Faults:

Heater hose led to cracked head, secondhand heads, and rings and bearings done. Due for another engine; now I have a low mileage Magna engine ready to put in, but not yet. It's still purring over with 0.5 litres of oil required every 1000km.

Gearbox syncros have never been any good, but it's still going on the original gearbox and diffs.

Suspension bushes have been done twice. Since I have done 100000km on gravel roads, that's good; lots of outback trips with the vehicle weighing 2.8 tonnes loaded.

General Comments:

Never been serviced by anyone but me, so very cheap. Never needed wheel bearings or discs, drums or rear brake shoes. Front pads done twice in 300000 km.

On LPG and petrol, the best it gets is 6.5km per litre at 110kph.

A great comfortable vehicle that may see me reach 1 million km, but not with great acceleration, but once at speed it handles and drives like no other.

Faults:

Sunroof - Leaking and surrounding corroded when purchased, covered with duct tape.

Leaking engine oil - Tappet cover gaskets, crank end oil seal - not repaired, just regular topping up once a week.

Starter motor - Failed due to contamination from leaking engine oil.

Air conditioner - serviced after purchase and refilled with R134a. Cooled to 1.8C at the evaporator cooler!

Rear axle oil leak - Left side oil seal leaking when purchased, fixed when rear brakes were replaced.

Gear box - slight noise when driving, cured by changing oil and adding trans treatment.

Clutch hydraulics leaking - Master and slave cylinders replaced.

Front steering stabilizer link bushes - replaced.

Replaced air filter, HT leads, spark plugs, engine oil and filter as general maintenance after purchase, plus front brake pads.

Rear speakers needed replacing.

Front CV outer boots replaced.

General Comments:

My first 4X4, was impressed by high quality of engineering and manufacture, was tight as a drum even at its age & mileage. No wonder Mitsubishi won the Paris-Dakar rally so many times that they lost count!

Best seating position of any car by a mile. Excellent all round visibility. Comfortable suspension, and the front seats are great at soaking up bumps.

All replacements and failures can be attributed to general maintenance, old age/mileage or lack of maintenance by previous owners.

Converted to Dual-Fuel LPG after purchase. Ran like a dream at half the cost of petrol. Fitted an upper cylinder lubrication kit.

Most importantly, the impeccable bullet-proof reliability made me such Pajero fan that I upgraded to a Gen 2 Pajero...

Faults:

My head has gone in it at 244000, understandable since the car is 19 yrs old, still drivable though.

Gearbox is knackered (2nd and 3rd syncros have gone), another age related problem, still drivable however.

Clutch and brake master cylinders are leaking, a fault not picked up by previous owners mechanic.

General Comments:

All in all a top mid size 4x4, chuck a lift kit and bigger wheels and you can go nearly anywhere.

Very comfortable ride, find one with the front free floating seats (suspension bases), they make for such a great ride.

Fuel economy is OK, I am running larger tyres, suspension lift, blown head and fairly heavy right foot, and I'm getting 14-15L/100ks for city driving. Air filter and O2 sensor need replacing, and should bring fuel consumption down as well.

I have fitted a 2.5" high-flow exhaust from the cat convertor back, it frees the engine up a little, sounds great and has helped fuel consumption ever so slightly.

Try and get one with the factory LSD diff, they are a great unit.