Am I buying Patrol trouble?

[Sea-Dog]

I am trying to buy my first 4WD. I have a small budget and have found something that appears to fit the bill.

It is a '90 Nissan Patrol Wagon GQ DX Diesel Manual. 387,000 Km

She has had King springs fitted all round for a lift of 50mm

Wheels are 5 spoke mags fitted with BFG R10 x 15 Desert Duellers. These stick out about 50mm past the edges of the guards. It doesn't have the rubber strips fitted to the guards that I thought were original equipment.

She has been used as a daily commuter of approx 100Km round trip and weekend trips towing the boat. Almost no 4WDing. He's never taken it to the beach, but it has seen a lot of boat ramps.

I have had a bit of a crawl around underneath and spotted a few things and would like the opinions of those with experience.

I have no experience whatsoever in 4WDs and have spent quite a few hours here looking for info.

Most folks seem to say that the running gear on the patrols is as tough as nails.
They are slow and a bit "agricultural" when compared with a landcruiser.

I noticed a bit of a noise coming from the gearbox area when idling in neutral. Just a bit of a rumble/rattle. The noise disappears when the clutch pedal is pressed half-way down or more.

The current owner has had the patrol for about 6 years and says that the noise has always been there. So do I just put that down to the agricultural nature of the patrol, or is there a potentially expensive problem just waiting for me to hand over my $$$ before exploding into a million bits of gearbox?

One thing was pointed out to me was the rusty condition of the rear diff housing. Apparently he used to back the boat trailer in so far, that he got the diff well and truly wet. This has resulted in very rusty diff housing, brake drums and bottom of fuel tank.

I lifted the vinyl floor mat just near the back door and noticed some slight rust stains on the paint - no bubbling, just on the surface.

The only other spots where rust was apparent were on the seat support brackets (surface rust), a fingernail sized bubble of rust under the front end of the drivers side door sill, and a similarly sized patch of rust underneath the rear end of the roof guttering.

There is some oil weeping from the rear of the transfer case - only a little, but enough for the oil to travel about 200mm around the case. The bottom of the sump was almost leak free. Just one tiny weep.

Other parts that looked fairly grotty with oil were at the steering knuckle thinggies. (The big ball joints on the ends of the front diff that allow you to steer - I don't know what they're called) Well, those were pretty grotty with oil leakage)

The patrol comes with 5 Mag wheel rims and 5 Sunraysia rims all with roadworthy tyres.

The body is fair, spoiled by driver's door having a long,shallow dent from a reversing truck and the right side of the rear door has been pushed in a bit by his boat when his trailer popped off the towball under brakes and the bow of the boat hit the spare tyre, which dented the door.

He is asking $8,300 for her with a roadworthy and is reasonably negotiable. The owner works with my wife, so I don't think he would sell us something he knew was a piece of junk.

Redbook shows National average price - private sale* $6,200 - $8,400

Any opinions about whether to take it or leave it.

Cheers, Ross

[Lucky_Phill]

The noise in the gearbox could be the throw-out bearing.

When buying these things, go with your gut feeling about the seller, ie:- do you get the feeling he is telling you the truth ?

Then , take it for a drive and see if you " bond " with it. You'll know the feeling.

Buying second hand 4 x 4's is probably a lottery. But with your budget, you should be able to find a suitable first time 4 x 4, and this does sound OK to me.

Better off taking notice of a Patrol owner or two here.

Good luck and welcome to the 4 x 4 club

Phill

[MY-TopEnder]

Going by the conditions you have described to me you're basically looking at the higher end of the scale for a GQ of that condition.

A mate of mine picked himself up a Wagon with ARB Bullbar, good tyres, and about the same condition really for $6000... They can be had for around that money.

For a diesel that was cheap though... i'd say around $7k would be where you'd want to be for it.

It also comes down to what you want to do with it... if you're buying it to put another 100,000km's on then don't expect to do it maintenance free, but if its a second car that you look to eventually modify once the bug bites then its probably a pretty good deal.

A rusty diff housing wouldn't really worry me too much... so long as it has been maintained inside, thats all that matters.

If the seat support brackets are rusty, i'd be replacing them... best if you know someone or can weld yourself. I don't know of a GQ of that age that hasn't had the seat rails repaired...

The snotty condition of the transfer.... thats an odd one. I wouldn't be overly worried about it. If you can take it for a test drive, make sure you get it on a loose surface (gravel car park?) and engage low range and go between hi 4, and so on... just listen for anything suspect in the changes and when driving.

The CV's being snotty is also a fairly minor thing if you get them checked out... If you do buy it, take it for a run down to Petron Automotive at Hillcrest, speak to Ron or Brendan and tell them Rob sent you. They're a driveline specialist who know their Patrols inside out.

With regard to the body... good luck finding a straight one these days... they've all had some love taps and kisses with tree's and so on over their time. Especially a DX which has probably started its life as a government or farm hack. Unless its bare metal scratches that are exposed and look a bit ugly, i wouldn't bother fixing them. They'll only come back after some rough treatment in the bush anyway.

Phill makes a good point about the gearbox noise too... its most likely a throwout bearing... for some reason all Patrols have this noise in the box. Even Ron's (as mentioned above) 03 GU has a noise in the box and they've had it out doing the clutch and crawler gear install.

