleaned a high percentage of dirt-contaminants first rinse will drive these now liquified contamiants into the filter, however you have used up all the cleaning power in 1 bottle to get to this point. Your second bottle will finish the job.
