Looking for advice

[stricky]

Hi,

My son is considering getting an early 2000's GU Patrol as his first car. I'll admit to knowing very little about Patrols but have seen plenty doing well on tough tracks. I'll start with a couple of basic questions -

Petrol or Diesel - I personally prefer Diesels but both are an option. If diesel 4.2 or 3.0?

what are the known common problems to look out for.
Have heard of dash cracking, Steering wobbles, problems with 3.0 diesel,

Were any common problems fixed from series 1 to 4?

Roughly how many K's before engine starts to have problems.

I know some of these things will vary based on how well the vehicle was maintained. Looking for rough idea only.

Cheers

[MB]

G’day Stricky Mate!
Super depends on your sons budget and needs IMHO.
By the sounds of it “tracks” I’m assuming mountains & mud where a diesel 4.2TD and or TD42Ti which all ended in late 2006 very early 2007 would be my personal pick albeit you’ll find some double the price of a 3.0L diesel and cheaper again for fast beach smashing yet guzzling petrols.
Nissans smaller diesels of that vintage will require some bullet proofing mods and realistic expectations too as all GU’s are heavy off the showroom floor.


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[Bigcol]

Gday Stricky
very hard to answer very quickly,
but
1. petrol v's diesel
depends on how many kms your young bloke is expecting to do per week, per year, and or if he is planning on towing every day
if not - go the petrol
more $$$ per km, but cheaper to buy initially. the price difference alone will get you maybe 2 to 5 years worth of fuel
petrol
TB45, I have been told its a slug, but it is 3000kgs out of the box, shaped like a brick - so meh
TB48, a rocket, but thirsty as well
diesel
RD28, good little motor, prone to being over worked as it is a small 6cyl, in a BIG car
ZD30, as long as she has been looked after, will give you mile of fun and enjoyment - abused she can be a nasty money hungry bitch to own and run
CRD3.0 updated ZD with a little more power, and a lot more forgiving to owners
TD42, a bullet proof slug, if looked after many many many mile of smiles, do not over heat them, because they cost an arm and a leg to repair

[Bigcol]

dash cracking - only on one particular year - and i dont know which from memory, but most were replaced by warranty, only lazy people didnt - much like the airbag recalls

wheel wobbles, there is a thread about them and how to fix

[stricky]

Thanks for the replies. My son will not be doing any towing, but he certainly is looking for rock/mountains/mud fun over touring (borrows my 4wd for that). Only thing I am still not sure about is the number K's. I would assume this would vary between the Petrol and Diesel and how well maintained which can be hard to gauge. Once he gets the vehicle I will encourage him to join a 4wd club as I have found them a great way to learn as well as lots of fun.

Cheers

[MudRunnerTD]

Thanks for the replies. My son will not be doing any towing, but he certainly is looking for rock/mountains/mud fun over touring (borrows my 4wd for that). Only thing I am still not sure about is the number K's. I would assume this would vary between the Petrol and Diesel and how well maintained which can be hard to gauge. Once he gets the vehicle I will encourage him to join a 4wd club as I have found them a great way to learn as well as lots of fun.

Cheers

I put a Turbo on my GQ TD42 at 350,000kms and never looked back. I upgraded the Turbo and Big Fuel pump on my GUIV TD42Ti at 320,000kms and it loves it. I would call that High kms for any other variant.

[jay see]

I'm running a 97 series 1 GU TB45e that has been on lg for 9 years. I've own it for the last 6 (I think), it's got over 500,000km. It's not rocket ship and really hates the long inclines, but drop a gear or 2 (auto) and it will pull all day long. On the tracks it keeps up with all the others and on the black stuff too. As for fuel I only recently replaced the fuel pump as it was only working on about 10.5 volts. Now I'm good for around 2-300 KMs on petrol (I've got the largest sub tank that can be fitted 70 odd litres) and 4-450 KMs on gas.

If he's seriously going to be remote touring he'll need a diesel. I managed to get around Tasmania a few years going with only a 30 litre petrol tank and gas isn't available everywhere like in Victoria.