Anyway best of luck with it. Hope to see you out on the tracks some time.

[Benny01]

man it sounds like its had a hard life. its not road worthy for a start if the wheels stick out past the guards, and the seat brackets are particularly rusty. with 387,000km on the clock you will be up for a lot of $$ in maintenance and reapairs

[bastard]

They are a great car but that is top dollar,if in doubt those racq inspections are pretty good.

[finga]

man it sounds like its had a hard life. its not road worthy for a start if the wheels stick out past the guards, and the seat brackets are particularly rusty. with 387,000km on the clock you will be up for a lot of $$ in maintenance and reapairs

Well said matey.
You really have to question how ridgy didge the roadworthy is when these two obvious items passed.

If your really keen get a roadworthy done by a bloke of your choice and see what pops up.
It would be good haggling material then with all the defects duly noted.

[Roughasguts]

Theres a guy at work getting rid of his NH turbo Paj GSL re-con ditioned motor and turbo. When he bought his new Tojo they offered him 2K for it so he kept it, but will take 4K. So look around theres cheap good stuff out there.

[FNQCairns]

They are probably the simplest car to keep together and running due to their overbuilt mechanicals, but the body is where it's at, if you buy one with a crap body/chassis then it's a time bomb. Be careful an engine rebuild can go to $6k which is cheap by todays standards but still it's a fair slug on top of what is a cheap car.

Of all the cars on our road the GQ with the td4.2 engine is the only one I would not balk at such high KM, lower is always better of coarse, the drive train if treated OK is good for 700K km on these cars and the engine can reach 1M+ from reports, that engine is also used in trucks around world, is very basic and cheap to own, a person can buy a full set reco injectors for half the cost of a single injector in some others and the pump can cost near 1/5 of others to have running again. Those cars are a smart choice to own for a fair while, very cost effective but just make sure the previous owner has not already got all of this effective benefit first

IMO You need a compression test and an overall pre purchase check done.

cheers fnq

[Roo]

price is too high for mine. you'd go close to parking yourself in a early DX '80 series cruiser for that money surely. The GQ certainly is built like a truck tho' and if it is all in mechanically good condition it will go on for years, but it's no cruiser to drive....chalk and cheese. My old's have a 92 GQ DX and it continues to go on and on after a five year lap of the country towing a 22ft van. i had a 91 80' series DX and after driving both for quite a few kilometres......I wouldn't hesitate to get another Cruiser over a Patrol, particularly if it is to be driven daily.

cheers Roo.

EDIT: I should Mention that the general running costs, oil filters and spare parts are generally heaps cheaper. oil flter for example was (a few yrs back) $54 genuine or $33 non genuine(but made by the same company) for the toyota yet the patrol uses 2 filters and they're the same as your garden variety old holden or falcon and Ryco had them in a 4 pack for about $20.

[Sea-Dog]

Hi folks, thanks for the replies.

I did go out for a spin in the patrol. On the highway she performed quite nicely, with no unusual noises or vibrations that I could find.

Motor was reasonably quiet and steady. No blow-by of rings was evident when oil filler cap was removed. (I had this problem in an old tray-truck that I used to own)


We went for a little test of the 4WD at the local Logan river boat ramp at Chambers flat (or thereabouts). A couple of nice steep dirt banks either side of the ramp provided a bit of a test for her climbing abilities. She stayed in gear crawling up and down. No grinding or other noises. Seemed not much of an effort to climb at all. I estimate the slope was about 40 degrees and the length of the climb was about 3 car-lengths.

On the way back the owner had her up to about 110Kmh without any sign of wandering or jumpiness.

She hasn't had a roadworthy as of yet - it is going to be done upon sale.

The owner says that he took the patrol down to "opposite lock" to have them give it the once-over, and they said it was well-priced at what he advertised it for. - But then again, opposite lock don't sell cars do they???

The owner has recently fitted new radiator, new alternator, and had aircon re-charged. Also a bull-bar and driving lights are fitted.

I am guessing that oil leaks would have to be fixed for roadworthy, as well as fitting of those rubber guard extensions.

Most of you don't seem to be disturbed about the rust on the diff. What about the brake-drums and associated brake mechanicals? Would they be a concern?

Perhaps I should just arrange for an RACQ inspection of the patrol - do they know 4bies or would it be better having someone else do the pre-purchase inspection?

I intend to use it for a short commute daily of about 10-15Km plus weekend and holiday rec use.


Given a genuine roadworthy and everything else as described - would $7K be a fair amount for both parties?

Cheers, Ross

[Mrs Ronnie H]

HI
We saw our Patrol advertised for sale on AUSfish.
Could not of bought better. Petrol not deisel but thats what we wanted.

Souns like the one you are looking at has a few flaws to say the least. The roadworthy is definately questionable.

i think you know if you are going to buy something from the onset-- sounds like your gut is saying NOOOOOOOOOOO.

Keep looking as it sounds like you have already made your mind up not to buy it!!!! Also is a little over priced if you ask me. With all the stuff we got as extra on ours--- New Mickey Thompson comp muds, 33". lift kit, long range tank, duel batteries, etc etc , i think you could get better for maybe abit les $$$$$.

Ronnie