frontera 2002

There's a lot that can be done to these vehicles to improve them off road.

Take a squiz at this site Outer Limits Isuzu it has heaps of Isuzu tech info.

They are quite good offroad standard but a lift will help. Not much of a rock hopper though but a few mods will get them most places easily enough. Extremely reliable too.

Look out for Willem though............he'll be jealous of your Isuzu ;-)

Shouldnt you have found out how well they tow before buying?

WHat are you planning on towing?

Peters Frontiera in Melbourne, is a nice unit too....

i am planning on towing 1 1.6 ton fiberglass boat it says that they can tow 2 ton but was just wondering how they go andlike i said in my post i was pressured into it before i had this frontera i had a 2002 ss comodore and that towed great but due to moving to tasmania and the road conditions and so on my partner wanted to get rid of it and this frontera was there that she wanted. i would like to find out as much info on them as possible and what better way than asking people that have one.
thanks
jason

Jason,

Our wife's must be related lol. Bought mine because the wife wanted a compact 4by.

We have no problems towing our boat at all (15ft). Off road use has been limited to sand, it tends to plough the mid mounted fuel tank when going over dunes but overall does what I require it to do.

Don't foresee taking it hardcore off road as we never bought it for that purpose.

Not planning any major modifications except for fitting a rear mount petrol tank to increase the clearance.

The only other problem I find is the cargo area is a bit short and am finding that when going away for a couple of days we need to lay the back seat down. (may invest in a roof carry box)

Overall heaps of highway power although the cruise gets the auto searching for gears occasionally.

If you haven't already found it look under the passenger front seat for the CD stacker.

Overall no major gripes as they make a prety decent town car as well. Make sure you put floor mats in as the carpet is poor quality and scuffs pretty quickly.

cheers and enjoy,

rengatt

Thankyou for your replys i am learning from all of the information i am getting so far i have not had any prob and it seems like a good car just itching to get towing and offroad with it to see how it handles.

howdy fello frontera'er
as said above.. you'll notice the passengeer side slung fuel tank poses ground clearance problems.. to get over this you can... 1 wind up your front torsoin bars and get larger springs and shocks fitted to the rear . . .. and/or 2, get a rear mounted long-range fuel tank. - go see your local 4wd shop and talk over some options... also check 4wd retailers on the internet.. tjm...arb etc etc etc.. heaps available on the www...
i take mine on the beach fairly regularly and also off road too (but no rock-hopping!) .. no problems at all...
if your going to be towing a boat.. and don't want any signs of 'sagging' on the rear end... maybe investigate a set of airbags to fit inside the back springs.. try www.trucksprings.com. they are american.. but other on here will vouch for their service (psssstt... and their cheaper than the aussy ones too)

in regards to 'making the car better' > that's entirely up to you.... asking that question on here is like opening a can of worms... (although truckster will always find something negative to say) LOL!

Jason, I have the 2000 mod and have clocked up over 50,000 km now on the rough stuff. We did a 3 inch lift to the rear & 2.5 inch to the front and have not bottomed out since.
We tow 980 Kg camper trailer and apart from very steep hills you would not know it was there (apart from the increase in fuel use). Enjoy the Fronteria & Tas.
Vince

I have a 2002 Frontera and have towed a Camp-o-matic camper trailer on and off road. I would say the trailer weighed about 1100 kgs loaded. No problems except:-
(1) Fuel consumption - 20lts per 100 kms
(2) Tow hitch is too low to tow a camper trailer level. If I picked the hieght of the tow hitch up to level the trailer I would have to take the spare wheel off and put it on the roof. ( Even though the rear of my Frontera was raised 70mm with TLM series 2000 suspension.) The tow has to be level as I found the trailer tended to push the back down on heavy breaking. This could be a major problem in the wet with stearing.

I also pull a tractor on a trailer occasionally between two properties and the Frontera pulls well and I would say it's on its max 2 tonnes.

