Isuzu Reviews

Air-conditioning relies on fans as well as the actual refrigeration system to move the chilled air around the cabin. If the fan isn’t working, that won’t happen. So a check of the fan in question would be a good place to start. Perhaps there’s a wiring fault, maybe the fan is intermittently failing to kick in.

There’s another possibility, too, and it’s more common than you might think. Some air-con systems tend to build up ice inside the system’s plumbing. If that happens, you’ll suddenly get no air-con and possibly even zero airflow through he vents as the ice blocks the trunking completely. The solution is to turn the system off at that point, allow everything to thaw and then turn it back on. Try that process next time the vents fail to see if that fixes it (temporarily).

Rule of thumb says the correct on-road pressure is somewhere between 30 and 40psi for tyres like these. But since you’re losing traction regardless of inflation pressure, who knows. Clearly something else is going on here. Just for starters, the MU-X is fitted with both traction control and stability control which should rule out losing traction in the first place. Are these systems working? If not, you’re technically driving an unroadworthy vehicle.

How old are the tyres? Were they fitted to your previous vehicle and swapped over to the new one? Tyres have a finite lifespan beyond which the rubber compound starts to degrade and the tyres lose grip. That’s something to check. Perhaps the rubber has been contaminated by something like oil or grease. Has the vehicle ever been parked in a pool of oil or diesel? It sounds pretty daft, but is the fuel tank or filler neck allowing diesel to leak on to the tyres or flick up on to them as you drive?

You also need to be aware that as an off-road tyre, on-road grip will never be as good as a tyre designed to work mainly on bitumen. The tread pattern and compound are both compromises in the interests of going off-road, so you can’t expect passenger-car tyre grip from a tyre like this one on a vehicle like your Isuzu.

This make and model of tyre seems to be pretty well received among users, although some have mentioned a lack of wet bitumen grip as something to keep in mind. Don’t forget, either, that in really wet or greasy conditions, you can safely switch to high-range four-wheel-drive to prevent wheelspin and improve your safety margin.

What you’re experiencing is the front and rear axles fighting each other. Us old-timers call it axle wind-up and, as the name suggests, it’s what happens when the various wheels need to turn at different speeds, but can’t.

When you’re in 4H, you’re effectively driving the front and rear axles at precisely the same speed. Logic says this shouldn’t matter, but, depending on what lumps and bumps they’re covering at the time, there are times when the front and rear wheels need to travel at slightly different speeds. Throw in full steering lock, and you’ve just made things very difficult for the driveline with all sorts of competing forces being fed around the various tyres, axles and driveshafts.

This is far from limited to the Isuzu, and many four-wheel-drives without a centre differential (such as your D-Max) when driven at full lock in 4H will exhibit the same shunting and apparent loss of power. The power loss, meanwhile, is simply those front and rear tyres fighting each other; nothing to do with the engine at all.

When you shift back to two-wheel-drive (2H) the front and rear axles are suddenly free to turn at different speeds, and the sensation goes away. This whole situation is why you can’t use 4H on dry bitumen in a four-wheel-drive vehicle without a centre differential. Meantime, there’s no fix for it other than learning when and when not to engage 4H.