Thinking of 1992 fj80 - $1800

[skippy69]

Hello,
Im new to cruisers and got a fair bit of info from this site. Looking at a 92 with 200k on clock that has sat around for a fair while as a second car. Im just wondering if $1800 is a good price for it. Looks like a small bit of oil build up and motor has a small clicking noise when idling coming from the topend. Other than the a/c and drivers window not working, the body is straight with no rust and tyres pretty new. She drove alright but really needs a tune up. What do you reckon about the price? The plan is to spend about a grand doing it up and heading down south for a look around with the family. Just worrried about the cruiser sitting around for a year doing nothing. Any help greatly appreciated. Skippy

 

[Grolar]

Hello,
Im new to cruisers and got a fair bit of info from this site. Looking at a 92 with 200k on clock that has sat around for a fair while as a second car. Im just wondering if $1800 is a good price for it. Looks like a small bit of oil build up and motor has a small clicking noise when idling coming from the topend. Other than the a/c and drivers window not working, the body is straight with no rust and tyres pretty new. She drove alright but really needs a tune up. What do you reckon about the price? The plan is to spend about a grand doing it up and heading down south for a look around with the family. Just worrried about the cruiser sitting around for a year doing nothing. Any help greatly appreciated. Skippy

Hi and welcome
Some baselining would be necessary, so change all fluids and have it tuned up. The FAQ is there for you. Otherwise $1,800 looks about fair to me, but it might be safe to have the compression checked beforehand, even if 200 k isn't huge by 3FE standards.
But, and lots of people here will concur, even cheap 80s end up being expensive vehicles to drive and maintain. Depends on what you're planning to do with it and the yearly budget you're ready to devote to it.
BTW, what do you mean by "heading down south"? Where are you and where do you want to go?

 

[elhombre]

If you are looking for that specific year, then you probably already know that the 91 -92 are the slowest dogs out of all modern Land Cruisers. I'm not saying that it isn't a good truck, but those years do have some specific problems. Still, if you are looking for a cruiser and this on runs allright, seems like a good price. Just do a little research about that specific year here using the search function to see what the common problems are. You can go to sleeoffroad.com and look under tech zone, there is a write-up of how the Land cruisers have changed over the years and it will give you an idea where that particular year is in developement.

 

[M23TLC]

Skippy, Are you really wondering if $1800 is too much for a rust free 80? What would be a good price, $1000?!?! You wont find any 16yr old vehicle that doesnt have a problem or two. The valves on these require adjusting and Id bet theyve never been touched (thats probably your ticking noise).

 

[sross]

I bought my 91' for $1600. I ended up doing a FAS for around $1000 where the mechanic taught me what I was doing so in the future I could do it myself. This included replacing one bifield. A few hundred more and I had flushed all the fluid, replaced the plugs, cap, wires and air filter. I even replaced a part off the egr system, the front flying saucer looking thing. All the hoses and belts were replaced at the same time and every thing still usable is sitting in a box at the house as a spare. Buy a grease gun for 20 bucks and go to town on every fitting you can find. If I could get my cruise control to work I wouldn't hesitate to drive mine on a long road trip and do fairly regularly with the 600 mile round trip to my folks house once a month or so. I got a lot of help just searching this thread even though this is my first entry and I don't have a lot of mechanical experience other that the mg I had a few years ago.

I think the biggest thing to realize that this $1800 truck is really a $3500 truck. Once you have it base lined you are chasing problems that if you don't fix in the weekend you alloted for it, well you just deal with a window that won't rollup or nonworking cruise control.

I've pretty much decided that I will spend $200 a month on the truck fixing stuff and I will still be way ahead because now I'm fixing stuff I can live without and I'm learning about my truck. In less than a year I will have probably fixed everything and my $200 can go to new bumpers, a lift, and a winch etc.

Really, if all you can afford is $1800 period on a car then you can't afford a car at all. The 80 will probably give you a lot of miles with out much work as long as you don't give a damn about the creature comforts working and you give it some love everyonce in a while.

 

[jonheld]

I've pretty much decided that I will spend $200 a month on the truck fixing stuff and I will still be way ahead because now I'm fixing stuff I can live without and I'm learning about my truck. In less than a year I will have probably fixed everything and my $200 can go to new bumpers, a lift, and a winch etc.

This is the most intelligent approach I have seen in a while. Very refreshing. Perhaps there is hope for us after all.

 

[skippy69]

Ive decided to go with it if carfax looks ok today.SROSS, your wisdom was great thanks mate. I have allowed for about$1000 to spend on her. Also my father in law is a mechanic but not to familiar with the rattles of a cruiser so hopefully I will have a good teacher. Im a Tasmanian living over here in Georgia and as we dont have swamps on my island like here I want to check some out. The crazy thing is I cant drive over here as insurance is too high on a tourist visa. the Mrs likes it which is a bonus and I will just have to enjoy driving when not on the public roads. Anyway thanks for the help and i will post some pics sometime.skippy

 

[skippy69]

odometer readings???

Well I got the carfax and it must be a misprint of the odometer. On 7/11/2000 it shows 157,762 and goes gradually up to 7/14/2004 as being 184,358. However, the only other reading shows 3/2/2007 being 320,124. The vehicle showed me a reading of 200,011. What do I do when title will show a lower mileage than carcheck?

 

[jlbuk]

Well I got the carfax and it must be a misprint of the odometer. On 7/11/2000 it shows 157,762 and goes gradually up to 7/14/2004 as being 184,358. However, the only other reading shows 3/2/2007 being 320,124. The vehicle showed me a reading of 200,011. What do I do when title will show a lower mileage than carcheck?

It seems unlikely that it's only done 15k in 4.5 years... (although not impossible) maybe someone's been playing ? Why not ask the seller - their reaction should tell you a lot ?