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[MB]

G’day again Stricky & Son Mates!
Time to be Frank :-)
Now that your interests are:
“rock/mountains/mud”
Safety wise for a young bloke, in fact any aged blokes/sheilas, you should honestly seek a 4.2L slug diesel variant for those tracks planned.
Reasons being such as but not limited too IMHO :-)
*Smaller cylinder donks do not have the compression to safely lower your boy down a gnarly track without braking, likewise uphill he’ll be spinning high rpm wheels instead of torque crawling. Yes we can add transfer case reduction gears to any petrol powered donk but bet you’ll never get close to a 999,000km faithful potential simple 4.2L donk too!
Don’t let your young mate get too over zealous about ‘turbos’ too in his applications. 95% of the driving you are kindly suggesting would be below 1,500rpm and perfect TD42 NA grunt low range transfer box more than capable.
Still cracks me up to this day how many 2,500rpm weapons can’t perform at say 900rpm :-)




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[MB]

Seriously consider a GQ TD42, will save young son some 5-10k and they are so much more nimble in and around tracks [emoji106][emoji106]


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[stricky]

[QUOTE=MB;807898]G’day again Stricky & Son Mates!
Time to be Frank :-)
Now that your interests are:
“rock/mountains/mud”
Safety wise for a young bloke, in fact any aged blokes/sheilas, you should honestly seek a 4.2L slug diesel variant for those tracks planned.
Reasons being such as but not limited too IMHO :-)
*Smaller cylinder donks do not have the compression to safely lower your boy down a gnarly track without braking, likewise uphill he’ll be spinning high rpm wheels instead of torque crawling. Yes we can add transfer case reduction gears to any petrol powered donk but bet you’ll never get close to a 999,000km faithful potential simple 4.2L donk too!
Don’t let your young mate get too over zealous about ‘turbos’ too in his applications. 95% of the driving you are kindly suggesting would be below 1,500rpm and perfect TD42 NA grunt low range transfer box more than capable.
Still cracks me up to this day how many 2,500rpm weapons can’t perform at say 900rpm :-)


Thanks, This is great advice. I think sometimes you can get lost in all the options, but most times you are just looking for a reliable fun vehicle. He currently drives my diesel 4Wd so he is used to not having a great amount of take off speed.

[stricky]

Just after another clarification. Is the TD 4.2 mainly available in Manual? I don't want to start the manual vs auto debate but curious to know.

[MB]

To the best of my little knowledge they were all manual in the day mate, maybe some rare Safari auto imports out there possibly?
Some of the Safari’s (high roof) were 24v too which may become problematic for modifications/maintenance here down under.


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[stricky]

My son is one of those who said why do I need a Manual licence? So for the moment the 4.2 is off the table. Is there a reasonable to tell the the condition of the 3 Ltr Diesel? Some of the things I have read about them concern me.

[Plasnart]

Tell him he needs a manual licence wholly because of the TD42. In years ahead he'll be grateful. :D

[MB]

My advice to any young person certainly interested in off-road adventures would be that they honestly should at the least be capable enough of driving their mates truck out in an emergency say snake bitten/broken leg unfortunate type situation. Of course their own automatic vehicle of choice would need to be bogged or swamped but disastrous scenarios can and do happen when seeking adventures.
In between TD42 & TD42T’s personally favoured over the years I did purchase the Mrs an early 2002-ZD30 manual wagon of which we absolutely truly loved zipping around with our younger kids.
Only 4 reasons we decided to sell it after 12 months second hand happy usage and put her back in a 2001 TD42T wagon with manual again, albeit was double the price 3.0L to 4.2L for wagons then:
1) We were going to kill the clutch getting it off the mark living and towing in our mountainous home highway area.
2) The Nissan Intercooler was requiring more money again to be spent welding a second time (was disclosed to new buyer)
3) The runaway down steeper incline tracks was too high for my likings and would have required gear ratio dollars thrown at it.
4) Started reading of early 3.0L ZD30 model pistons melting/cracking if abused like we were starting to do more by towing horses every other weekend. Prados I believe were prone to similar issues in the day too from overwork through incorrect tug boat of choice abuse.




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[MB]

Tell him he needs a manual licence wholly because of the TD42. In years ahead he'll be grateful. :D

As a testament to the old dinosaur donk 4.2 toughness and longevity my quest some years ago to find any floating around globally was interesting to say the least.
Japan no longer makes them was told by a connection there yet a variant is still used to this day in Malaysia powering 8.0T tipper trucks & 5.0T delivery ‘UD’ trucks there.
Across China many second hand donks were imported from Japan to power 20T locally built excavators and container forklifts that cop horrendous abuse daily with the worlds worst maintenance regime’s known.
Back home, an old mates GQ clocked over 1,000,000km a few years back, will have to check where he’s at these days :-)


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[stricky]

Just another random thought. Is it better to get a vehicle with known problems including dead motor? That way at least you know what you get. See a fair number of people selling with dead 3.0 motors. Can probably talk them down in price.

[MB]

In all honesty it’s a very fair idea Stricky Mate!
Just please do be very stringent on your calculations including new long motor, time, labour + bits and bobs we all have forgotten and been bitten by during rebuilds/conversions known and expressed by many others too.
Fresh new peace of mind is a very comforting factor too I agree but please don’t disregard usage factors of potential gearing/compression needs if still planned for young son applicable?




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