Pajero Owners Club of South Africa

Hey All,

As the name implies, I'm a recent transplant from the US. I'm here doing some work for a graduate degree for the next year or so. My wife and I have been here for about 3 months and relying mostly on Uber and hired cars but itching for something with a bit more character. I've owned a few 4x4s in the US (Toyota 4Runner, Ford F250 and Dodge Ram 1500) and would like to pick up something cheap and reliable. We have Pajeros in the US but they're pretty rare but I've seen a bunch here on the roads and I'm intrigued.

An acquaintance of mind has a 2nd gen with a 2.8 diesel that I'm thinking of taking off his hands. He uses it sparingly but it seems to run fine. It's a bit older and I've never owned or worked with a turbo diesel and I definitely don't know anything about this specific engine. If it were American truck engines I would immediately know which ones were reliable and which ones were ticking time-bombs, but I'm a total newbie here so hope I can find some good advice here.

Looking forward to reading, chatting, and learning more from the community.

Cheers,
B

Welcome to our shores.

This is a very slow forum with more technical sharings here and there. Maybe consider joining the similar Facebook group as well for more chatter.

The gen 2 2.8 Diesel was a veey reliable option. For some or other reason the 4m40 engine in the Pajero body gave up a lot less issues in it's lifespan than the similar engine in the Colt/L200 bakkie, what we call our utility vehicles over here, which was plagued by overheating and blown gaskets and heads cracking here in SA on some. Some has ascribed it to the fact that apparently on the Pajero it has 2 timing chains, where the Colt bakkie only had one. The argument beeing that the one chain stretched leading to overfueling and eventual engine destruction. No final verdict out.
Be that as it may there are still many examples running around today and even if they do give issues, are reasonably easy and cheap to get back in running order. The 3.5 v6 petrol versions would be even easier to fix and might be more in your reference framework, although they are obviously a lot more expensive to run day to day at the fuel pump.

You should be able to pick up examples for very little money. Bear in mind that it would be an older vehicle so you would typically have some maintenance to attend to. Maybe also look at the petrol versions which often have little less mileage and sell for possibly less.

CATS

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Hi

I had a Mitsubishi Colt 2.8 double cab before getting my Pajero DID 3.2. I have to admit that the 2.8 was quite a nice engine and gearbox without any hassles.