Cheers from Melbourne

[Paisley]

Hi all: first post, but been lurking a while. I'm in the process of buying my first Pajero, & a lot of the info I've gotten off this forum has been invaluable.

Looking at getting a NP; have found a nice one with service history & a bit over 200K on the clock for around the $10K mark, so fingers crossed it'll be a keeper.
Just out of interest, what sort of life could I expect to get out of the 3.8 if I keep the services up on it? Googling about it has turned up all sorts of figures; anything from 270K to 500K!!

Cheers.

[aussieintas]

Welcome mate.

Never owned a Paj with the 3.8 but heard of many with well over 300000kms. Good service history and ongoing maintenance is obviously a help towards longevity.

Sure someone will post soon that owns one with high kms.

[phicks]

is it definitely a 3.8 Petrol? a lot of these were 3.5, and it was only the very late ones that went to 3.8L.

The 3.8L are the best of the petrol engines, and generally very reliable as long as it's not on gas.

If it's on Gas, you need to adjust valve clearances every 15,000km, which gets costly. If you don't adjust them, the valves will tighten up and eventually stick and you won't start the car.

even if it's on gas, the 3.8 is quite reliable.

We have cars that come in for service with 350,000-450,000Km and still going, so they will still last pretty well.

the 3.0l and 3.5l were prone to head gasket leaks/head cracks, but otherwise they are pretty good.

Go for the 3.8L ones as these are the best of them (other than the diesels..)

you should nearly get a diesel for that price i would think?

[Paisley]

Hi, thanks for the replies guys; much appreciated.

That's reassuring news about Pajs getting up to that sort of mileage. The car I'm looking at does have the 3.8, although it is actually on gas; something to bear in mind considering the valve clearance issue I guess.

I've pretty much decided on a 3.8 NP (don't really have the budget for anything much later than that) and this Exceed I'm looking at ticks a lot of boxes; however I have had a bit of a hiccup with it - the seller got extremely weird when I mentioned having a vehicle inspection done! He didn't actually refuse it, but was quite dismissive of needing it considering the roadworthy had just been done (hardly the same thing!!). It's pretty much turned me off buying it to be honest; I'm suspicious of why he didn't want an inspection done, and also concerned that if there is some sort of glaring issue, an inspection may not necessarily pick it up.

So it might be back to the drawing board for now. But thanks again for the replies; that info will be a big help.

Cheers.