Frontera is a nice vehicle but heavy on the juice.

Have fitted extra 75 lt petrol tank and that helps on long or thirsty trips.

My wife has a frontera'02 model and she loves it. It is only used on road as when we go camping or 4wd we always take my 80 series. My wife loves the fact that it came with all the extras like cruise and electric everything standard. She gets around 13.5 to 14 liters per hundred k's. Does anyone know if you can put manual locking front hubs on it? As I think this will help in fuel consumption.

Jason,

I agree with what everyone else has told you.

They are a great car and super reliable.

Two Main Problem Areas:

One:
The car in standard format sits a bit low. We gave ours a full lift kit and it is great now and gets us everywhere so far at least. We installed new shocks, rear springs, wound up the front torsion bars and got a wheel alignment when finished. We live in Brisbane and regularly do Rainbow Beach and Fraser Island and the car goes well.

Two:

Fuel tank is poorly positioned. The fuel tank was mounted forward of the rear axle as the vehicle was and still is sold (called Rodeo there) in the USA and their vehicle collision rules at the time did not allow tanks behind the rear axles. I haven't done this modification yet but an aftermarket tank to replace the existing one is the answer and there is plenty of room behind the rear axle. Click the following link and you will see it as the ISUZU Rodeo CLICK HERE

We tow our camp trailer although we don't come in as heavy as your boat but we certainly don't have any problems. The 3.2 litre V6 develops plenty of power.

As you can see there are a few of us on this forum with Fronteras so drop us a line if you need any more info.

Cheers

Brian

Jason,

The link I put in is a dud thanks to my ordinary typing skills so here goes again.

CLICK HERE

Hey all,
just reading the post and realise the horse has bolted but thought i'd drop a line and see what response....
I've got a new (second hand) 2002SE frontera. So far only mods I've made have being largely cosmetic with side steps (Kingsly steps - necessary to keep the sticks and stones off however), driving lights (IPF 100 watters) and a TJM nudge bar to mount the lights on and to give a small amount of frontal protection.

I've used it for towing a bit - mainly trailer with about 750kg in it. Tows like u don't know its there and I also use the Power button to stop the hunting of the auto when towing.

I've had a few minor dramas....
1.There is a 'knock' coming from the rear of the car when driven at less that walking pace. Most notable when in 4wd low crawling up a hill off the throttle. I thought it was stuffed so took it to the dealer who also thought it was stuffed and 'fixed' it under warentee. Their fix was to change the transfer case over. Once doing this they found it still does it! So they rang holden who said 'thats normal and blah blah blah has something to do with the 4wd sensor system'. It doesn't worry me really but feels a bit crude.

2. The paint on the bonnet and the roof cracked and crows footed. Holden resprayed under warentee but only bonnet and roof. The side pannels haven't cracked yet and as its now out of warentee i'm hoping they don't.

3. All loaded up and ready to go and it decides to startbleepoil out of the auto transmission. Aparently a seal on a solenoid switch on the trany let go - another warentee job.

4. Windscreen seal let go - warentee again

5. Wheel alignment can't get quite right - im not too stressed as when these crap original tyres wear out i'll put something better on and get it fixed by someone who i trust and know is really good with 4wd's later on.

6. Ignition barrel is jamed. Holden have no 'outlook' on the part that is required - again a warentee job - so not sure when it will be fixed. It still turns so not totally jamed but anoying.

Thats about it and surprisingly i love the car.

I've used it off road a bit - mainly at the farm in slippery conditions and have discovered that the TOD works well as does the Low Range. Shame it doesn't have a mechanisim to stop it running away down hill in Low - or at least slow it down so u didn't have to ride the brake but still its pretty good.

I hate the ground clearance. So heres the request who in MELBOURNE can I take it too to get it raised about 3 inches? Don't want to loose road manners as my wife drives it more than me on the black stuff and i'd like to keep it nice for her - its kind of her car but my toy!

cheers

stu