Offroad-Express

Hi all,

My Neighbour mentioned the other day he is selling his wifes truck / jet boat tow vehicle, Im wondering if this would be a worth while purchase?

I'd be using it as my work hack, 55k each way 4x a week, all open road driving, some shingle, some back road mostly highway, other than this just hacking around, dog to the river, maybe the odd ski trip etc etc.

Details;

- 97 later model,
- 2.7TDI (yes it is the Inter cooled version).
- SWB.
-197'k's.
- Auto
- running boards but no nudge bar or spots etc.
- maxis muddy's on with good tread.
- Has a tran's cooler fitted.
- Has the "standard 2 core rad changed for the larger 3 core due to towing".
- When he got it he had the rear suspension bushes all replaced & the brakes fully serviced / checked as he was towing the jet boat.
- it WILL be looked after, he's a stickler for servicing, just had the sunroof seals replaced, oil service & tran's oil change (by a garage).
- Body's not show room but not bad for a 20yr old!

I know I need to look for rust under the rear seats & underside etc but other than this any common majors to check?

To be sure, I know the body is a euro Nissan / ford ugly dog box but is the engine / G-Box / running gear all Nissan or rather is it all reliable?, we had a late shape terrano 2.7TD-Man an apart from being SLOOOOOOOOWW it was a trooper never broke down & was still going ok at 280'ks when we sold it a couple of years ago

He has said he "needs to get $7000 for it" or its simply not worth him selling, is this about right or is that on the high side? TM search shows everything from $4<8000 for the age, K's & TDI models.

motor is great. trans can fail if not serviced well. Drivetrain suited to what you wish to do. In fact the whole vehicle will be ideal.
HOWEVER, paying $7K for any nissan ETi motor has its problems, as at the mileage/age, the zexel covec electronic fuel pump is about to fail. Mine cost $2500 for a thorough recondition, Plus there is plenty of labour on top of that, if you can't do the install yourself. Mine started leaking diesel just a couple of weeks after i bought it
Who knows, it may last 2-3 more years before you have to do the spendy bit?
I can supply a nudge bar for it if you wish.
ask if he will let you have it for a test drive for a couple of days, I'm sure you will enjoy it.

Thanks for the reply,

Any way of testing the fuel pump, can they be pressure tested etc?

When we traded our old Terrano the mech who inspected it asked if wed had the fuel pump done & was surprised not at 280'ks, guess this is the same unit.

My concern with paying $7k for it is to me that's dealer price & with that comes reasonable warranty, I guess here Im getting reliable servicing & careful older owners in place of that,,,

Interesting there is very little on Google regarding those pumps or even "Nissan mistral diesel fuel pump", nothing on ebay etc etc.

Other thing I was wondering is after TM watching for 2/3weeks Ive seen NONE with over 300'ks on them, is that because there easy to ODO switch or do they just all crap out & end up scrapped before they get there?

Yeah if you are paying dealer price, then at least get a good warranty.
there is no way to tell if the pump is about to leak through the seals.
An indication that there is wear in the pump, or a faulty electonic module , is either the engine hesitates, or has a "blind spot" in the RPM range. you can drive it for quite some time with it not perfect, before it deteriorates to the point of having to get something done.
I guess you are right about high km ones not being on the market. I've seen a few, but not many. If a truck is worth say $5K, and the pump becomes faulty, not many people are prepared to spend $3500 on it.

Just read a post o here about the pumps which seemed to say that almost half of the pump recon cost is the electronic controller, if they fail on the seals then why not just have the mechanical part / seals refurbished?

A few years back the bro in laws 89 diesel Laurel pump failed an seem to remember it costing about $800 to get it rebuilt locally.

Hes offered to let me have it, even for the day, so that' sounds like the next step, paying great attention to hesitation etc then talk to the wife, roll the dice & maybe offer him $6k, which I know hell turn down but at least he can come back to me if he cant sell else where, he claims to have seen other SWB TDI's selling for $8500 buggered if I know where, theres a tidy one on TM right now through dealer for $5800, wrong island but same vehicle, I wouldn't buy it though,,,

He tells me they don't know how many NZ owners, have no service history, no idea when it was last serviced or when the trans last had an oil change, the front tyres are basically bald & backs 50%, im guessing its sold "as is where is, no come back what so ever,,, "

Not driven it yet, maybe Monday, but been goggling a bit more,,,

The Pump rebuild seal kit is just $35nzd+p&p on ebay, another post on here suggested that the electronic module possibly doesn't need to be changed and costs $1100<1500, so that's $1355-955 labour, about 12-15hrs so sounds about right.

Also so much out there on similar symptoms being caused by;

MAF sensors,
Air flow sensors,
Hidden banjo bolt filter,
Fuel Filter,
Blocked turbo waste gate,

not to mention;

"Early TDI Mistrals did have an ECU software glitch. Affected vehicles were 1997 on, up to vin 302279. The symptoms are;
-Jerking on full throttle acceleration @ 2300 to 3000 rpm after cold start,
-Hesitation under light throttle 1800 to 2500 during warm up period,
Cure is to replace ECU with modified ECU 23710 7F403"

I wonder how many people have scrapped there truck because they thought it was a fuel pump & would cost $$$$??

I have never done a mistral pump but have taken a few R50 eti pumps off and sent them out for rebuild.
Remove and refit is 5-6hrs, pump rebuild starts at $1200 for standard overhaul and new electronic govenor but some have been 300-400 more due to warn housings and main shaft. So it shouldn't cost anymore than $2200 for a pump overhaul.
Why they fail is a bit of a mystery as I know of an r50 with 700,000 on it that has only had a second hand pump fitted a few years ago but my wifes r50 had its pump done before it reached 200,000, and only one of our work ones (there are 7 of them) have had a pump and they vary between 250,000 and 500,000.
Personally I think 7k is a bit much for a private sale.

I was allowing the actual rebuild into the 12-15hrs labour.

So if you include the R50 then out of 9 vehicles 3 have failed & one of those with really good Kms on it, so that could be put as a 25<30% chance of failure.

TBH if he'd said 6K Id be 90% sold, or if it was a dealer that wasn't selling "As is where is" Id say 7k was maybe ok.

Nothing wrong with the car it would replace, 2000 bmw 530i on 200'kms, so other than it potentially giving me a saving of I calculate between $1500<2000 per year in running costs (even with genuine kms ) due to fuel & all the bushes bearings & sensors needing replacing in a never ending stream then ive not really got anything to loose if he wont take $6k.

haz77 wrote:I was allowing the actual rebuild into the 12-15hrs labour.

So if you include the R50 then out of 9 vehicles 3 have failed & one of those with really good Kms on it, so that could be put as a 25<30% chance of failure.

That is my opinion on them as well, the failure rates are not that high and the cost of repair is not that bad, But every time someone ask's for advice all the haters jump on the "dont buy that the pumps crap out and cost a fortune to fix" band wagon.

Any diesel 4wd of that era has the potential to cost a lot of money to fix. Toyota 1kz's crack heads and have ecu and pump issues as well, Mitsubishi 4m40's crack heads and have pump issues.

It's your money, If you like it buy it and it is probably a much safer financial bet than a 16 year old BMtroubleyou with 200k's on it.