aye29

I've been previously looking at Grand Cherokees but a friend suggested a Land Cruiser instead. I found one with 206k miles for 3500 and it looks to be in pretty good condition but I just don't enough about them. The high mileage is a bit concerning but I've heard that they are pretty bulletproof so it might not be a problem. What should I be looking for in a test drive?

MaK92-4RnR

my buddy bought his with 200k miles w/ lockers and hes at almost 280k with no issues.

Diverdoll

I have a '93 and love it! I got mine for $3300 after talking the Guy down, it had 164k and just rolled 200 k. I would recommended replacing all the coolant hoses and have the plastic radiator checked out very throughly. My have been leaking here and there and the plastic jug on the radiator sprung a couple leaks. All that caused my truck to overheat and I blew a head gasket. I fixed that and she ran like a champ. Well the patching on the plastic radiator failed again and I overheated again and now I have a mystery knocking I'm currently chasing down. I'm not trying to discourage you, the best thing about the cruisers is they are fixable. My cruiser had 6 previous owners and I had no record of the maintenence. My point is I wish I would have gone through and just updated all the general maintenance, wearable parts right away and could have avoided some learning curves I now have all new hoses and a new brass raidiator. Oh and check for delay in the reverse gear and third and the felt seals on the inside of the steering knuckle. And you do have to replace break pads a little more frequently w the '93 but w all four disk breaks its fairly simple. Best of luck!

Inferno451

I've never owned an LC, but can tell you from firsthand experience that the grand cherokees are not good vehicles. When they're running the do ok, but WAY too many issues. I've actually NEVER been wheeling with a jeep that's made it home on it's own. That includes several Cherokees (including my own), a Grand Cherokee, a CJ5, and an almost new Rubicon (that one broke down just driving down a muddy alley). I'd stay away from jeeps in general, personally. Of course both will have issues, but I've had MUCH better luck with my toyotas, and the quality difference is just night and day. I don't think you'd regret a cruiser.

Timpanogos Slim

I recently bought a '94 Land Cruiser and so far i love it.

I have a sister who drives a '91 Grand Cherokee and it's the biggest hunk of crap. I had to replace just her headlight switch and there was such thoroughly moronic chicanery to go through just to replace one dash component, it was astounding.

It's ALWAYS giving her some kind of trouble or other.

zembalayan

I purchased a 1994 FZJ80 almost a year and a half ago, and I absolutely love it. I looked hard for a good amount of time, very seriously for at least 6 months before I found the one I wanted. At first, I was focussed upon finding a 1991-1992 FJ80, named that way because it has the final F series engine, the FIed 3FE. I wanted it because I could generally care less about how gutlessly powered my toys are (I am a huge 22R/20R fan to say the least) and I wanted to be able to either swap in an H55 foreign 5 speed tranny in place of the A440F auto and/or run a split case with Advanced Adapters 4:1 low gears and later think about adding a Marlin Crawler Toybox (depending on gas tank relo possibilities and issues). I also already had an extra full floater rear axle from an FZJ80 cruiser ready to bolt in place of the semi floats that came with the FJ80s, but while searching I also got to look at quite a few FZJ80/LX450s as well. At first, I was turned off by the reported HG failures for the 1FZ motor, but the negativity seemed not nearly as bad as the 3VZE. I also found that mine had had its HG replaced at a reputable shop with verifiable receipts (3700 for the HG/engine work) about 12,000 miles before I bought her. She runs like an absolute top; no oil burn or oil leaks at all. Wow! The previous owner did go the cheapskate's route with a crappy radiator, which sprung a big leak. I replaced it with a factory new radiator from the dealer, all new Genuine Toyota hoses, belts, an HD Gates GreenStripe as a bypass to replace the so called "PHH" or pesky heater hose. Little crap adds up with these since they have all of the bells and whistles. I had to replace the attennae mast ($25); i had to buy used, but fully charged struts for the rear upper tail gate hatch; I had to replace the electrical door lock assembly due to a broken plastic lever. All together, I love it. Good luck with your search!

bone collector

read this. and there is much more info on cruisers over at I h8 mud forum then here. As much as I love yotatech the mud guys are king in the cruiser department

http://www.sleeoffroad.com/newbie/newbie100.htm

Stetson_md

Landcruiser> grand cherokee Toyota > jeep

zembalayan

In buying one, I would personally look for one without factory front and rear diff lockers. I prefer ARBs over e-lockers, but most 80 series buyers seem obsessed with the OEM e-lockers as though it's a make it or break it aspect. I would rather use their absence as point of advantage in your negotiations because needless to say other prospective buyers have already made too big of a deal about the lack of lockers to the seller. I would also definitely look for an 80 series that came with the factory poverty package--cloth seats, no sun roof, and no OEM roof rack--which wear better than the deluxe package, and which are a bit rarer. Mine has cloth seats and no roof rack, but unfortunately it does have a sun roof.

If the seller never used the 4 low function on a 1993-1997 model that you are looking at, ask to engage it during your test drive anyway, and note to the buyer that the center diff lock is stuck and it is not locking the vehicle into 4 wheel drive since the center diff lock light will not light up if it is stuck or gummed up. After buying it, your fix might involve something as cheap as using and shifting into 4 low gears enough that the diff begins to work free from the open position and begins to lock up when shifted, or you could purchase a center diff lock button for your dash, plug it up and push it on and off while driving slowly around a 100 times until the unused locker works itself free to lock up quickly in demand. When I bought my cruiser, I made a big deal to the seller about this lack of center diff lock functionality, while also describing the fact that the lack of lock up may also indicate poor maintenance, a requirement for a new or rebuilt t-case, electrical problems, or maybe even a bad viscous coupler, which would not be cheap.

I was lucky mine was a cheap fix.

I went for a 1994 which has the so-called A442F bus tranny. I think the 1995, 1996, and 1997's trannies are still plenty strong enough though. I wish I had the 1995 in some ways because I would like to more easily bolt up a bracket for a York 210 compressor since the 1FZs from 1993 and 1994 have a PAIR valve installed where the York would go, which would then require PAIR valve relocation or deletion, which I would not do. A 1995 should have to hook up for OBDII, but CA smog would not be hooking into your computer to look for codes, resets, etc.

Those are some initial thoughts from this big novice and wannabe. Go to mud or expedition portal for a lot of great cruiser tech.

locked fj80

the first thing i would do to your cruiser is re route the diff breathers to under the hood, this is because if you ever go under water more than a foot or two there is a chance water will get in the diff.

masterfab23

The 1fzfe is bulletproof, keeping the cooling system at peak performance is key with these motors to prevent the hg from taking a poop. Will outlast a jeep anyday.